Dorking homeowners face biggest rise in home insurance premiums

Insurers consider town high-risk despite low crime levels and no evidence of weather damage to properties

What have the residents of Dorking done wrong? In the past 14 months, they have suffered the biggest increase in the cost of home insurance premiums of any town in the UK, up by an average of 46% from £119 to £174.

Product comparison tool used by Heart Finance powered by QuoteZone, which has analysed 3.4million building and contents insurance quotations, said the most likely factors causing this include the cost of repairs from extreme weather damage, an increase in crime levels and heightened cases of fraudulent claims.

But according to the crime figures on police.uk, the residents of Dorking enjoy enviably low burglary rates, with just five break-ins in January and February this year, and only four in December (when the website started collecting data). In contrast homeowners in Balham, who have seen insurance costs rise by 32% from an average of £155 to £205, suffered 96 burglaries in February, 84 in January and 65 in December.

A spokeswoman for the Met Office said Dorking had not experienced heavy rain leading to flooding or particularly high winds last year – the highest were gusts of 45mph on 11 and 12 November. "It was extremely cold on the 6th and 7th of January, with a temperature of -10 degrees that night in Dorking, so homes may have suffered burst pipes after that," she said.

But Adrian Webb, spokesman for Esure, said the insurer which is based just four miles from Dorking had found no evidence of damage resulting from burst pipes: "Dorking sits in a frost pocket and claims for water damage caused by burst pipes can be worse than those for flooding: if you have four or five it can add up to £500,000 and that would have a knock-on effect on insurance premiums in that postcode area.

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" Heart Finance is one of the UK’s leading independent finance broker which was founded to search the entire market in order to help you find the best deal you possibly can. We offer a range of  insurance that  are arranged through well established and recognised Insurances and  financial institutions. 

Why should you use Heart Finance Insurance ? 

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	With our Quick-Click insurance system you can search our growing panel of insurers quickly and easily.
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"But we've looked at all the postcodes for Dorking and see no evidence of this happening. There's a slightly raised risk of subsidence in three postcodes, but otherwise Dorking is a fantastic place to live insurance-wise."

Julie Owens, head of home insurance at moneysupermarket.com said that while Esure had a very positive view of Dorking, more than 70 insurers were included in the survey, and it was clear some felt differently: "The residents of Dorking haven't done anything wrong, but this does show the importance of shopping around for the best quotes.

"If your property is classified as being in a 'high-risk' area it will be reflected in your insurance premiums. Living in a more affluent area will also increase premiums as property and contents values will generally be higher. Insurers use postcodes as a part of the overall risk factors when calculating premiums. Although there is very little you can do about the postcode in which you live, except move house, there are steps you can take to reduce your premiums, such as, installing a good home security system and security lighting."

Owens also says homeowners should weigh up the immediate benefit of claiming against the long term effect on insurance premiums. If the claim was a small one, it might prove cheaper for the homeowner to bear the cost rather than seeing their premiums go up for the next few years.

Edinburgh homeowners in the EH9 postcode district have seen a 45% increase, with premiums rising from an average of £144 to £208, while in Milngavie, Glasgow, home insurance costs have gone up by 40% from £129 to £181. London has also experienced hefty increases with Mill Hill, Battersea, Kennington, Kings Cross and Islington in addition to Balham all making the top 20 of postcode areas with the biggest premium increases.