Cave House Insurance

Hi my name is Ailis and I have just signed up to the forum. I run Cien Services, a translation and local information business based in Galera with my Spanish business partner Cari. We deal with all types of issues from hospital visits to car registration. We are also agents for Zurich Insurance who offer very competitive prices on Cave Houses. Not only is the price competitive but they also stipulate on the policy that it is a Cave House.
Please feel free to contact me for a quote or more information.

Hi Ailis, welcome to the forum, Ive just had an email from Sean to say that your the 'broker' . I think that you may be soon be bombarded with questions!

Hi Ailis, let me start with the first question. Will they cover holiday homes that are unoccupied most of the time and do they require rejas?

do you cover purely cave not cave houses,my property is just cave with 1 small extension of about 6 sq metre the front is netted and sprayed cement and one side is just earth.
many thanks in advance.

Zurich does cover vacant holiday home for an unlimited time.

They do cover houses without rejas but the policy will be more expensive. I will post an example of with and without rejas shortly.

They also cover purely cave as long as you provide a photo of the property.

Hello Ailis,
(it is Shirley & Phil)... WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!
We have been meaning to be in touch.. re cave insurance. There have been a lot of worrying aspects to consider recently.We are definitely changing from Santalucia and have begun investigating our options. Someone else has already said, you might be bombarded with questions on the subject!
Look forward to more info.
We will probably call into your office in the next week or so, or give you a call.
Good to hear from you!

Hi Ailis
I have emailed you at Cien Sevices re insuring our cave house, could you get back to me next week via email. Thanks

Whilst on the subject of insurance....
My house - which happens to have a small cave (bodega) in the bottom has been massively flooded recently. I am talking serious amounts of water (50cm a day in the cave for over three months!) I know this area has had much more than the average rainfall over the winter but the rain = flood water never seemed to add up to me. My neighbours tell me the town council dug the main road up above my house three weeks ago and fixed a major water leak on the water main. Since then the flooding has slowly subsided and is now down to a mere trickle.

Armed with this information, photographs of the damage and my insurance policy (RGA Seguros - Caja Rural) I trotted off to see the bank manager.

After beating my head against the wall for best part of 45 minutes I left steaming with anger. Apparently if the water came in through a chimney, door or window I would have been 'covered' but by seepage from another source I wasn't. Under the section in the policy regarding Water Damage I can see no reference to this (although I am seeking a second opinion as my Spanish is not exactly wonderful!)

I have been told I should take up my problem with the town council!

WHY? I have paid over 350€ a year for five years to this company and (as far as I can see) they are quoting rules that are not actually written in the policy document. Surely THEY are the ones that should be tackling the town council on my behalf! I am beginning to realise why the locals never bother with house insurance.

I can pretty much guarantee that if we got robbed they would argue that as our multiple-point-locking double-glazed patio doors have not got rejas we couldn't claim there either!

Well, I have had a good whinge ;-) and do I feel better? Not really! Grrrrrr :-(

Hi Ailis
Welcome to the forum, guess you're gonna be swamped by questions on here!

Bluey - I wouldn't touch RGA Seguros with the proverbial barge-pole. They were the b*gg*rs who caused the fiasco over our snow-ruined pergola 3 years ago, about which I posted a message on the old forum last month. You yourself took photos of the damage, but they delayed sending out an assessor for so long (during which time they sent several extremely rude e-mails in response to our enquiries) that our claim ended up being out of time! We saw an abogado in Baza, fully intending to sue them, but were told that although we'd probably win (even that wasn't certain, despite a mountain of documentary evidence), we'd almost certainly have to pay our own costs, which would be about €500-600, on a claim of maybe €800 on a like-for-like basis. Not worth it. In the event we paid out more for a far nicer pergola. Obviously, RGA no longer have our custom.

MAPFRE in Spain
Our Bank phoned us, one of the staff named Loli and asked us to come in and see her on the 13th March 2010 found out they wanted to sell us an insurance, we were not happy to change as Mapfre had just paid out on a clam we had for our washing machine after a power surge which had blown the motor, Mapfre paid out in two days.
The bank was so pushing, telling us the Mapfre insurance did cover us for the contents of the cave and definitely not the cave which we already knew, only for the part house build on, the premiums we had been paying was way way over what it should have been so the girl filled out the form for us for a quote from a new insurance company Helvetia and then asked me to sign it, after a similar experience with Santa Lucia which nearly stitched us up, I would not sign.
Our bank asked us to go back on the 15th March 2010 saying they could do much better for us, they also called Mapfre who said there had been a mistake and would now cover us for the contents of the cave.
We thought we would have to give two months notice to Mapfre but the girl said ON and she said she had cancelled had it for us, we pushed so hard she double checked with another girl one of the staff in the bank who agreed that she was right, the girl (Loli) cancelled the Mapfree contract and said she would not be paying out and showed us on the computer screen.
So on the 15th March 2010 we signed a contract with Helvetia they said they would cover us for the contents of the built on house and contents of the cave plus an additional 5000 Euros cover. All nice safe and double checked and happy.
Not quite today the 26th March we received a bank statement saying they had paid Mapfre on the 18th March 2010 so on Monday the 29th March we were at our bank wanting to know what is going on. Monday 29th March. We have now been told and shown on the banks computer and in our bank book that the money has been returned to us.
On Tuesday 6th April 2010 that 9.15pm Mapfre office in Baza called us to say our bank had not paid, on the 8th April 2010 lunch time Mapfre called again, my wife cancelled the call on her mobile phone, on the 12th April 2010 lunch time Mapfre called again, my wife cancelled the call again on her mobile phone. This week letter with two paying in slips, we went to the bank; they said “Tear them up and Bin them”.
A new friend told us to say we are going back to England that is what they did.