Insurance against disappointed kids
I’ve been given a Christmas list from my teen daughter already…..
“Can I have a 6000 euro camera?”
“no”
“Can I have a 300 euro camera?”
“no”
“Can I have a telescope?”
“no”
“Can I have an Ipad?”
“no”
“I want a fox”
“no”
There should be an insurance you can take out at Christmas for disappointed kids.
The Wedding of River Song
For all you Dr Who fans tomorrow night it is the wedding of River Song and we finally will find out what she is to the Doctor. The boss of Dr Who has described tomorrow’s episode as the “maddest ever.”
Would it be fitting to suggest the Dr takes out appropriate wedding insurance cover should any Daleks show up on the day or any aliens from Planet Floton try to gate crash the wedding?
There is going to be a kiss……..if only it was David Tennant.
House prices in London continue to soar
House prices in London are still out performing most other areas in the UK. Investors are plouging into the London market as the rental yields in the right areas are much better than any bank or building society will give you and tenants are easy to come by.
We’ve bought in London and have found there has been no long wait between tenants leaving and new tenants starting and I’ve taken out Landlord insurance for each tenant we have had so that I know their references have been looked into and I also get rent guarantee insurance. I know that if there are any problems with the tenant not paying their rent that I have six months rent guaranteed so my mortgage will be paid and I will also get legal aid to evict the problem tenant. It costs between £50-90 depending on what policy you go for and how long you want it for.
We are getting between 5-7% return the only downside being the huge prices that the property management company charges. However since we aren’t based in London this seems a small price to pay for the convenience of having a local London property management company deal with any issues that arise.
Written by Ian Cowie
National house prices continue to drift downward, according to Britain’s biggest building society, but prime properties continue to soar skyward in the capital.
If any symbol were needed of top quality homes’ astonishing ability to defy gravity – or at least the global economic crisis and predictions of a house-price crash – then Heron International is building it now in the City of London.
The developers say they have sold all 200 apartments offered to date off-plan in their latest luxury tower block, due for completion in 2013. Prices at The Heron in Silk Street range from £495,000 for a one-bedroom flat to £3.25m for three-bedroom apartments.
And these eye-catching sales, in what used to be a somewhat down at heel corner of the square mile, are just for starters. Next month a new tranche of 85 more expensive apartments, the ‘panoramic collection’, higher up the 34-floor tower, will be offered for sale.
The extraordinary success of this development so far is all the more remarkable because of its location in the north of the City, where former ‘masters of the universe’ might be expected to be pulling their horns in a bit. Stock market shocks and setbacks have led to a ‘lost decade’ in which a quarter of the value of the FTSE 100 of Britain’s leading shares has disappeared into thin air.
But the collapse of some of Britain’s biggest banks and tens of thousands of redundancies in the financial services industry have not prevented wealthy buyers taking stakes in this high profile symbol of the City’s future. Residents will literally be able to look down on their competitors’ offices – not to mention landmarks such as St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and the Bank of England.
Lisa Ronson, commercial director of Heron International said: “While there remains a certain amount of instability within the wider economy, The Heron has shown that demand for the highest quality accommodation in the very best locations always exists. With The Heron we have brought something truly unique to the square mile.”
Well, almost. The Heron is the first residential development of this scale in the City of London since The Barbican, more than 30 years ago. Homes in the City remain extremely rare. While more than 300,000 people work in the square mile, only 8,000 residents are listed on the electoral roll.
As you might expect with such sky-high price tags, The Heron’s apartments are luxurious and facilities available to all residents include a private club with a gym, cinema screen and landscaped
roof-top garden.
Unlike The Barbican next door, The Heron contains no space for social housing. Instead, the lower floors will provide state-of-the-art new facilities for the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, including a 608
seat concert hall.
It will all be a big change from the Fire Brigade Station I remember standing on this site when the Telegraph’s City office was based round the corner in Fore Street, just a few years ago. Of course, the past is not a guide to the future and The Heron’s success in shifting 200 flats in little more than a year does not mean they will place so easily or so profitably the more expensive 85 apartments which remain.
But the development does seem to epitomise a growing divergence between top drawer residential property, where prices continue to rise, and the homes of ordinary mortals, where prices are falling.
Last week, international estate agents Savills reported that our capital has the fourth most expensive house prices in the world. Knight Frank’s residential review came to a similar conclusion. No wonder there’s talk of ‘Manhattan on Thames’. How long can this tale of two cities – or housing markets – continue? And how will it end?
When you look at buying a property as an investment look at the rental return that you will get based upon your capital outlay/investment. Some properties may be cheaper and look more attractive or offer more space but if you are getting a low rental return then it may not be such an interesting investment. You also need to look at how much you think the property you are buying will increase in value. Is it in an area that people want to live in, close to public transport etc. If you can find a property with a high rental return and one that is likely to go up in value, you probably have a winner.
Unlike our investment in Spain, which has gone down 50K euros……
Man jailed for false life insurance claim
A man has just been jailed for faking his death and making a false life insurance claim. The life insurance company was alerted to the fraud and the man was arrested before any money was handed to him.
A Kent man has been jailed after faking his own death in Central America in an unsuccessful attempt to get a £520,000 life insurance payout.
Anthony McErlean, 66, of Swarling Hill Road, Petham, was sentenced to six years at Canterbury Crown Court after admitting making a false claim.
The court heard he impersonated his wife to claim he had died after being struck by a truck in Honduras in 2009.
Police were alerted by the Insurance Fraud Bureau.
McErlean, who was arrested before receiving any money, also admitted two counts of theft and false representation by claiming he had lost his passport.
Comment
One rather greedy individual as not only was he trying to get over half a million pounds via his life insurance policy, he was also trying to steal over £40,000 from the Department of Work and Pensions and £27,000 from the Port of London Authority Pension Fund.
He had a bad case of fraud bulimia.
Cheaper Pet Insurance with GoCompare
I’ve just had a search on the web to look for cheaper pet insurance. Plenty of companies out there offering up to 25 percent online when you take out pet insurance.
One of the cheapest that I could find was GoCompare offering pet cover from £2.44 per month with vet fees up to £10,000. GoCompare trawl through 17 companies offering pet insurance to find the cheapest quote. Companies that they work with include Asda, Marks and Spencers, Protect Your Bubble and Debenhams, all of which offer pet insurance.
If you have a Tesco Clubcard then you can get a 25% saving on your dog or cat insurance when you apply. Sainsburys is also offering a 25% saving if you have a Nectar card.
Homebase is currently offering 10% off their premiums.
A pet that needs an operation can set you back hundreds of pounds so whilst some insurance I would dispense with, pet insurance is one that I wouldn’t, particularly if you live in the UK where vet bills are so expensive compared to the vet bills that I have experienced whilst living in Spain.
Car Insurance costs investigated by OFT
The rising cost of car insurance is being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Car Insurance companies seem to have taken advantage of the legal requirement to take out car insurance and as a result car premiums have risen up to 40 percent recently. The AA is taking a stand.
The AA’s reported 40 per cent increase in the average cost of a comprehensive insurance policy occurred between March 2010 and March this year, with young drivers having been hit particularly hard. With the average driver aged between 17 and 22 paying an annual premium of £2,431; this figure represents a shocking increase of 64 per cent in the last 12 months.
The Office of Fair Trading, the government watchdog, has now launched an investigation to identify and address any consumer or competition issues, which may be causing the price of insurance premiums to soar.
Insurers say that there are many factors to blame for the price hikes; two major causes of increased costs include the growing number of personal injury claims and an increase in the prevalence of insurance fraud.
Graeme Trudgill, head of corporate affairs at the British Insurance Brokers Association, said “If you have an accident in a car, you are now encouraged by all sorts of different people to make a claim against the other party.” He added that the massive increase in personal claims and compensation cases has forced insurance companies to hike up their prices.
Otto Thoresen, director general of the Association of British Insurers, also supported the insurance industry, saying that companies had not benefited from increased premiums; he said the insurance industry had not made a profit for the last 16 years and suggested that the OFT investigation was an opportunity to identify pressures faced by motor insurers.
Labour MP Jack Straw highlighted the problem of referral fees in June, calling for an end to the “racket”; he was referring to the business of selling details of incidents to personal injury lawyers and claims management companies, which is estimated to be worth £3 billion.
News of the Office of Fair Trading investigation has been welcomed by consumer group Which?. Senior researcher, Dan Moore, said “It’s about time the OFT looked into this. It is important that the insurance industry does not take advantage of the fact that it is a legal requirement to have motor insurance by charging whatever they like.”
He added that he felt the industry needed to do more to provide affordable insurance policies for young and new drivers, as current premiums were far too high. The increase is simply not affordable for young people, as many are finding it difficult to find jobs and cope with rising levels of student debt.
In contrast, Simon Douglas, director of insurance at the AA, said that it was completely normal for prices to rise; he added that the insurance industry was operating in a normal way and compared the increase in insurance prices to gas bills, which have soared over the last 12 months. Douglas stated, in an interview with the Guardian, “The gas companies have been experiencing higher supply costs and the insurance companies have been experiencing higher claims costs.” He added that companies try to keep prices the same for as long as possible, but eventually they have to be increased.
An investigation into the cost of motor insurance is already being carried out by the Commons transport select committee and now, the OFT will launch their own exploration of the issue. If issues are identified, the OFT can launch a full inquiry and refer the motor insurance industry to the Financial Services Authority, although it is hoped that insurance providers will offer to address any problems before it reaches this stage.
Comment
The cost of car insurance for young drivers is huge, over £2000 per year on average. There are now some companies that are offering to place a GPS in a car so that they can monitor car behaviour in young people, the routes they take, if they speed etc. It may smack of big brother to some but in return these companies are offering cheaper car insurance for young drivers. Quoteline Direct offer this. The rule is you cannot drive your car between 11pm-5am and you get charged a hefty sum if you do. The cost of fitting the GPS is around £249 and this is leased. The saving on a young persons car insurance when they have a GPS fitted is typically between 15-17%.
Goodbye…..
It is goodbye from me….. I’m afraid that shortly this blog will change track completely from following events and happenings in Marbella to something rather different…..financial news and reports and the latest insurance offers in the UK.
It is something that I’ve been doing on another website for a while and it makes sense to track the two sites together.
I hope you will pop by sometimes to leave comments as many of you have, it is nice to hear from people. Hopefully the new blog will draw fresh faces too.
If you want to follow a blog on Marbella still then check out this one, Marbella Family Fun.
xx
Tree top Climbing Elviria
Erika went tree top climbing today in Elviria with her dad….they both did it together which was lovely. Both came back saying it was really good fun and Erika can’t wait to go again. It cost 20 euros for an adult, Erika was 18 euros and they were gone for a couple of hours.
My Winter Jacket
Last year I bought a coat from El Campo, it cost just over 20 euros and after a year, well it looks a bit sad and frayed…bit like me on a Monday morning.
So whilst looking for a birthday present I spotted this brown jacket in Zara. I love the belt that nips in at the waist and the cute hoody lined with fake fur. Sadly when I tried to pull the hoody on it fell right over my face so I’ll be as blind as a bat in the rain or snow.
We may head to the UK in November so if I’m a good girl I will get my birthday jacket early……I’ve actually hidden, ok stolen the jacket already so I’m hoping that hubby will forget that he bought it for me by November and then one rainy cold morning I can put it on and he probably won’t even notice.
It goes really well with these fake suede boots I bought from the big shoe warehouse in Mijas near Iceland and Dunnes. Still too warm to wear them but I keep hoping for grey clouds……
Now no more shopping for another month…although I have seen some gorgeous pj’s in Oysho.
Check these out.
Goosebumps
The autumn has finally arrived, today sitting in the orange square in Marbella I found that I had goosebumps. On the walk back home I opted to go for the sunny side of the pavement just to feel the warmth of the sun as I was actually cold. Hubby thought I was ill.
The orange square was still busy, a few Spanish families but even more English tourists. I can spot them by their shorts…..I’m still wearing mine but only in the house! I’ve dusted off my jeans and had them on last week. I had to suck myself into them and rolls of lard appeared higher up than I’m sure is normal. But my 6 euro Dorothy Perkin tshirt covered everything up ( buy 2 for 12 euros, current offer..) You can see it in the picture before the dog tried to eat it. The tshirts are quite long but fitted and come in lots of different colours. I opted for white as it goes with everything and this slighly off red one as I think a splash of red is always a good thing unless it is blood…..or tomato ketchup.