Historic Difficulties when it comes to Northern Ireland Insurance cover

When facing the facts about insurance it is important to keep in mind that there are some historic difficulties when it comes to Northern Ireland insurance cover. Because of these, often it is harder to find insurers who will cover residents for a variety of insurance types and when they do the premiums are often quite high when compared to other areas of the UK.

Before the Belfast Agreement was signed, violent clashes were quite common in Northern Ireland and because of these some parts of the country were considered no go zones. Because of this, insurance was very difficult to get, especially if you were anywhere near these areas. Even today a decade after the agreement was signed and violence began to drop, insurers are still quite shy when it comes to entering the market.

Many areas of Northern Ireland are still considered extreme high risk and premiums for insurance in these areas are very high. Slowly however opinion is changing and it is becoming more possible to find decent prices in policies.

Car insurance has been notorious for high prices because of the inclination toward using and damaging cars in the conflict. They were regularly vandalised if left out on the street and sometimes were even used as roadblocks. Because of this a lot of cars were destroyed and any insurers in the area were up for massive costs.

Finally this is starting to be forgotten and insurers approach the new Northern Ireland in a more positive way. It will still take some time to get these prices under control and this will definitely hinge on the groups in Northern Ireland remaining relatively peaceful. With this, prices will continue to fall every year that gets further away from the conflict and violence.

Home insurance was also affected because of potential damage during conflicts that could occur. Broken windows, ransacked houses and damage because of street fights were all common in areas of high conflict. Because of this insurers didn’t want to cover what they perceived to be high risk areas in case violence returned to the area.

When it comes to Northern Ireland insurance the country is fighting against a bad reputation. It kept multi-national insurers out of the area for a long time and reduced competition significantly. Today however the rates of damage are often much lower than other countries in the UK and because of this new companies are entering the market regularly. This will keep costs low and reduce those that are still quite high even further.

Related Posts