Owning a holiday home abroad is not something one should aspire to unless you are going to use it more than just a couple of times a year and you are prepared for the unexpected charges involved in owning a property in the UK or abroad. One of the most important costs is of course property insurance and it is obviously vital to select an insurance company you can rely on to pay up when things go wrong. When we originally bought our holiday home in Mallorca it was insured by the previous owners with a Spanish company so we continued with the same company for several years, despite the policy and all documentation being written in Spanish, a language which we were conversant with but not good enough for anything technical. As premiums increased each year we decided to investigate insuring with a British company and discovered Intasure, whose premiums were cheaper and additionally documents were all in English. Back in 2018 a major storm flooded parts of Mallorca and our house suffered considerable damage. We duly contacted Intasure to inform them, wondering if this was the start of a nightmare, as so often happens with less reputable insurance companies, or our claim would be sympathetically handled, which turned out to be the case. Intasure arranged for a Loss Adjustor from Mainland Spain, who spoke perfect English, to meet us at the house and he carefully made a detailed and thorough assessment of the damage caused by the flooding. It took three years to finalise the claim, through no fault of the Loss Adjustor or Intasure, but as a result of substantial repairs having to be carried out by builders and other workmen. In addition long delays were caused by the Covid pandemic which prevented us from travelling to Mallorca to oversee the final work to be completed, the installation of new air-conditioning units. The Loss Adjustor/Intasure were extremely fair and payments were made in instalments as money was needed to pay the builders and workmen. Intasure did not quibble about any of the costs, which we tried to keep as reasonable as possible, and our claim was settled in full a few months ago. Thanks to Intasure the insurance nightmare never materialised and we would certainly recommend them to other holiday home owners requiring a reputable insurance company.

Had to make a claim for damage to my kitchen worktop. From day one of notifying insurance company that I wished to make a claim it took just over three weeks in total from guy who called to inspect the damage to kitchen finished to a fantastic standard. Workmen left everything as they found it. Definitely would recommend this company for house and contents insurance.

Utterly dreadful insurance company for our overseas property. They will log a "CLAIM" against you even if you telephone for advice as they say this needs to be investigated. Investigation = "CLAIM" - regardless of whether they pay out or you, the client, wish to pursue it or otherwise. EXAMPLE 1: heavy rains and we had some water damage. Not being in the country we relied on our property manager. I told Intasure i was unsure if it was a claim, they investigated, said probably not worthy of a claim and I dropped it. THIS IS NOW ON MY RECORD AS A CLAIM AND IS HELD AGAINST ME. EXAMPLE 2: a contractor damaged her car on the way to our property. She hassled us for our insurance details. Knowing full well we don't own the road she damaged her car on and fully expecting Intasure to say we're not insured as we don't own the road, they launched a CLAIM, eventually telling the contractor she didn't have a case. BUT BECAUSE IT WAS LOGGED AS A "CLAIM" THEY WON'T NOW RENEW OUR POLICY! This is a total travesty! Go elsewhere for your insurance policy - this company is rubbish!

I took this out when we first bought our property in the hope that we'd never use it. I asked for legal cover knowing that with any issue the first thing the French do is reach for the courts. We had an issue with a gate installed in the block which caused us untold grief as it continually banged against our wall - found that the legal cover was only for the UK - odd as the policy is for an apartment in France, so they did nothing and we instructed a solicitor to write to the block's management on our behalf (they wouldn't do anything until we instructed solicitors). We then had a leak from the apartment above - in France the policy is for insurance companies is to deal between themselves and get the issue dealt with with their own people - Intasure needed me to find 3 quotes - impossible, I came up with one and they paid them and only part of the work was done - I paid an excess which they did not get back from the other side. We had another leak which ruined our white marble bathroom and they refused to do more than paint the ceiling as the marble wasn't new - well no, it's 1000's of years old and was meant to be in the bathroom longer than my life, now looks horrid and the insurers won't do anything - oh yes they will, the renewal doesn't cover leaks .... they are still negotiating to get the excesses paid by the other side - only 3 years. Now with a French company. You also need to have indemnity cover which isn't offered by Intasure and a legal requirement I am told.

I took this out when we first bought our property in the hope that we'd never use it. I asked for legal cover knowing that with any issue the first thing the French do is reach for the courts. We had an issue with a gate installed in the block which caused us untold grief as it continually banged against our wall - found that the legal cover was only for the UK - odd as the policy is for an apartment in France, so they did nothing and we instructed a solicitor to write to the block's management on our behalf (they wouldn't do anything until we instructed solicitors). We then had a leak from the apartment above - in France the policy is for insurance companies is to deal between themselves and get the issue dealt with with their own people - Intasure needed me to find 3 quotes - impossible, I came up with one and they paid them and only part of the work was done - I paid an excess which they did not get back from the other side. We had another leak which ruined our white marble bathroom and they refused to do more than paint the ceiling as the marble wasn't new - well no, it's 1000's of years old and was meant to be in the bathroom longer than my life, now looks horrid and the insurers won't do anything - oh yes they will, the renewal doesn't cover leaks .... they are still negotiating to get the excesses paid by the other side - only 3 years. Now with a French company. You also need to have indemnity cover which isn't offered by Intasure and a legal requirement I am told.

I made a claim they said the policy only covers storms, when I came back from my holiday, I found the ceiling was leaking, they send their surveyor, the following week they said sorry there was no storm damage to the property, and the policy doesn't cover it. I will contact the consumer watch dog.