Renewal season, 2026
Policy reviews are booking through late autumn — request a review
Coda Vale.
An independent insurance brokerage for households, landlords and small trades.
The policy review, in plain language
Coda Vale compares cover across several carriers, writes the recommendation on a single page, and comes back to it before every renewal — so the wording keeps matching the way you really live and work.
Index — what we place
Each entry describes what the policy is actually for. If your situation sits between two of them, that is usually a sign the review is worth doing.
01
Structure, contents and personal liability for an owner-occupied home, with the dwelling figure set against rebuild cost rather than what the property would sell for.
Suits owners who have renovated, added a workshop or a garden studio, or never revisited the figure after moving in.
02
Liability, collision and comprehensive across one or several vehicles, including household members who have just started driving and cars kept off the road part of the year.
Suits households adding a driver, running a second car seasonally, or carrying two separate policies that could sit together.
03
Contents, personal liability and temporary accommodation cover for tenants. Inexpensive, routinely skipped, and the line that most often surprises people after a neighbour’s leak.
Suits tenants, house-sharers and anyone storing a bicycle, instrument or laptop worth more than the standard sub-limit.
04
Buildings cover, landlord liability and loss of rent for a let property, plus the different wording a place needs when it stands empty for part of the year.
Suits first-time landlords, inherited property, and holiday lets that a standard home policy quietly excludes.
05
General liability, tools and equipment, and the certificate wording a main contractor or venue will ask to see before you are allowed on site.
Suits joiners, electricians, gardeners, decorators and makers taking on their first contract work.
06
A layer of liability that sits above the limits on your home and auto policies and responds once those are exhausted.
Suits anyone with savings to protect, a pool or trampoline, a teenage driver, or a role that makes them visible.
How a review works
A review takes about a week end to end, and most of that week is us waiting on carriers rather than you filling anything in.
The declarations page of each current policy is enough to start. If you cannot find it, tell us the carrier and renewal month instead.
We mark the limits, deductibles, exclusions and endorsements, and flag anything that no longer matches what you told us about the household.
You get a single page: what you hold now, what we would change, what each option costs, and what we would leave exactly as it is.
If you move, we handle the paperwork and cancellation timing. Either way we diary the renewal date and come back before it lands.
Reading your policy
These are the four points where most policies drift away from the household they were written for. You can check all of them yourself in about ten minutes.
Raising the deductible lowers the premium, but only helps if you could pay that amount tomorrow without borrowing. Set it at a number you could absorb twice in one year, since storms rarely arrive alone.
Ask us: what the next deductible band would actually save you.
Replacement cost pays to buy the item again today. Actual cash value pays what the old item was worth after depreciation. The difference is invisible on the premium line and very visible at claim time, particularly on roofs and contents.
Ask us: which basis your contents and roof are currently written on.
Add up what you would lose if a judgment ran past your home and auto liability limits. If that figure is larger than the limits themselves, an umbrella layer is usually the cheapest cover on the whole file.
Ask us: where your current limits stop.
Water backup, ordinance and law, scheduled items for jewellery or instruments, and home-business use of a room are all added by endorsement. Standard wordings limit or exclude each of them by default.
Ask us: which of these you already hold, and which you do not.
The practice
Coda Vale is run by Rowan Alder, a broker who left a single-carrier desk to stop recommending the only product on the shelf. The practice is deliberately small: every file is read by the person who placed it.
Common answers
If yours is not here, put it in the notes field on the review request and we will answer it before anything else.
No. A fair share of reviews end with us advising you to keep exactly what you have, sometimes with one endorsement added. You are told when staying put is the right answer.
Usually yes, and most carriers refund the unused premium on a pro-rata basis. It is worth checking for a short-rate cancellation penalty first, which we do before recommending any mid-term move.
The declarations page from each current policy, the year the property was built, roughly when the roof and main systems were last replaced, and the drivers and vehicles in the household. Nothing else at the start.
They weight the same facts differently — claims history, roof age, distance to a fire service, construction type and the mix of business they already hold in your area. A carrier that is expensive for one household can be the cheapest for the next street over.
Often, not always. The bundle discount is real, but a carrier can be strong on auto and weak on home. We price both ways and show you the gap before you decide.
Insurance quoting typically uses a soft inquiry that does not affect your credit score. We will tell you before anything is run, and you can decline the credit-based element — it may simply mean fewer carriers can quote.
You report it to the carrier so the file opens immediately, then tell us. We read the relevant wording with you, explain how the deductible applies, and follow up when the adjuster goes quiet.
By email, within two working days, with either the review questions or a note telling you your current cover looks sound and no review is needed yet.
Request a policy review
One short form. No obligation, no cold calls, and no pressure to move anything that is already working.