The steep rise in insurance costs since 2007 has left homeowners unable to get cover or move house

Flood victims continue to face spiralling costs for home insurance as excesses for flood cover rise to levels that are making their properties virtually impossible to sell.

FSA investigation finds insurance broker Swinton guilty of serious failings over its sale of PPI

Insurance broker Swinton is to refund more than 350,000 customers who bought payment protection insurance (PPI) after the City watchdog found it guilty of serious failings in the way it sold the cover, it was announced today.

The firm, which has been fined £770,000, will contact the holders of more than 480,000 motor and home insurance policies bought between December 2006 and March 2008 to offer them a refund of the premium paid for the cover, which offers a payout if a policyholder is made redundant or is unable to work through sickness or accident.

A reader's aunt discovered she was paying AXA Sun Life for two life insurance policies. But who was the second one for, and why couldn't they find out?

Barbara Cummins was attempting to sort out the finances of an impoverished elderly aunt. While trawling through bank statements she noticed her aunt was paying £10 a month for a life assurance policy with AXA Sun Life. The mystery was exactly whose life was being insured. Not her aunt's, for that was covered by a separate policy set up by her late husband.