Keychoice, the insurance distribution business owned by SSP, has partnered with Plum Underwriting to enable its broking community to meet the needs of policyholders with non-standard homes.

The partnership makes it easier for Keychoice members to process non-standard risks that they might otherwise have not been able to place. This includes houses that are built from non-standard materials, affected by subsidence or flooding, or unoccupied for extended periods, as well as cases where the owner has criminal convictions, has been declared bankrupt or has an adverse claims history.

As Plum Underwriting has focused on the specialist home insurance market for 15 years, Keychoice brokers can benefit from a highly experienced team of underwriters with extensive knowledge of the risks involved, backed by the security and strength of Lloyd's capacity.

By joining Keychoice, Plum Underwriting has greater access to regional brokers – a key distribution channel in the UK insurance market.

With all of Keychoice's members working from a single technology platform, Plum Underwriting has a continuous view of how its non-standard home insurance product is performing. As a result, the underwriting agency can fine tune the product's performance with existing members, which will drive greater adoption amongst brokers and generate greater volumes of data for further fine-tuning.

To complement this, Plum Underwriting has access to the utilisation team within SSP, who visit brokers on a regular basis. This will ensure its non-standard home insurance product is being used as frequently and effectively as possible.

Ron Atkinson, Distribution Director at SSP said: "I am delighted to be working with Plum Underwriting, which has once again been rated one of the UK's top 5 personal lines insurers in the Insurance Times Broker Service Survey.

"The partnership enables our members to offer cover for a range of non-standard properties that mainstream insurers often lack the specialist knowledge to effectively quote for, while benefitting from exclusive discounted rates."

Simon Lewer, Business Development Director at Plum Underwriting said: "Joining Keychoice enables us to work with the traditional high street brokers that we wouldn't otherwise have access to, and efficiently allows us to trade with up to 500 brokers through a single partner.

"Given the proven track record of Keychoice members in writing highly profitable business for insurers, this is a fantastic opportunity for us."