Insurance Question?

Question

I have recently received my house& contents renewal, to my horror they had me done as making three claims ?? upon investigation, 1 claim I agree with, the other two are as follows.

No 2. I claimed on my holiday insurance when my case was broken into.(nothing to do with house & contents ins)


No3. WAIT for it !! I rang my insurance company following storm Damage to my property, I was not able to claim because the wind
that day was not HIGH enough to cause damage. !! My Insurance company are saying, This is classed as a claim !!! although they did not go the loser. I paid to have my property repaired.

Does anybody know what I can do to get my insurance company to take claims 2 & 3 off my records. It does seem so unfair.

Answer 1

As a Broker I know it can be very frustrating dealing with insurance companies. I suspect the second claim is on your record because your travel insurers have recovered some of the money they have paid out from your household insurers, unfortunately they are entitled to do this.

With regards to the 3 claim this shouldn't really be on your record if they have not made any payments. I would ask your broker to sort it out or send a letter to the claims manager at the insurance company.

Answer 2

The 2nd claim you made you probably cant do anything about as holiday insurance companies say in ther t&cs that if you make a claim on lost property abroad it will come directly out of your b&c cover if you are covered for contents outside the home. Unfair i know. Your 3rd claim just write too them and say it was just an enquiry not a claim and it should be wiped off if not go through there complaints process.

Answer 3

I would definitely take the actions that have been suggested to you this far. I would also keep in mind that any problem with an insurer should be reported to your department of insurance if you live in the US. You can find your department of insurance by clicking on your state from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website: http://www.naic.org/state_web_map.htm

Personally, I would also ask for documentation on the second claim, to be sure that it does actually relate to the claim that you made on your travel insurance. If so, I would go back to the travel insurance company and check from their end that they actually did get money from your insurer and weren't also denied -- but had a claim show up against you anyway.

This should serve as a warning to those who claim on travel insurance -- it could work against you. Read those policies carefully and be sure you know what the implications are.

Answer 4

As insurance guidelines and regulations vary from country to country, I can only answer this one in terms of the UK.

Claim #2 sounds like a case of dual insurance where your home & contents insurer was asked for a contribution to cover costs incurred by the claim made on your travel insurance. This is most likely to happen when you select cover for personal belongings on your household policy (previously known as all-risks cover) which can provide you with worldwide cover for belongings you take with you outside of the home, for example, on holiday. The terms & conditions for claiming a contribution should be detailed in your travel policy wording. It is proper that this should be noted as a claim as your home insurer has made a payment for 50% of the claimed amount.

However, the provider of the travel policy should have asked if you already had cover in place for your personal belongings at the point of sale of the insurance. It might be worth investigating a complaint against them in this case.

Claim #3 - this has probably been noted on the systems of your insurer even though no monies were paid out to you. As this is a requirement of the insurer (and NOT your fault as no claim has been made), this should be removed from your records, even if only by means of a letter on their company paper confirming that the claim was not pursued. You can insist that it is removed from your policy details, and if they argue this point ask for a copy of their complaints procedure so that you can escalate the complaint properly. It may take a few weeks to get sorted, but the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Authority have strict time restrictions on when a complaint should be resolved.

Ask your insurer if the third claim has affected your premium. If they can't tell you, insist on a re-quote once it has been removed from your policy. Or just change insurers once it's been done.

Answer 5

Claim no 2. would be your travel insurers asking for a contribution.

When more than 1 relevent insurance is in place the other insurer needs to pay towards the claim.
for example if you insured your car 10 times each insurer would pay 10% each if you were to claim.

Regarding claim 3 you should not have been penalised for it as it was repudiated.
If a contractor went out on behalf of your ins comp to inspect the damage, they would have to pay a fee but that should still not go against you.

I work in household claims and I recommend you argue it out with them as it should not go against you.

Answer 6

Make a written complaint to the insurance company saying that no claim exists. One was on a different policy and the other was an enquiry.
If youre not satisfied after that complain to the Insurance Omnbudsman (google it for the address)