Insurance

Compensation

How much am I entitled to?

My home insurance company agrees that there have been a number of delays caused by themselves and the loss adjusters.

Finally after 8 months the loss adjusters agree to settle.

Now as per complaints proceedure, the insurance are offering me a meager amount and also asking me to recontact the Financial Ombudsman to stop them from looking into my claim.

How much can I ask for?

yankinlimey Fri 28/03/08 12:35

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NORMANTHEDOG
Fri 28/03/08
13:49

for you to get any sort of answer,please give more details about claim and why it was held up,etc,etc.

Ethel
Fri 28/03/08
13:58

There is not a straight forward, blanket answer.

Compensation should cover your losses, and we don't know what effect the delay in payments has had on you.

If you have been unable to live in your own home because the insurance delayed paying repairs, then you could expect substantially more than if they had refused to pay out for lost or stolen non-essential items.

So, how much discomfort, inconvenience and suffering has the delay caused you and your family?

yankinlimey
Fri 28/03/08
16:05

Question Author

2007
4 July - Burgulary claim

Aug 13 - Loss Adjuster appointed

Sept 13 - contacted Ins Co to check status of claim
Told to contact loss adjuster myself to check.

Sept 18 - was Notified that LA has yet to file claim.

Sept 25 - filed complaint to Ins Co. Sent registered post.

Oct - Made call to LA to see what the hold up was & why.

Oct 3 - notice from LA that another person would be dealing with claim.

Oct 15 - sent repeat Register letter for complaint as received no response or contact.

Oct 21 - letter from Ins. .standard issue letter to investigate complaint.

Oct 22 - letter from Ins. letter issued referring to second registered letter.

Oct 21 - LA confirmed awaiting police report.

Nov 15 - Called to ask for proper response to complaint, Go to next stage for complaints.

12 Dec - letter from senior complaints - agree that case handeling has be lacking for both LA and Ins Co. would offer modest redress once case has been settled.

Contacted Financial Ombudsman

too long will have to do in two parts!

yankinlimey
Fri 28/03/08
16:08

Question Author

Part 2
2008

Jan 3 - received complaints pack.

Feb 21 - letter from LA stating that still waiting for police crime report.

Mar 4 - sent letter to Ins Co to notify that I have filed complaint with Financial Ombudsman as I have not heard back since letter dated 13 Dec.

Mar 10- sent letter to LA stating that they have been using the "waiting for police report since Octv" said I put the matter with the Financial Ombudsman.

Mar 26 - Called Police to see if and when the report had been sent. Told that delay was due to LA send payment to wrong payee. Delayed in receiving another payment.

Mar 27 - Ins Co call to notify that LA has decided to settle. Informed them of my discovery with the police. Asked why when both parties knew that I had a complaint about the long, unprofessional service I had been paying for and I was Not happy especially when there had been countless errors. I told him that we have not left our house empty (a person is always home) for 8 months now, they have ruined x-mas, birthdays have been & gone! They said in Dec that it would be meger but what about 4 months on. Especially when this could have been settled in Nov if everybody would do their job that they were taking my money to do!!

Now I wait for the Loss adjusters to contact me.

I have complained in two parts from the start.
The fact that the handling was poor & that I have continued to not receive the level of service promised & advertised by my insurers.

I think that £250 is a slap in the face! Plus I had to £200 in July to have my doors fixed, so much for free 24 hour emergency repair!

I would like to be compensated properly. Distress and lack of services paid for.

Ethel
Fri 28/03/08
16:26

As you haven't suffered any actual loss or trauma that you haven't been paid for now, £250 seems fair for the inconvenience.

You should, however, have your £200 for the door repair back if that was stated in the terms and conditions of the policy.

Compensation is not a punishment to the other side, it is simply supposed to repay expenses incurred and cover any losses.

gouldc
Fri 28/03/08
16:31

Can't remember the exact figures, but the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) make car insurers pay a certain percentage of the amount due to be paid out (on total loss and theft cases) per day the claim was delayed.

So on a round figure, if the claim was delayed for 10 days, and compo was at 10% of a £1000 settlement per day, you would be entitled to £100 a day for 10 days (IE another £1000), but I'm pretty sure it's considerably less than that.

When we get cases like this where we have caused an unjustifiable delay for whatever reason (lack of manpower, lost letter's, etc) we have a department that works this all out in accordance with FOS guidelines.

From an insurance point of view, I can see the issues here have been mainly human error, but I have to say that the police are sodding useless when you need a report. The MET (for example) can;t decide where you need to apply for a report from, and either needs cheques made payable to:
The Metropolitan Police Service
The MPA
MPA

And dependent on when and where the cheque has to be made payable (and assuming you get it right), they can take months to send the reports out.

Delays in getting a report can also be caused by the police losing the report (seen this), giving the policyholder the wrong reference (seen this), having the wrong details on the PNC (seen this), or having outstanding investigations but won't give the insurer any details over the phone due to each individual police force interpreting the data protection act in different ways!

That said, I can fully appreciate your situation - it's not funny, and it's very stressful. If it's any consolation, the FOS will charge your insurer several hundred pounds for the benefit of you refusing to withdraw your complaint

factor30
Sat 29/03/08
12:00

What was the claim and how much was eventual settlement value or your claim? If it was say £10000 then a delay is clearly significant and some compensation may be due if it meant you had to manage without key items such as TVs, computers, carpets. If it was perhaps £500 then the delay isn't a major inconvenience

yankinlimey
Sun 30/03/08
17:21

Question Author

Thank you to those who have left comments.

My family and I have suffered, I have suffered considerable stress, sleepless nights, anxiety, our house is never left alone. The ins company never gave me any sense of security that they were covering us.

It was not the Police who was the hold up. In fact they responded in the 40days they are given.

The assessors waited to do anything until I started tquestioning why they haf yet to do anything. Why wait 3 months to ask for something they could have had from the start.

In fact it was only when both parties were notified that the FOS were contacted that they got their fingers out!

Thanks again for your comments.

factor30
Sun 30/03/08
17:56

Sorry but whilst I can see you are frustrated at the delays I haven't yet understood what problems were caused and why it inconvenienced you so much. Was there a lot of stuff pinched and you had to do without important items during the delay? Or was it because it would have been very expensive to replace things but you were worried that it was taking so long to tell you what you were entitled to.

I can understand why you have been reluctant to leave the house in case of further burglaries- but why is that the fault of the insurer/loss adjuster?

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