owelly
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 05:43 PM |
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House insurance. Are you covered?
Something that I'm sure many are unaware of. Here's the bones of it:
A mate was burgled the other week. It was most unpleasant for him and the family as the intruders had placed kitchen knives all around the house and
the burglers took mainly kids toys and games consoles and games. they also took my mates laptop containing all his photos since his kids were born. He
had them backed-up onto disc but the discs were in the laptop bag.....
The insurance company would only consider items that he could prove they had bought. The empty boxes and serial numbers were not proof enough. His
total claim was for £2,200 although the haul was worth well over £3000.
Anyway, the loss adjuster called the other day and went through EVERY item in the house. He listed every single item of crockery, cutlery, furniture,
rug, picture, plant pot, ornament, kettle, oven glove. etc. He noted some of the crockery was Denby so worth more then the other stuff. He noted that
some of the clothes were designer. He went through the contents of the garage, even though there is a max limit of £1000 for any loss from there. He
took dozens of photos and went through all the stuff in the loft......
He later explained why. My mate had the contents of his house covered for £40,000 and paid the insurance premium to suit. He paid extra for his Hi-fi,
TV and pedal bikes. The assessor is going to value the ENTIRE contents of the house and if the cost of repacing it with new exceeds £40,000, then the
insurance company will not pay out for his claim. According to the insurance company (and the small print) he could be under-insured and as such, they
are not obliged to honour any claims.
SO CHECK YOUR POLICIES!
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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McLannahan
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 05:52 PM |
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Who are his insurance company out of interest?
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owelly
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 05:57 PM |
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It's Esure but I'm not sure if they are the underwriters or just the brokers.
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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tul214
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:03 PM |
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I was burgled on holiday a few years ago and insured through e-sure. They were a nightmare and the claim went on for about 8 months.
I recall there was another thread on here a few days ago about them too....AVOID
1.6 Raw Super6 sold
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owelly
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:09 PM |
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The problem my mate has (and me it may seem!) is not with just Esure, it's most, if not all, insurance policies. Some will pay out an amount of
your claim that corresponds with the percentage you are insured. For example, if you insure you contents for £25k but your contents are actually worth
£50k, then they will only pay out 50% of your claim even if your claim is for just a couple of hundred quid. The small print in my mates policy states
that they will consider the policy void if they discover he is under-insured.
Strangely enough, it was the comparison website he used to arrange the policy that suggested £40k to him so I wonder if he can claim he was mis-sold
the policy?
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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jollygreengiant
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:21 PM |
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Its not the first time I've said it but I will say it again, generally speaking, my experience with Insurance companies is that, You are
Insured, until that is you Actually make a claim. Then they will use ANYTHING that they reasonable can to get out of it.
I took out a fully comp insurance once and the car was stolen, when I took it out they asked me the value of the car, because that has a bearing on
the rate of insurance. When I claimed they only wanted to pay me £250 because that was bottom book value of the vehicle and they said that the
original purchase value of the vehicle had no bearing on the matter.
The house roof got damaged when a strong wind blew down the Chimney mounted Aerial. The roof repairs they would cover but NOT the Aerial as that was
Contents, NOT, fixtures and fitting and "I was likely to take it with me when I moved." Turns out that the bath panel which I could
actually get to and take with me WOULD have been covered under fixtures and fittings.
[Edited on 20/7/12 by jollygreengiant]
Beware of the Goldfish in the tulip mines. The ONLY defence against them is smoking peanut butter sandwiches.
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whitestu
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:22 PM |
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It is common practice - if the value of your stuff is £80k and you insure it for £40k they pay you have of what was stolen.
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:27 PM |
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I went through all the stuff in my house and couldn't get the value to come to more than about £20K total lol.
I wouldn't have let any insurer in to do any assessment quite frankly, he has no legal right to enter your house.
As far as I'm concerned if I insure for 40K and my stuff is worth 50, that's a risk I take that they may not cover everything. I would
challenge it in court happily as if the total I claimed for was less than the amount I was covered for they have no complaints, unless I was flaunting
it and making the contents more obvious.
[Edited on 20/7/12 by coyoteboy]
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owelly
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:40 PM |
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Why would you not let the loss adjuster in? You want to get the claim sorted and a part of that is with the loss adjuster as set out in your terms and
conditions. You don't let him in, you don't get paid out.
This was meant as a heads-up for folks like me who didn't realise that this can happen.
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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morcus
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 06:55 PM |
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What the other guy said, all insurance is a con. If you can you want to make sure your home and contents is with the same company to stop them both
deciding something is the others responsibility. Hopefully it'll all get sorted for your friend but this is an old trick that plays on the fact
no normal person would come out with the same value as an insurance man, especially when you consider things in your house you've bought second
hand or been given.
In a White Room, With Black Curtains, By the Station.
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cerbera
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 07:23 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by owelly
For example, if you insure you contents for £25k but your contents are actually worth £50k, then they will only pay out 50% of your claim
I actually didn't know that, something I'll bear in mind for the future.
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Slimy38
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 07:38 PM |
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What happens if the loss adjuster deliberately over calculates? I have half a dozen laptops, four of which are pretty much dead. If they assume that
those laptops are 'market value' rather than 'dead hunks of plastic', that could be 4k of insurance that I didn't want.
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steve m
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 07:47 PM |
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I had the opposite, with tescos insurance,
we had a garage fire in 2010, incredibly and thankfully, the fire brigade took 4 mins to get to my house and deal with the fire
garage was fire and smoke damaged, house was smoke damaged
the help we got, and the "approved cleaner's" were brilliant
total bill was around 20k including my settlement in all the damaged stuff, that was destroyed, or too heavily smoke damaged to have cleaned, and new
garage roof, that was new only one year before !
I suppose as we still had the stuff. albeit damaged, the claim was faily straight forward
It was the first and only hose insurance claim we have ever made,
the only thing that was not covered with the house insurance was my 7 << but incredibly it was only a few scorch marks, as it was covered with
duvets to protect it, and they are fire retardent !!
But i expect we are under covered on contents, and hopefully will never have to find out!!
Steve
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owelly
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 09:01 PM |
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As my mates policy is 'new for old' the loss adjuster is valuing the contents at what it would cost to replace it with new. So if you have
a few laptops kicking about, they'd be valued at the equivalent new price!
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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RIE
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| posted on 20/7/12 at 09:18 PM |
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Couple of points:
Laptop backup drives kept in the laptop bag - defeats the entire point of having a backup in the first place.
Underinsurance - this clause will exist on almost every insurance policy with a sum insured, for obvious reasons - if you have £40K insured and £50K
contents, and your TV gets stolen but they leave your sofa, what happens if you claim to the insurance company that you wanted the TV covered, but not
the sofa, the curtains, etc. etc.
As stated, proper companies would pay the matching proportion of the underinsurance (80% in this example). Some policies grant a 'blanket'
sum insured (e.g. £500K) to avoid underinsurance. Esure sound like complete arseholes if they're going to avoid the claim completely based on
this.
Greatest of sympathies to your mate, a horrible experience even without problems with the insurance company.
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SteveWallace
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| posted on 21/7/12 at 07:44 AM |
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Just out of interest, at what point does a pile of bits in the garage that is going to become a car actually change from a pile of bits that you might
be able to claim on your contents insurance to a car that would need to be insured separately.
I guess that the logical answer is when its been IVA'ed and registered, but has anyone had any experience of a contents insurance company trying
to get out of a claim because the partially assembled pile of bits looks too much like a car?
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loggyboy
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| posted on 3/5/13 at 02:12 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jaksvipaul
Home is the most important thing, like that only need to give value and care also very essential things. Insurance should be there for every type of
home.
Being a newbee, some slack will be given but this thead is a year old so no need to dig it up unless you adding something more than a passing
comment.
EDIT
NO SLACK GIVEN PLEASE DONT SPAM US
[Edited on 3-5-13 by loggyboy]
Mistral Motorsport
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scootz
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| posted on 3/5/13 at 03:10 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by loggyboy
quote:
Originally posted by Jaksvipaul
Home is the most important thing, like that only need to give value and care also very essential things. Insurance should be there for every type of
home.
Being a newbee, some slack will be given but this thead is a year old so no need to dig it up unless you adding something more than a passing
comment.
EDIT
NO SLACK GIVEN PLEASE DONT SPAM US
Oooh.. get you!
I must have missed your apponment as Moderator! 
It's Evolution Baby!
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