Halifax Home Insurance problem - please help

aycle

Hi

I would like to thank the people who have been making constructive comment in relation to my original post. I am not going to pass comment on the others posts.

Since I last posted, the following has happened:

I received a voicemail saying they would NOT pay out
I received a letter confirming they would NOT pay out.
I rang them again stating that I was a) promised the policy would cover the tent and b) that I was told l they would pay out. I also stated that as I believe I had been mis-sold the policy and lied to in relation to the cover, I would be wishing to making my own legal representation and take the issue up with the ombudsman. 'Mark' told me he would send a Data Access Request Form so I could have my own copy of the recordings and he would review both the original sales call and the call where I was told I would be covered and call me within 24 hours. This was at 16.30 hours on Tuesday and at the time of writing this (22.40 on Wednesday), I have had no reply.

I shall also be writing a letter to their complaints department as suggested by a couple of other posters here. I will do this tomorrow and post a copy up.

However, I do not wish to continue the policy as it is useless to all intents and purposes if it does not give me the cover I require. OR, am I covered for all subsequent losses if this case is upheld and they do pay out on the basis of the original sales call?

Hopefully the DAR forms will arrive in tomorrows post too.

Thanks again

Insco

Sorry to see the continuing problems you are having with Halifax Home Insurance and the lack of service that they are providing ( especially as they proclaim in their literature to provide a "first class service"

Once you have the recordings of the conversations at the point of sale and subsequently you will be in a much better position to pursue any complaint of misselling by Halifax Home Insurance to you. You could speak with the FSA about this directly now.

You do not need legal representation ( you are unlikely to be able to recover the legal fees) to take this matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service - you can download the complaint form from their website and submit the complaint form to them yourself setting out clearly the history of this matter as you have done here. However a lot of people do feel more comfortable asking a solicitor or loss assessor to hanldle - because they simply do not have the time or inclination. It is up to you.

You will not be able to submit the complaint form until you have Halifax Home Insurance " final response" - that is why you must intiate the formal complaint process as detailed in your policy booklet as soon as possible. Halifax Home Insurance should acknowledge your complaint and provide you with a final response letter confirming your FOS referral rights within 8 weeks of the complaint.

Make sure you send your complaint recorded delivery - Halifax Home Insurance have been known in the past to deny receiving faxes and post.

Good luck this is very poor treatment by Halifax Home Insurance, if you were originally advised you would be covered.

The other alternative given the size of the claim is to proceed straight to the county courts - which may be quicker than the FOS - and you can claim interest and your costs that way. But you do need your evidence that you were told you would be covered by Halifax Home Insurance - so purusue that Data Subject Access Request and make sure that they comply with the Data Protection Legislation - you should be provided with the Data you want within 40 days or requesting it.

aycle

This is a little late now,but I thought I would update everyone for future reference. After everything that I mentioned above, the Halifax EVENTUALLY admitted they were at fault and offered a part payment, which I refused. I threatened at that point to put in a claim with the small claims court.

In November they paid me out in full AND paid £50 towards my expenses claim of £120 that I submitted. I accepted this as a final settlement and closed my account with them.

So, in short, keep fighting away. Keep a record of every phone call, email, letter or other form of communication you have when you are in dispute with a company. Make a note of times, dates and the people you speak to, along with a summary of what was said / agreed. IF you have this as evidence, most companies will back down eventually, esp if faced with court action too.

Good luck in your cases.