Claiming from Home Protect home insurance - any experiences?

chrisgeller

Hi there

Unfortunately our flat's just been burglared. We have contents insurance with Home Protect. Obviously this is all a bit stressful! Does anyone have any experience of making claims with them?

We're particularly worried as there wasn't much sign of forced entry - they seem to have slipped our Yale latch somehow. Don't think we'd said we used our deadlock but concerned they might use that to make things difficult.

Any experiences with them?

dacouch

I've not heard of Home Protect and cannot find it on the internet, who did you buy it from?

Oscar_The_Grouch

Think I've found them - Appears to be part of a company called NHI Insurance Services Ltd. Also known as "Webmoney".

If it's the right company, then they are a Lloyd's Broker and your insurance will be with Lloyd's of London.

You should not have a problem, but if you do then rather than complaining to the insurer, you need to complain direct to Lloyd's - it's a strange agreement between the FSA, Financial Ombudsman and Lloyd's that complaints are dealt with this way.

The best thing to do if things go wrong and you cannot get them sorted is send an e-mail to the Policyholder and Market Assistance Department at Lloyd's Market Assistance. Their e-mail address is [EMAIL="complaints@lloyds.com"]complaints@lloyds.com[/EMAIL] (simple enough). Your policy schedule will give you the name of the Lloyd's syndicate underwriting your policy (sometimes shown as "Insurer") and you will need to give them this as well as the policy number and your own contact details. Tell them the nature of your complaint.

Lloyd's will respond to your complaint in writing, with a form for you to fill in. You keep hold of that form for 2 weeks and wait for a response from your insurers. If you are not happy with the response, or do not get one, fill in the form that Lloyd's sent you and they will take up the case. They have a further 6 weeks to deal with the matter, but they are very good - I can't remember the last time the FOS disagreed with one of their decisions.

In truth, you should not need any of the above information as everything should be fine. Still, best to be armed with all the information!!

chrisgeller

Thanks so much for your reply - that's why I love this website!

I'll let everyone know how it goes - I couldn't find anyone else on the web who'd insured with these guys so I guess we'll be the solitary example.

Thanks for all the information - as you say hopefully I won't need to use it, but good to know what to do.

Also - to everyone with a deadlock out there - use it!