Home insurance claim for burglary.....advice pleeease

willywinki

My house was burgled last week. They stole a full bathroom suite that was due to be fitted this week. They also took TV, stereo, and quite a lot of new items I had bought for my house that was still in packaging. In all it totals ~5K. I have receipts/proof of ownership for pretty much everything apart from the lower value items.

The loss adjuster is coming round on Thursday, but i’m very worried that the bathroom suite won’t be covered by the contents or building insurance. Having read through a few threads on here, it sounds like the loss adjusters look for any opportunity not to pay out, and I can’t find anything in my policy documentation relating to non-fitted buildings items. Does anyone have experience similar to this?

Also, what do loss adjusters do when they come round? Do they check security of the house, doors, windows, alarms etc? We never received keys for all the window locks, so some are not locked, will they check for this? (The thieving sods didn't access via this method) Also, there is a wall coming down before Thursday, which will open up the old utility to the house. This utility has a wooden window, rather than UPVC. When the house was burgled you couldn’t access the house through the utility, but again I’m worried they won’t believe me and will say that the wooden window makes it insecure!

I read on one thread that you don’t have to put your claim in straight away? Would it be wiser to cover all our bases re. window locks and wooden window prior to loss adjuster visit, or ami just worrying too much! This is absolualty not a fiddle, i just want to make sure that we get the service we've paid for.

All advice is much appreciated J

cogito

Loss adjusters don't look to wriggle out of claims. It's their job to settle the claim equitably and to ensure that policy conditions have been complied with. Your problem would only arise if you hadn't.

There's no reason why theft of a bathroom suite wouldn't be covered.

I rather doubt that the adjuster would ask whether or not you had keys for the unlocked windows and whilst I wouldn't encourage anyone to be untruthful, you could fit new ones in a few minutes. It's not difficult. It would only be relevant if there was a Minimum Security Condition in the policy.

As for taking down the wall, it probably doesn't matter but why not take a photograph, timed and dated, to show it was there.

The question I would ask is whether your house is occupied or not. If it isn't, you could well have a problem.

willywinki

Thanks Cogito, i wasn't having a pop at the loss adjuster, i simply can't afford to not be covered for this stuff. The house had been occupied before the building work started, but we were pretty much roughing it as we didn't want to bring all our belongings into the house until all the really messy work was completed. We only spent 1/2 nights a week there, but the policy has a 30 day unocupied period before it is invalid.

Good idea about handles and photo of wall

geri1965_2

It's natural to worry. I'm a loss adjuster (not property though, before anyone tries to shoot me!) and when I was burgled, I was fretting about the loss adjuster coming out and my claim not being paid, even though I knew it should be covered.

It was all fine in the end, you don't get to hear about the good work loss adjusters do, only when things go wrong.

mattymoo

geri1965 wrote: »

It's natural to worry. I'm a loss adjuster (not property though, before anyone tries to shoot me!) and when I was burgled, I was fretting about the loss adjuster coming out and my claim not being paid, even though I knew it should be covered.

It was all fine in the end, you don't get to hear about the good work loss adjusters do, only when things go wrong.

Are you a liability adjuster then Geri? Just wondered as I'm a liability surveyor.

kamazad

hi guys i am new to this site but it seems everyone is very helpful so i am seeking advise. The scenario is this in june 2010 i took out a policy for buildings and contents insurance with the AA who brokered it for NIG.
During the questions i was asked if i had any criminal convictions excluding driving offences. I asked what any driving offence unisured driving, driving while disqualified etc the adviser said yes no driving offences are included only criminal convictions. I replied yes i have criminal convictions but they are old nothing recent. The adviser asked me how old they were i said approx. 6-7 years old. She replied oh thats fine as long as you have no criminal convictions within the last 5 years. i worked it out in my head and i said to her no i definately do not have any criminal convictions within the last 5 years i definately have ones 7 years ago and i may have some just over 5 years ago but definately not within the last 5 years. She said thats fine they will insure me they only refuse insurance if convictions are within 5 years. So i took the policy. when i got my documents where it said if i had criminal convictions it said no so i rang the AA and told them i had and told the adviser this but it says no in the policy they said to me the adviser was right that as long as the convictions were not within 5 years i was fine and it just says no and not to worry about it. In october i had a break in and lots of things were stolen all my wifes wedding jewllery and things anyway i contacted the insurance company to make a claim. A loss adjuster from cunningham lindsey came who asked me similar questions to what was he asked about criminal convictions and again i told him that i was asked this when i took the policy out and i told them i had 7 years ago and what they advised. Anyway after waiting and waiting they got the police report saying the case was closed etc and now they wanted a subject access report to see my convictions i told them why did you not ask for this before as it is going to take ages and why do you need this as i disclosed all my convictions in the first place.Anyway i requested the report i also found out that only spent convictions are not valid so i checked my offences i also checked the rehabilation act and found out that convictions without custody are spent in 5 years but convictions that have less than 6 months custody take 7 years before they are spent. when i got the report i had two convictions just over 5 years that were a fine so they were spent but the one that i mentioned that was 7 years old was 5 days in custody this was on the 22nd july 03 and i took the insurance out on the 30 june 10 which means it was another 22 days before it was spent whats going to happen? AA said they are going to check recording but do they legally have to still have it can it mysteriously be lost or can they somehow invalidate my claim? they are trying everthing not to pay me what should i do. the worst thing is also that in december my front porch door got ripped off due to the wind and bad weather and i have claimed on my buildings insurance for that and my house is freezing but they havnt even come and temporarily repaired that either i am so sick of paying insurance but when it comes to claim they try any and everything not to pay!!! whats the point!!! can anyone help and advise me there is a lot more to this story so please anyone who knows anything contact me so i can tell you what else the insurance company has said and done to try and not pay me. Thanks:mad:

dacouch

How did you manage to get 3 days in prison, was it for not paying a fine or was the 3 days actually part of your penalty ?

kamazad

it is a bit embarrassed and im ashamed of it now but i was on drugs quiet badly during uni and i had several procession charges that were mainly fines and rehab orders but this time i got caught with drugs and i gave a different name cause i missed court so i was arrested and remanded till i could attend caught cause it was a Easter Friday and i was arrested on the weds and the court i missed was 120 miles away i ended up staying in police custody till the Tuesday so in the end i got 5 days custody for the drugs, 5 days for missing court and five days for obstructed a police officer and they were to run concurrent and as i had been in police custody for 5 days already i was let out. i think the judge thought i had learnt my lesson as it was the first time i had been in custody and he saw how stressed i was so he gave me a break. do you have any expertise or knowledge regarding claims? they sent me an email on Friday asking more questions and they were completely irrelevant just things to delay further.

dacouch

It's unusual to get such a short "prison" sentance.

Have a read of this link on the rehabiltation of offenders act, irrespective of how the Insurer words their question regarding convictions they cannot ask you to declare a conviction that is classed as spent when you applied for the insurance. http://www.nacro.org.uk/data/files/nacro-2007021302-65.pdf

Also have a read of this from the Ombudsman on non disclosure, if your conviction was not rehabilitated then your non disclosure will be classed as "Innocent" if the AA had "guided" you into answering the question in the way you described.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-ins-nondisclosure.htm and http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/46/46_non_disclosure_insurance.htm

Have a read of case number 23/15 which in a lot of ways is similar to yours http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/25/25-insurance-casestudies-non-disclosure.htm

I would suggest you allow the claim to progress for the time being as it may not be a problem, there is a chance that the prison sentence does not show up on your record in which case it would be spent after 5 years.

Should it be a problem, then your next move would to be to send an "Official Complaint" into the AA out lining that you declared the correct information but their representative miss led you. If need you can request a copy of your file with the AA including recordings of your calls or transcripts.

Out of interest how much is your claim for ?

kamazad

i spoke to the AA again about this and they are saying that they will listen to the recording and pass the information on to nig but the decision will rest with them basically trying not to take responsibilty for the claim and mistake i said to them thats rubbish they are the broker i paid them the claims worth is another thing when i took the insurance they asked about valuables worth over £1500 my wife has allot of gold sets eg 8 gold bangles a large necklace set with earrings and a ring and i told them that the sets complete were worth more than 1500 but they said caneach piece be replaced individually and was it worth more than 1500 i said they can be replaced and are not over except the large necklace they said they consider each piece seperate now they are saying they look at them as sets and also with the value of gold going through the roof they are trying to cap what they pay if everything is paid properly the claim is worth approx £35-40k what do you think can they do that?

dacouch

How much of your claim is valuables eg items of jewellery, works or art, items of precious metals, televisions, stamp / coin collections and computer equipment.

How much contents cover do you have