Third party fire and theft insurance and Arson

raskazz

debjk wrote: »

Spoke to swintons who have said this is an industry wide exclusion :rolleyes: after a bit of argueing the man on the phone said he would phone Markerstudy and some other insurers to see if this is right and he would get back to us, no call back so will try again tomorrow.

Whoever said that it is a standard exclusion in the market is talking out of his backside. Might be worth asking him to name another 5 insurers with the same exclusion - I would wager he'd struggle to name one other. The insurers in my post above make up a sizeable portion of the market and none of them have the same exclusion.

If you really wanted to flummox him you could ask him to comment on why the Chartered Insurance Institute's course text for the exam on Motor Insurance makes no mention of such an exclusion in the sections on policy cover and policy wordings, if it is so common.

dacouch

Raskazz we are talking about a Swintons employee, do you think he knows the names of five different Insurers?

raskazz

dacouch wrote: »

Raskazz we are talking about a Swintons employee, do you think he knows the names of five different Insurers?

That is admittedly improbable.

debjk

Right another call to swintons and they have said that the underwriter has def said we are not covered. We asked why we were not told about this exclusion at the time of purchasing the insurance and his words were if we went through all exclusions on the phone to every customer we would be there for 3 hours.
We then said we would go to the onbudsman and swintons say because it is in black and white on the policy they wont do anything He also said he hadn't had time to check any other insurers to see if their policies were the same.

So basically he admitted we were not told of the exclusion but that he didnt have to because it was in black and white on the policy's key facts document.

So what next?

financial_illiterate

debjk wrote: »

Right another call to swintons and they have said that the underwriter has def said we are not covered. We asked why we were not told about this exclusion at the time of purchasing the insurance and his words were if we went through all exclusions on the phone to every customer we would be there for 3 hours.
We then said we would go to the onbudsman and swintons say because it is in black and white on the policy they wont do anything He also said he hadn't had time to check any other insurers to see if their policies were the same.

So basically he admitted we were not told of the exclusion but that he didnt have to because it was in black and white on the policy's key facts document.

So what next?

Exhaust their complaints process and then revert to the FOS if neccesary.

However, it is there in black and white so they're isn't any guarantee the FOS will support you.

dacouch

We know its not covered by the Insurance Policy, the issue is whether or not the exclusion of Arson Cover was made clear to you. By pointing out what is a very significant exclusion it would give you the ability to make a decision as to whether the policy was suitable for you.

You cannot go straight to the Ombudsman (Again Swintons staff not understanding how the system works). You will need to make an official complaint and then once that has been dealt with within the allowed time scales.

I would suggest you contact the Financial Services Authority initially as your complaint will be about how the policy was sold to you and it is the FSA that handles the regulation of how policies are sold. They should be able to give you some pointers.

I would suggest you gather as much evidence as you can, find any paperwork they sent you especially the actual letters from Swintons on their headed paper and their demands and needs statement to see if it mentions the exclusion.

dacouch

It would be interesting to find out the Swintons employee's view of the FSA "Treating Customers Fairly" requirement (If he even knows of it).

Here is a very basic form of it

We have defined six consumer outcomes, which explain what we want TCF to achieve for consumers.


Outcome 1: Consumers can be confident that they are dealing with firms where the fair treatment of customers is central to the corporate culture.
Outcome 2: Products and services marketed and sold in the retail market are designed to meet the needs of identified consumer groups and are targeted accordingly.
Outcome 3: Consumers are provided with clear information and are kept appropriately informed before, during and after the point of sale.
Outcome 4: Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances.
Outcome 5: Consumers are provided with products that perform as firms have led them to expect, and the associated service is of an acceptable standard and as they have been led to expect.
Outcome 6: Consumers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product, switch provider, submit a claim or make a complaint.

mattymoo

financial_illiterate wrote: »

Exhaust their complaints process and then revert to the FOS if neccesary.

However, it is there in black and white so they're isn't any guarantee the FOS will support you.

Agreed, however a lot of us on this thread feel that this exclusion is so out of kilter with the rest of the market that it should be spelt out, double underlined and repeated again to the client - this TPFT policy does not cover fires that are caused by arson, by far the largest cause of all fires in the UK.

FOS is consumer focussed and will tend to find in the customers favour in cases where a policy wording is ambiguous or unfair. At the very least, they will probably ask Markerstudy and their brokers to spell out the exclusion in detail for future customers.

financial_illiterate

mattymoo wrote: »

Agreed, however a lot of us on this thread feel that this exclusion is so out of kilter with the rest of the market that it should be spelt out, double underlined and repeated again to the client - this TPFT policy does not cover fires that are caused by arson, by far the largest cause of all fires in the UK.

FOS is consumer focussed and will tend to find in the customers favour in cases where a policy wording is ambiguous or unfair. At the very least, they will probably ask Markerstudy and their brokers to spell out the exclusion in detail for future customers.

I agree entirely, I think its a ridiculous exclusion; I just feel that the Ombudsman could perhaps expect a policyholder to read their Key Facts document at the very least. Thats what its for.

But I don't want to sound like I'm on the side of the insurer, because I'm not. Its a rubbish policy.

debjk

Ok so I am on swintons website looking at complaints proceedure and there is and 1st step is to speak to the number on your policy which we have done next is to phone another number, post or an option to email think I may start with that because less likely to forget anything when putting forward the complaint.

Im not very good with the Jargon and the wording of this would anyone like to help before I attempt it myself it just may sound better coming from someone who knows what they are talking about.