home insurance claim

sid1234_2

Please help as I don't know where I stand and direct line have said they will make a decision soon...

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

By offering to renew your contract, Direct Line have actually accepted your claim as valid and avoided their right to continue any investigation into the undisclosed claims.

Previous rulings by the Financial Ombudsman Service and at law show that once an insurer is aware of a non-disclosure, if they offer to renew the policy (unless they clearly state at the time that the renewal is "without prejudice to their investigations") then they waive any rights whatsoever to refuse the claim or amend your terms.

Telling you that you are responsible for the roofer providing a false VAT declaration is just some idiot at the insurance company trying to scare you. It's an extremely stupid thing for them to say and you should take offence that the moron feels this is justified.

Your rights under the contract of insurance mean that you can cancel the policy whenever you like. Telling you that you cannot cancel is, in effect, breach of contract.

Combine all this together and in your position, I would be writing the strongest possible complaint letter to the CEO of Direct Line. Their conduct in your claim has been worse than abysmal!!

luci

Not a good idea to post your email address on an open forum, otherwise you will be bombarded with spam. Better to send a private message.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there,

I don't tend to give out my personal e-mail details. PM me with any questions if you want and I'll be happy to reply to you.

I think you need to get in touch with the CEO's office now, rather than waiting. If some junior idiot who works to a script is dealing with the case, it's going to go nowhere fast.

Phone DL tomorrow and advise them that you want the whole claim file passed to the CEO's office and that you will be writing to the CEO personally to express your dissatisfaction over how this claim and case has been dealt with.

Once you've done that, please PM me (click on my name on the left of this post to get the option) or post on this thread and I'll give you some pointers of what to put in the letter to the CEO.

Techno

When you signed up for the insurance with Direct Line did it ask whether you had made any previous claims (last 3 years/5 years)? Some companies do and some don't. If they asked and you said no (but you had) then that is classed as fraud I would think as you witheld relevant info. I can't see how they could hold you responsible for the quote though (unless this has happened before on a previous claim then it might look suspicious)

FlameCloud

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Hi there

By offering to renew your contract, Direct Line have actually accepted your claim as valid and avoided their right to continue any investigation into the undisclosed claims.

I think you are being a little harsh on DL here. The OP says that the claim happened on the previous policy, and was only a month ago, meaning that the renewal probably occurred within the last couple of weeks. The renewal letters were probably sent out a good month prior to the loss occuring, let along the discovery of the fraud on inception.

A lot will depend on the order that things occurred. If, for example the policy was renewed and then a CUE search through up the matchs then I cannot see how the insurer will be estopped- they are taking action immediately following their discovery. If however, the discovery about claims was made and then the policy would be renewed then DL are on dodgier ground.

OP, to think that the question about claims only related to those with DL is exceptionally naive to the point where I doubt even the FOS would believe you. The question is very simply- it asks if you have made any claims, nothing to indicate DL only ones.

Turning to the question in hand, without having read the policy wording I'd be suprised if you can simply cancel it without question whilst an investigation is in progress- in their eyes you would have tried to defraud them and even the FSA are obliged to allow DL to stop a financial crime from happening. Yes the FOS may take a dim view of it but by the time it got to them I guess they would have hoped to have had a voidance for non disclosure.

raskazz

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Hi there

By offering to renew your contract, Direct Line have actually accepted your claim as valid and avoided their right to continue any investigation into the undisclosed claims.

I cannot see how this is the case. I suspect that the renewal invite came before the suspicions relating to the claim, or the suspicions arose after renewal. If the policyholder was under investigation after the renewal invite but before renewal then Direct Line have two courses of action at their disposal:

1) To decline renewal and withdraw the invite even though they have not yet come to a conclusion about the non-disclosure/validity of the claim. Somehow I think the FOS would be even less impressed with this than the alternative, which is:

2) To not withdraw the renewal offer, and then when investigations are complete take action accordingly.

If the timing is as I suspect then I really do not think that their actions constitute any kind of waiver.

I would echo FlameCloud's comments that I also find it quite hard to take your reason for not disclosing your previous claims at face value. Direct Line's current statement on claims is fairly clear:

"You and any adult living with you have:

• Not suffered more than two incidents of loss, damage or liability, whether insured or not during the last three years"