Reclaiming Home Insurance - missold - How to? FSA Rules?

rossyl

Are there any FSA rules, or other legislation/rules, on mis-selling a Home Insurance policy?

I took out an home insurance policy via a LARGE broker. One thing I always made expressly clear was that there was a lodger in the house. The company were aware of this to the point that the lodger was named on the policy.

Some 14 months after taking out the insurance, I phone them to tell them the name of the lodger would eb changing and asked re admin costs.

I was then told the insurance company did not insure lodgers, my home insurance was invalid and would be terminated within 7 days. They have refunded me for the remainder of the year.

I want to claim back the 14months worth of payments I made for an invalid policy.

Thank you.

This thread has also been posted here, not sure where is best!:o: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2281495

dunstonh

I want to claim back the 14months worth of payments I made for an invalid policy.

Are you sure it would have been invalid in the past?

If you have paperwork that shows the lodger was declared and noted on the policy for that period of cover then you would have been covered. It may be that they don't do it now going forward and as you are making a change, they no longer wish to offer cover (but had to wait until you made such a change).

Did they comment on the fact that your policy noted the lodger?

Have you told the broker about this as they may have some influence on this as they have been misled as much as you have if it is the case?

rossyl

Thanks for your response...more details...

The broker said that the insurer does not insure homes with lodgers, it said that my insurance is therefore invalid and they questioned if I ever informed them that I had a lodger.

They apologised when they realised i had expressly told them of this, and said they didn't know what went wrong but that the insurer does not allow for lodgers and therefore the insurance is invalid.

They said that should there have been a claim, it is likely that they (the Broker) would have paid for any costs as it was their fault that the policy was sold to me.

So I presume it was inavlid from the day i purchased it.

dunstonh

They said that should there have been a claim, it is likely that they (the Broker) would have paid for any costs as it was their fault that the policy was sold to me.

That is correct. That is one of the reasons why using a broker gives you greater consumer protection. If the error was theirs, they take on that liability.

So I presume it was inavlid from the day i purchased it.

I dont understand how you got it noted on the policy though if they didnt cover it. The whole point of getting things like that noted is to ensure you are covered.

Anyway, back on track, when errors occur the expectation is that you are put in the same position you would have been had the error not occurred in the first place. This isnt going to help you much as the error has been found but you would still have had an insurance policy and been paying for it. Chances are the one you should have had would have been more expensive. So, actually you are likely to have been better off because of this error. I would suggest you ask them for a goodwill gesture of £100-£200 for the inconvenience.