Contents insurance claim - friend damaged my sofa, now denying. help please

cantcope

Hi,

I hope someone can help me. My sofa was burnt last weekend when a "friend" and i now use this loosely dropped a cigarette on it. I only noticed it the following morning and called them to ask if they'd burnt it. They said they didnt remember but sorry if they had. I know it can only have beent his person as nobody else sat on the particular sofa all night and there was definitely not a burn on it previously.

I had an insurance assessor out today who has said that i am covered by my policy to either repair or replace, my choice. I have to give them my friends name, address and telephone number.

I dont know my friends address as they recently moved in with their parents so i called them this afternoon and explained what i need to do.
They are now saying they dont think they did it and they wont give me their address. They also asked me why i didnt lie and say i'd done it?! well had i known they were then going to deny it i may well have done but at the time i had no reason to lie.

The assessor this morning said without their details i would not be able to claim. So now i'm stuck with a badly burned sofa and the possibility i cannot claim.
I'm so upset, not only have i realised this person isnt a friend after all i'm stuck with a damaged sofa through no fault of my own

Any advice?

huckster

Sounds a bit silly to me. What if you had a house party and the sofa had been damaged by one of say 12 friends. Would you have to provide all their names and addresses ?

What is the assessor going to do with your friends contact details. Will they try to reclaim the money from your friends Contents Insurance personal liability cover ?

Ask the assessor to confirm exactly why they want your friends contact details, as your friend is worried by this.

If you don't get a satisfactory response from the assessor, speak to the Insurers. Advise them that you are willing to make a complaint and go to the FOS if necessary.

cantcope

The assessor said their recoveries team will contact him to recover their losses. I assume from his contents cover. He doesnt have any while he's living with parents.

geri1965_2

Of course you can claim without these details - the assessor is talking nonsense.

cantcope

Thanks for the replies.
I've decided i'm going to call the assessor tomorrow and just tell the truth, that my friend is now denying it, wont give me their address and see what they say. I think i'm more hurt to find out my "friend" isnt really a friend after all than the fact my sofa is burned.

cantcope

Got a call yesterday from insurance assessor to say that i CAN go ahead with the claim even though my EX friend is denying it.

McKneff

They probably just wanted to confirm your story with your friend and she is afraid that she will have to pay for it. Understandable really, its human nature.
But i dont think they would have tried to recover it from her tbh.

Learn from it. I have very good friends and am a smoker but i would never light up inside their houses. Just tell them you dont smoke in the house. Any other friends will get the message.