Insurance company want me to pay for Crime Report

stevemarsh1976

geri1965 wrote: »

Oh dear - that is really bad news, E&L are well known for trying to get out of paying claims (do a search on here or on Google and you will see what I mean).

I think you will have some difficulty in getting them to budge on the issue and you will have to threaten to report them to the Ombudsman (I think you can only do this once you have exhaused their own complaints procedure but no doubt someone else will be able to confirm this).

I had my bike insured under my household contents with Aviva and it was sorted out very quickly when it was stolen, although in view of the excess (£100) and the bike being worth only £300, I now have a seperate bike policy with Cycleguard. It is more expensive but there is no excess.

Right on most points E&L have there problems when it comes to service but they offer some niche products which not many other companies do.

As for the ombudsman, it is an option but first ask what E&L complaints proceedures are, this should get you through to a department who can at least make some decisions and if still no joy you will need to follow there proceedures and then submitt to the ombudsman. No insurer wishes a complaint to hit the ombudsman as they charge the insurer something in the region of £400 just to look at your complaint so often its cost effective to just deal with it first.

As for the valdity of the claim, check your policy wording it may state locked premesis or locked to an immovable object, if youve no joy tomorrow ill check there wordings for you if you like.

dacouch

Oh dear E&L prepare for a long and drawn out claim

duffpaddy

I checked the policy wording and it said if the bike was stored in a communal hallway it must be chained to an immovable object.

My bike was chained to an immovable bike stand in a communal bike store in my building so I should be covered I suppose.

duffpaddy

== UPDATE ==

My bike was stored in a communal cycle store in the basement of my building. This is a designated area that only residents of the building have access to and was created to stop residents locking their bikes in the hallways and therefore causing a fire hazard.

E&L have written to me and told me that my claim has been declined because I did not meet their security requirement i.e. storing my bike in a "communal hallway".

I've looked at the policy wording and whilst they define what a 'Home' is, they do not have a definition of what constitutes a 'communal hallway'. The communal cycle store where I store my bike is accessed by a communal hallway and is in effect one contiguous area and is accessed only by residents within the building.

Could I appeal against their decision to decline my claim on the grounds that they have interpreted some ambiguous policy wording?

duffpaddy

I've started a new thread for the above question:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=31590093#post31590093