matching items insurance

mojoagain

I have a claim going through with mma buildings insurance. Damage was done to handmade kitchen units and marble tiling, they have stated that they will only pay for the damage areas, they would both be impossible to match up because they from Italy. any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

SueMaggie

There have been a few Financial Ombudsman Service case decisions on the subject of what they call "matching sets" and in the published cases, the insurer has paid in full for the damaged item and 50% of the replacement cost of the other bits that match. The Ombudsman says that this is what it would expect to see in this kind of case.

The first two cases on this page are about bathroom suites, and case 10/7 about half-way down this page is about tiling.

Obviously none of the cases exactly match your circumstances, but they should give a guide to what is likely to happen if you were to refer your case to the Ombudsman and might encourage your insurer to think again.

However, the first thing you should do (if you haven't already done it) is read every word of your insurance policy documents to make sure there isn't a specific clause in there about matching sets, as some insurers do exclude covering anything other than the damaged item in their policy wording.

mojoagain

thanks sue maggie, been scouring my policy and the only thing i can see in the wording relating to this is.."We will not pay for the cost of replacing any undamaged item or part of an item solely because it forms part of a set, suite or is one of a number of items of similar nature or design" any comments on this wording would be much appreciated...

dacouch

It's a matching sets clause, the ombudsman's guidance will still apply, contact MMA and advise them you are aware of the Ombudsmans guidance / rulings and expect a contribution of 50% towards the other units.

You will have to push them hard as MMA do not have a great reputation, they are at the cheap and not very cheerful end of the market

mojoagain

thanks dacouch..tell me about mma they have been a nitemare, this has been going on since october and ive had to fight them all the way. Because it was malicious damage claim they said the person was a guest, when it was clear from the outset it was not a guest!! Anyone know the new rules for times limits that insurance have to pay out in?

marshallka

I have this in my direct line policy about matching items and we are having a problem with our bathroom suite....

4 We will not repair or replace undamaged items which are part of
a set or suite unless they are part of a bathroom suite or fitted
kitchen and the damaged parts cannot be repaired or an exact
replacement found.

Even where it states about matching sets they still will not exactly budge. I have a hairline cracked toilet and pinhole (various other chips also but never claimed) in our bath and when we knew that they could not get an exact replacement of the toilet (fitting is not the same at the base) they still only offered the price of a white toilet. I then mentioned the bath also and they accepted it as another claim with another excess. I told them that as they could not get an "exact" replacement for the toilet then they should have offered to renew the whole suite as per their policy wording BUT they have now said that these would have to be two seperate claims (also the bath is unobtainable as a size which is not in any obsolete bathroom place around and was only imprted from Holland apparently they have still only offered a replacement bath as a seperate claim. They have now said they will send a loss adjuster out which I am glad about TBH cause I honestly think they are not following their own policy. They still say these are two claims. IF they had followed their wording on the policy for the first thing I mentioned (being the toilet) then I would not have had to mention the bath. They say "exact" match is just the colour???