Cunnigham & Lindsay Special Investigator

Jim_ross

Hi
Iam bit confused my father's property had caught fire in kitchen we called up our insurance company MMA Insurance who sent out Cunnigham & lindsay loss adjuster to asses the damage 2 weeks after first visit C&L then sent out insurance underwriter and now we have recieved phone call to say a special investigator will be coming around on Friday 13/08/2010.

Is this normal procedure and what does specail investigaor do? as forensic investigator has visited the property stating accidental damage

Any help will be mush appreciated


Hi Guys
Forensic Investigators were Hawkins based in Redhill who investigated the fire.
I never asked the Cunnigham & Lindsay why they were sending out Special Investigator to the property as I thought they would think my father was acting suspcious.
Loss adjuster told me we would need statment from my father.


This all new to me as I have never claimed on my insurance before.

mcjordi

form a quick google search.. a special investigator is normally sent out if they suspect fraud...
im no insurance expert but if the forensic team ruled out arson/delibrate then you should be fine.. as fire investigators are highly trained ( im training to be one atm... )

Jim_ross

Hi Guys
Forensic Investigators were Hawkins based in Redhill who investigated the fire.
I never asked the Cunnigham & Lindsay why they were sending out Special Investigator to the property as I thought they would think my father was acting suspcious.
Loss adjuster told me we would need statment from my father.


This all new to me as I have never claimed on my insurance before.

dacouch

Roughly how much is the claim for ?

Jim_ross

No figure has been given regarding cost of repair C &L had stated between 4/5 months of repair work, my father only had building insurance

dacouch

Was it a big fire or was it just contained to the kitchen area ?

Jim_ross

Just contained in kitchen area rest was all minor smoke damage which can be cleared up

dacouch

MMA don't like paying claims out.

A special investigator is not unusual for a fire claim, providing your father has disclosed everything he should when he took the cover out and renewed the policies he should be ok. You may find MMA may try an cut corners when paying the claim to save money so keep your eyes open with them.

Providing your father has disclosed everything, he just needs to answer the investigators questions truthfully / to the best of his knowledge and he should be ok, if he lies about anything there is a good chance they will find him out.

The investigator will probably employ cognitive interviewing techniques, which are very basically they will ask your father how the fire happened and then ask variations of the same question to see if his story changes. They may also ask very detailed questions such as what was he watching on tv at the time (As some one who has made up a story will not have thought to think about minute details such as this). The questions should be easy for someone telling the truth to answer and if your father makes a mistake due to his memory it's not normally a problem as they are trained to work out who is lying from the overall answers.

Your father may feel like they are treating him like a criminal but when you understand the purpose of the questions and repeating the same question to deduce if someone is telling the truth he will find it easier.

The police use cognitive interviewing for suspects and for witnesses to catch people out / find the facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_interview

Jim_ross

Hi

Will they ask to see council tax to show property wasnt rented

Jim_ross

he had relatives staying at the property who were paying him money but werent tenants or neither he was making any sort of profit

Will this matter

Jim_ross

Its my fathers main residency relatives were lliving there for 3 months