what can l do

medina1957

l made a claim on my building insurance, only for it to rejected as being an invalid claim...with the strong winds we recently had on the saturday, my flat roof at the front of my house over bay window and porch was blown off, and so was my neighbours, we had 3 days of constant strong winds, but the insurance company (who l might add lve been with near on 18 years with out ever claiming) say that the winds were not strong enough, so l cant claim...l had a fence panel blown out and my green house was blown over and ended up the other end of the garden because of how strong the winds were. I am at a loss of what to do. Their underwriters said to me on the phone that the winds didnt reach 40mph and then they sent me a letter saying that the winds didnt reach 47mph...the fact of the matter is, my roof is off, weather the winds did reach it or not..so what can l do about it.

Quentin

Find out for yourself if they are quoting the correct wind speeds to you.

Did your neighbours get anywhere with their insurers? And were any other neighbours affected by the wind at that time? If so, see how they got on with their insurers. If you can build a case you may be able to successfully challenge your insurer's decision.

Catherine12

I work for insurance companies and deal with many different policies, so generally:
Flat roof should not be damaged and have a limited life span, the only time they should be damaged is when something pierces them e.g falling tile, or winds are so strong e.g 70mph they physically rip the roof off!
The 47mph they are quoting you is how insurance companies look at storm conditions.
In your policy booklet you are covered for a range of incidents, one being Strom.
Therefore for it to be covered, there would need to be storm conditions of at least 47mph winds or higher for your claim to be considered.
You say you haven't claimed in 18 years, well good job, just means you haven't been unfortunate, the insurance policy is not a savings policy, but some advice would be if you look on met office etc on day you think you had high winds, and check the speeds, and present this to your insurer, they should consider this, bearing in mind if the roof was in a good condition.
Just give them a call, and ask where to send your info off too, you will be raising this further as a complaint, and have evidence to prove that there was storm conditions at the time.
TRY 4th or 5th February, thats when we had most our claims come in, that is unless ure claim date was before obviously.
If yu have a true claim then your insurance company should pay, so hope i have been some help, and please speak to them.