Cunningham Lindsey loss adjusters

brownie4583

Hi,
See my thread on Cunningham Lindsay and BBC Watchdog!

TSx

brownie4583 wrote: »

As an insurer, as far I'm aware, we have a scale of fees with Cunningham Lindsay which scaled up depending on the value of the claim. If anything, they have an incentive to maximise payout to you as it means their fees will be higher. This is certainly how it works with our other loss adjusters.

Call me cynical but it seems to me that Cunningham Lindsay inflate risk assessment figures up so high that you then get paid nothing and they have saved the insurance company like £8,000 or something,then they get a handsome bonus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With us, they operate on a fixed fee for repudiation, a fee which is lower than if they settle the claim. There is no 'bonus' for achieving a certain level of repudiations either.

I can't comment on their contract with esure (or whoever you purchase your insurance through) though.

Sally_A

I think a lot depends on the individual loss adjuster who deals with your claim.

The one that visited for our burglary (appointed by Ecclesiastical) was very down to earth, he advised we should up our buildings sum insured (how does that happen?, insured for the rebuild value when purchased, and gone with index linking every year - just shows IL does not work).

As I'm a broker, I couldn't be seen to inflate anything, the only thing they knocked us down on was cash in lieu of jewellery that were gifts and we had no receipts for - by about 25%.

We actually spent more time talking about his next appointment, ie contaminated petrol claims at a garage insured with NIG, I ended up giving him a quick lesson that their PL and Products sections are different pages on the Motor Trade policy, and unless you ask for Products, they will only give you pure PL. Maybe my filling him in with the fineries of the NIG Motor Trade policy got me some brownie points .

They are humans too.

Also bear in mind that a lot of insurers can negotiate a 30% discount on white goods and loads of other things, so if they say you are underinsured, if it is less than 30%, argue the toss;).

vaio

So you, a knowledgeable insurance professional and with the benefit of additional brownie points for the free NIG advice, got your presumably true and honest claim for jewellery reduced by 25%.

Is it any wonder the general public are sometimes tempted to [STRIKE]inflate[/STRIKE] err on the generous side when making claims?

Sally_A

vaio wrote: »

So you, a knowledgeable insurance professional and with the benefit of additional brownie points for the free NIG advice, got your presumably true and honest claim for jewellery reduced by 25%.

Is it any wonder the general public are sometimes tempted to [STRIKE]inflate[/STRIKE] err on the generous side when making claims?

Not at all Vaio, the games console, laptop, cash etc were settled at 100%, as was the door damage. Random jewellery without receipts was settled at 25% below, but I know I could negotiate discounts at several places - the really sentimental stuff that had an irreplacable value, was cunningly hidden by a tossed aside tea towel in my haste to get off to the netball match (slobbery has it's plus points). The only piece of jewellery I wanted, and could have been replaced, but not the same as my dad who bought it for me 3 years prior, before he died, was a celtic type torque bracelet; I've not replaced it as I've not seen similar, and even if I did it would not have the same emotional meaning. So 25% off as cash in lieu for stuff that I could not replace seemed reasonable.

I was happy with the settlement - and surely that is what counts.