House Insurance Claim - average time to pay out?

Newbie2saving

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what is an acceptable time to wait for an insurance company to pay out? Downstairs suffered water damage after leak and I am still waiting, 12wks later. Nothing has been done, loss adjustor submitted report and they have said all is ok with the claim, but I am struggling to get somewhere with this. Any ideas? I don't want to name and shame, just want to know if my anger is reasonable!

TIA.

theJudge

Unfortunately, there's no set time limit for insurers, so you need to apply some pressure. The way to go about this is:-

1. Deal with the insurers not the loss adjuster/claims management company about the delays.

2. Don't be fobbed off.

3. Try to conduct your correspondence via email, if possible, or letter, so you have what was said to you well documented. Although, phone calls are recorded, the insurer/loss adjuster will insist that you make a data protection act request for the information and may not provide all of the calls that you request.

4. Ring every couple of days for an update.

5. If you continue to be fobbed off after a week, send a recorded letter to the insurer's complaints department specifying exactly what the hold up was, any promises that have been made to you that haven't been fulfilled and asking that they reply within 10 working days or else you'll contact your solicitor.

The bad news is that the law doesn't currently allow you to claim damages for delays or insurers even totally avoiding your claim and causing you costs as a result. See my other posts for a full explanation on this.

Newbie2saving

Thanks for your response, very informative. I have started to email everything and I am phoning on a daily basis to chase up a response, still nothing. I like the idea of speaking to the complaints dept, the only other thought I had was sending a complaint to the underwriters (as my ins doc's refer to), but it needs to be in writing and allow 4wks for a response, I just can't wait that long.