Useless Family Legal Cover with home insurance....

RensterUK

All,

Back in mid to late feb (I forget exact dates now) we took out E.ON's homecare to cover our CH system etc. A few days later (last few days of Feb, first few days of March) we had the obligatory initial inspection done.

6th March we spot a damp patch in our lounge ceiling. 8th March EON visit, looked at the boiler but failed to fix the problem, advising us to "see if it gets worse". It did. A few days later, a second EON visit (this time not even looking at the boiler). 18th March after a partial ceiling collapse a third visit spots the fault instantly (staring him in the face according to him), and rectifies it.

In Late April, after we had complained, an EON manager visited, and accepted liability, asking us to get repair quotes.

On Friday we received a letter from EON denying liability.

Today I contacted our family legal cover company (Minster Law) who refuse to help, as the leak started over 90 days ago, and apparently we should have seen all these problems coming. I feel the dispute stems from Friday, when E.ON made a u-turn on their decision to accept liability.

Can anyone offer advice? Surely lack of ability to see into the future should not preclude us from cover?!?

(As an aside, Minster Law also refused to help on another matter, where I enquired as to the situation regarding legal action that may be taken against us.... Apparently family legal "protection" doesnt protect you from legal action).

huckster

I agree with you. Make a complaint and hopefully they will look at this again.

Sometimes you really have to be assertive and make sure they have your complaint registered for proper attention to be paid. The customer helplines are not always the best, as they don't always have the information, so try to fob you off.

magpiecottage

From what has been said, I agree with the OP. Until they received the letter denying liability, they had every reason to believe there was no dispute with Eon and, indeed, by complying with the request to obtain quotes they were taking reasonable steps to mitigate (and in fact avoid) a claim.

Fax a complaint to 01904 663 880. Do it tonight and they have eight weeks from tomorrow to get a response to you but I suspect the insurer will move much faster than that.

RensterUK

Thanks for the replies both....

Magpiecottage - I did yesterday make a complaint to Minster Law using their on line complaint form. Apparently I can look forward to an acknowledgement within 2 working days and a full response within 7...

We shall see! And I will of course update in due course - thanks again for your thoughts.

Interestingly, and as an aside.... As you can imagine, the Minster Law employee I dealt with on the phone wasn't overly helpful, and left me feeling quite angry and frustrated. When I asked how I could complain to Minster Law, he couldnt tell me.... Good to know they are aware of their own procedures!