UIA Insurance - LIVID and in need of advice please

Angelina1971

Help!!! Im livid. Our garage was broken into and cleared out of mountain bikes, tools, camping eqpt the lot 7 weeks ago. Our insurance company have validated the claim as we sent in photos and receipts for everything. They have now come back to me and said although the claim is valid we are not insured as it is a council garage not attached to the home and is at the end of our cul de sac!!! I informed them last february and have the letter to prove it that I informed them of this, they are denying receiving it even though the letter is there and sent to them and that they still took my premiiums monthy!!

What can I do, I feel the victim of 2 crimes now - the burglary and the treatment from UIA insurance, I informed them 18 months ago of the garage and its took them 7 weeks and loads of evidence of ownership and are now not paying me because of this ridiculous thing.....please help I am so angry.

:mad:

vaio

follow their complaints procedure and if they don't play ball refer to the FOS

huckster

Ok, below are parts of the wording from UIA which relate to this. What they are saying is that as the garage is not yours but the councils and you have no control over security, particularly as it is at the end of the cul de sac. They are saying that had they received the letter or information about the garage at the time the policy was taken out, they would have excluded Contents in the garage.

What you need to do. 1) Obtain information that the garage is allocated to the house and is noted on the councils ownership deeds for the house. The council housing people will be able to provide a letter stating this. The definition of Home and garages/outbuildings only states they should form part of the deeds, not that you are the owner and they don't state where the garage has to be located in conjunction with the house. If you check the questions/assumptions for quoting on the UIA quotation site, see whether it asks you any questions in relation to where the garage is sited. If not then I am not sure that it would have been necessary to have declared this when the policy was taken out. Therefore them not receiving the letter sent is not really an issue. Once you have this information, then make a complaint to the UIA claim manager in writing.

Home
The private dwelling you live in shown in the schedule as the Insured Property, together with
its garages and outbuildings (forming part of the title deeds) all used solely for domestic
purposes, or for working from home in a purely clerical or administrative capacity, with no
business visitors and no business stock, money or equipment on the premises.

Contents
Household goods, business equipment and all other articles belonging to you or your family
or for which you are legally liable under a hiring or other written agreement. This is only
while they are in the home.

Angelina1971

Thank you very much I will use this advice to complain directly, fed up now with it. seems they happy to take your premium for 15 year without a claim then try to get you on any loop hole not to pay out...but i wont give up!!