Home insurance and valuables limit

anandp

Following a recent robbery at our home, over £40k worth of items were stolen, most in jewellery.

Despite the fact that our contents cover was upto £30k ish, we have now been told that due to a valuable items clause in our policy with Co-Op Insurance, most of that jewellery value, though valid and confirmed by an independent, cannot actually be paid out on because of this.

Is this correct?? We never ever realised that this would be the result so never had a clue!

VictorM_2

It seems like you were grossly underinsured to start with.

Any policy will have a High Risk Item Limit - this is because jewellery is much more likely to be stolen than say your washing machine so some one who has a lot of jewellery is a much higher risk than someone who doesn't.

Normally this limit is shown in your schedule of cover, or sometimes the policy booklet.

Sorry to say that your insurer seems to be in the right as I am sure the wording will support it.

meer53

My insurer won't pay out more than £1000 for any valuable item unless they are notified separately and i have evidence for it. They have to be itemised on my policy, it's quite clear in the policy schedule.

rs65

anandp wrote: »

Is this correct?? We never ever realised that this would be the result so never had a clue!

The Co-op gives you an option to include valuables only up to £15k. You need to choose an amount when you get a quote.

Limit in total – £6,000, £9,000, £12,000 or £15,000 (depending on the limit chosen).

l0u1se

As above it is quite standard to have a valuables limit on most insurance policies and you need to specify items on some if they have a single article value of over "x" amount.

chopravic

Hi there can someone help me or advise.

I have recently being burgled and thought that I ahd a single article limit of £3500. They total cost of the valuables as defined by the burgulary is approx £18,000. Having checked my policy wording, it now traspires that the limit is for TOTAL valuables.

This is my mistake as I did not read the wording and when the policy was taken out confused myself. My overall sum insured is £60000 for contents which is way above what we actually have.

The claim is with the insurance company and they ahve not apporached me yet but what are my options?

My insurance broker has advised:-

a) that they could just stick to the limits and pay out what is on the schedule
b) Ask for an additional premium and backdate this from the policy inception and then honour the claim
c) refuse to pay out as I was vastly underinsured - but this is a last resort.

Does anyone have any experience of this and what would happen next?

Please do not reply by calling me an idot for not checking the documentation, I have had that from the wife already!

InsideInsurance

A £3,500 total for valuables on a £60,000 policy? Less than 6% being valuables does sound unusual.

Who is the broker/ insurer?

Was it an advised sale through the broker or just you buying off a website?

I wouldnt get your hopes up on B being a realistic option

dacouch

Who are the Insurer?

chopravic

Hi the insurer is AXA and they have underwritten a policy for Green Insurance Brokers.

I had gone onto an insurance comparision site, it might have been this one but did not process any insurance through this.

I got a phone call a few days after from Green Insurance saying they could better my deal.

On the comparison site I had put in 167,000 buildings and 35,000 contents. They say they used this information for the basis of my conversation on the phone. it may be that that 3500 figure they got from the website was an automated figure based on what I had put in as the sum insured. I can't remember putting this in.

However they have a taped conversation where they repeated these to me and I agreed verbally and asked for the single article limit which they have said is £1500. I must have been having a bad day or just not understood the questions correctly.

Sure enough the paperwork provided shows an increased buildings sum insured of £350000 and contents of £60000 with a total valuables sum insured of £3500. When this came through I went through it and glanced at the figures and thought the 3500 was a single article limit. I agree the valuables limit is low compared to the overall sum insured.

Having gone direct to the AXA website online, I have processed a quote, it is £50 cheaper and total valuables are £20000, with a single article limit of £5000 on an overall sum insured of £65000.

I really do feel I have been ripped off with this product.

An advice would be really appreciated

rs65

chopravic wrote: »

However they have a taped conversation where they repeated these to me and I agreed verbally and asked for the single article limit which they have said is £1500. I must have been having a bad day or just not understood the questions correctly.

Have you heard this tape or do you have a copy?

You would think that anyone with a knowledge of insurance would have questioned the ratio of 3500 to 60000.

Do you have access to the quote on the comparison site where this started?

chopravic

No I have not heard the tape but was told about this by the broker, I will request a copy.

I will try and find the comparision site but I used a few and not sure which one it was.

I agree I am unsure where they originally got this limit and the discrepancy seems to be out of line with the market offering these products