Home contents claim refused

FlossyBoots

I have had my claim refused for repair/replacement of an accidentally damaged Macbook laptop.
I own the laptop and it is registered to me, however, my daughter uses it and has lived away from home with it for 15 months.
It was damaged at my house.

My insurers say that it should be claimed for on my daughter's house insurance but a) I doubt that her landlord has any and b)It's technically my laptop so I doubt if my daughter's landlord's insurance would pay up either.

Before I get back to them I thought I'd check it out incase there's an insurance expert out there.

Thanks for reading this and considering it.
FB

twig1_2

Is your daughter a student ? My insurance covers my daughters laptop etc away from home.
Why did you make it complicated bringing your daughter into it if it is your laptop and it was damaged in your house ? It will be hard to undo that admission now.

FlossyBoots wrote: »

I have had my claim refused for repair/replacement of an accidentally damaged Macbook laptop.
I own the laptop and it is registered to me, however, my daughter uses it and has lived away from home with it for 15 months.
It was damaged at my house.

My insurers say that it should be claimed for on my daughter's house insurance but a) I doubt that her landlord has any and b)It's technically my laptop so I doubt if my daughter's landlord's insurance would pay up either.

Before I get back to them I thought I'd check it out incase there's an insurance expert out there.

Thanks for reading this and considering it.
FB

McKneff

Your daughter could try and claim for it on her contents insurance in that case. Landlord would only be liable for Buildings Insurance. He wouldnt have house contects insurance, that is up to your daughter.

As the other poster says, you complicated matters by bringing your daughters use into it.

FlossyBoots

The insurance company took the laptop away to assess the damage and they failed to get back to us so my husband called them to find out the outcome of their damage assessment. They apparently saw that the contents was my daughter's and he unfortunately told them it was hers and that she lives in London. Am I snookered even though it's actually MY laptop and damaged at MY house?
Thanks for looking FB

TSx

Ask them what exclusion they are rejecting the claim under, as you own the laptop, and it was in use at your house. The fact your daughter has loan of it temporarily would only impact upon the claim if it was damaged away from home. Be prepared to produce some evidence that you purchased it though, and they may still continue to decline it, in which case there's no harm in making a complaint.

Do you have a link to the policy wording? Many policies have a section for 'visitors personal possessions' which you could possibly claim for.

loracan1

Apart from anything else - what on earth were they doing examining the contents to an extent they could determine you hadn't been using it? Is that standard practice?

FlossyBoots

Thanks for that - they told my husband 2 days ago that they would email him their judgement and I'll respond as you suggested when they eventually do.
I don't know if it's standard practice to explore content but they wouldn't need to delve very deep because my daughter has a desktop slideshow and she has hundreds of photographs in iPhoto. She/I really didn't mind them looking because we didn't expect there to be a problem.
Thanks for your help - it's really useful. FB

Annisele

I suspect the insurer might be going down the lines of "it isn't really FlossyBoots' laptop - clearly FlossyBoots gave the laptop to her daughter as a gift".

OP - have you used the laptop at all over the last 15 months?

FlossyBoots

Only to create a website & cv for daughter! Surfing the web etc no nice documents with my name on - smart idea though - thanks for that. FB

TSx

Annisele wrote: »

I suspect the insurer might be going down the lines of "it isn't really FlossyBoots' laptop - clearly FlossyBoots gave the laptop to her daughter as a gift".

OP - have you used the laptop at all over the last 15 months?

But insurer's cant just decide to make that judgement without evidence - they would be quite within their rights to refuse to cover damage that happened whilst it wasn't in your custody, but unless there is evidence that you've given the laptop (and not loaned it) to your daughter, they've not got reason enough to repudiate the claim

(surely, the contents insurance would then just say "well there's no cover, because it belongs to your mum" - the insurer I work for wouldn't cover an item which belonged to another family member, unless they had been given it)

Obviously proving something like that is very difficult, but that doesn't mean they can just make judgements without evidence.

lisyloo

But insurer's cant just decide to make that judgement without evidence

In practice they can do what they want. There is of course the independent FOS to sort them out if they are wrong.

I would start a formal complaint ASAP. Follow the formal complaints procedure in the paperwork or on the website.
This doesn't stop you phoning and arguing but it starts the "clock ticking" on the whole process.

They possibly think this is your daughters laptop, but it appears to be on loan. Do you have proof of purchase? e.g. credit card statement?
I'm not sure how you can prove it wasn't a gift.
At the end of the day the FOS can intervene and make a judgment but you need to get the clock ticking.

I agree with TSx above except that I'm afraid short term insurers can do exactly what they want (even if they are eventually found to be wrong).