freezer broke down while on holiday and tripped the electicity

Robert2009

I went on holiday a week ago last Thursday and when I came home early this morning I found that the electricity to my sockets was off.

I checked my consumer unit and the sockets switch had tripped.

I turned it back on and it stayed on so whatever had caused it to trip had cleared.

I checked my freezer and it had defrosted and the contents ruined.

My fridge was the same but there wasn't all that much in it.

I went round the house trying to figure out what had tripped the electricity but found nothing amiss.

I then put the TV on to see if any of my Sky plus recordings had failed and discovered that nothing had been recorded since Saturday so the electricity had been off for a week or more, at least Friday night/Saturday morning, so nothing to watch on TV.

I then decided to empty and clean out the freezer as I thought it would have frozen enough to make it easier to dump the soggy mess out of the drawers and that was when I noticed that the warning light was still on and it hadn't got cold and that the quick freeze light wasn't on either.

So putting 2 and 2 together I figured out that when the freezer had failed it must have tripped the circuit breaker like when a bulb goes, or did until the filament type were replaced by CFLs.

I have a maintenance contract on the freezer so called and that is when I discovered I was not covered for loss off contents and that it was for repair only.

That is getting cancelled when the freezer is fixed, maybe.

So before I contact my household insurance to ask if I am covered for freezer content in a freezer that broke down while I was away on a 10 day holiday and get it noted on my file that I might claim, so my premiums will skyrocket on renewal, will it even be worthwhile claiming for £100 of defrosted freezer contents?

I know some smart !!!! will say why don't you check the policy but I don't actually have a policy document to check.

Just to add, this is my second year with my current insurer and I will most likely be insuring elsewhere on renewal.

I only renewed because I could only get it for £10 cheaper for the year elsewhere and thought, to much bother to change.

TSx

it's very unlikely to be worth it - you'll have an excess payable, and increased premiums for 5 years...

phill99

Your increase in premiums for such a small claim will be negligible if anything. Wih freezer food cover, there is often no excess. I claimed for loss of freezer food a few years ago and didn't have my excess deducted. But if it's only £100 worth of food it's probably not worth claiming.

And the maintenance insurance is exactly that. It won't cover contents.

pedro123456

Robert, there may be more well informed ppl from the IC's to put another point of view over later but..................for what its worth let me enlighten you as to how IC play the game.

You buy insurance, pay your premiums in the hope that you are covered in case the sh/te hits the fan, you have on the face of it a perfectly claimable event.

So if you claim.....................

Mr IC.............ok the value of your claim is x amount, however if you claim x amount we will put up your premiums and you will (in time) give us back the x amount, you will also continue paying us premiums (at a higher rate maybe).

You haven't grasped the concept of Insurance Robert.

Look at it as a .................we will lend you x amount of money to cover your loss !!!!!!!
Please dont consider a insurance policy actually to be "piece of mind" purchase..........more of a "make a claim, get a loan if your lucky, pocket raiding piece of loo role", or even a piece of paper full of get out clauses and a thousand plus T&C loopholes..............all in favour of the IC.

Thanks for looking

Pete

molerat

pedro123456 wrote: »

So if you claim.....................

Mr IC.............ok the value of your claim is x amount, however if you claim x amount we will put up your premiums and you will (in time) give us back the x amount, you will also continue paying us premiums (at a higher rate maybe).

You haven't grasped the concept of Insurance Robert.

Look at it as a .................we will lend you x amount of money to cover your loss !!!!!!!
Please dont consider a insurance policy actually to be "piece of mind" purchase..........more of a "make a claim, get a loan if your lucky, pocket raiding piece of loo role", or even a piece of paper full of get out clauses and a thousand plus T&C loopholes..............all in favour of the IC.

Thanks for looking

Pete

It is going to take a while for them to get their money back after my motoring claim last year then, £100 down and £10 a year seems like a good value loan to me

ian103

we claimed on the house insurance as we had a large freezer in our store that packed up while we were away, we were with esure and our premiums changed by a couple of percent but the excess was £100 anyway, however we have moved house within the 5 years of the claim, cannot use esure and our premiums are affected more so now - hindsight we shouldn't have claimed. now set excess higher as unless its a big claim its not worth claiming in my opinion.

Faith177

Just as an example I claim for OH laptop on home insurance after a drink was knocked over it.

Excess was £100 renewal went up by £180 the first year and there was a £120 diffrence on the 2nd year renewal.

So for £100 worth of freezer stuff you are going to end up out of pocket by quite a bit as some companies will load upto 50% for a freezer claim

Hope this helps

InsideInsurance

pedro123456 wrote: »

You buy insurance, pay your premiums in the hope that you are covered in case the sh/te hits the fan.

The problem is that the above is correct, insurance is there for when it hits the fan, your freezer breaking down is not a case of anything hitting a fan.

Life has little bumps along the road, insurance isnt designed to cover these. The cost of administering these types of claims massively outweigh the settlement which is why insurers discourage it as far as possible.

Insurance is there for when your house burns down, a bunch of scrots trash the place whilst you're on holiday etc.

My mothers lifetime of premiums will never come close to repaying the £75,000 of fire damaged caused when the cooker caught fire let alone also the £30,000 when burglars took a liking to her jewellery collection, TV, LP collection etc.