Burglary claim - "assessor" visiting

vikinggreen

We were burgled and the insurance company are sending an "assessor" out.

What should I expect? I just have the nagging feeling that I am going to end up being made to feel like a criminal myself because I can't produce evidence or receipts for some items.

Normally I am quite sensible and together, but I'm just dreading it. Any crumbs of comfort please?

chanz4

if you have photos you will be fine, you have not tried to enhance the claim have you? also was it forced entry? If your honest, nothing to worry about

vikinggreen

Thanks for the reply. The burglary happened while we were away and there was full police involvement, and still is - lots of similar crimes in the same week so they are all over the area like flies. (A bit rude of me to describe them like that, because they have been lovely.)

My biggest problem is jewellery - none of it wildly expensive, but I can't provide photos of me wearing it because we are just not "photo-taking types". I have detailed every item, provided every scrap of evidence I can (e.g. old passports proving that I was abroad on certain dates when I bought a couple of the items), but I just can't prove that some things ever existed.

It is a very eclectic collection of stuff, and the overall claim really isn't going to be huge - possibly £2k, including repairs, etc. I don't really know yet.

Falsifying/exaggerating - never! If anything I am apparently under-claiming, at least according the police. They pointed out several things that I should consider claiming for that had never occurred to me.

What sort of questions will this assessor ask, given that there is full police involvment? We still can't explain one bit of damage to the house, for example? ...

chanz4

They are just the norm to catch out those that false claim, you will be fine

themull1

its also to assess whether you are under insured. Examplt If you're paying a twenty grand policy, but the stuff in your house adds up to forty grand, you'll get less for the things that were pinched than if someone had a forty grand policy for forty grands worth of stuff.

vikinggreen

Thank you both! That is quite reassuring, so I will just try to stay calm and be myself.

vikinggreen

Another quick question please.

I know that generally insurance companies these days like to actually replace items rather than make a payout. That would be fine if the stolen goods had been things like XBoxes, computers, etc, but it was all cash and jewellery.

Obviously the jewellery had not only monetary value but also sentimental value, and it can't be "replaced" in the same way as electrical items. Some of it was also bought abroad (as I mentioned above) and isn't available in this country, and I can hardly jump on a plane to replace it!

What are they likely to want to do by way of making good the loss of items like this?

Sally_A

I'm an insurance broker, and after we were burgled, had a visit by a loss adjuster, there is no way I'd have inflated anything as my job would be on the line, but we were in a similar situation, cash and non receipted jewellery. I looked on line for similar jewellery and had the figures to hand, I think it was only about £600, they settled cash in lieu at around £450 - suited me fine, the stolen cash was paid up without any issue (£200ish), the other items that went were laptops, games stations which they just paid up for. Damage to the front door was settled without a quibble - in fact we probably got a better door out of it security wise, if not monetary wise.

Thank the heavens I'm a messy cow, and the jewellery that I'd taken off at home, before playing netball had been buried by a tea towel in the kitchen. This was everyday stuff bought by my parents (deceased), and my late Grans ring, these would have been irreplaceable.

The loss adjuster then advised me to up my contents sum insured, thinking I was about 25% underinsured, but he did not apply average to the claim. He also paced out the house, stating the sum insured onthe Buildings should be increased too (I was a bit annoyed at that, as I would have argued that I'd taken the rebuild cost at time of purchase and allowed index linking to increase the sum insured, as per the ABI guidelines).

Anyhow, it was all dealt with on a very civil and acceptable basis. I was insured with Ecclesiastical at the time, and they were fantastic.

In fact i spent the last part of his visit, giving him the low down on the fineries of the policy wording for this next visit - (a garage with contaminated fuel, where the broker had not added products liability).

So, be up front, honest, realistic.

vikinggreen

Thank you Sally - a very helpful reply. I'm now printing out pictures of as many similar items as I can find from websites to show the assessor, and that seems a bit more concrete than just my descriptions.

I don't think we are under-insured, so hopefully that won't be an issue.

Arthurian

I once claimed for a ring, the loss adjuster came out, seemed to do absolutely nothing except have a glass of orange squash, and then we were told to go and choose a new ring from a jeweller that the insurance company had a deal with. We chose a ring whose RRP was the same as the value of the lost ring, and presumably the insurance company paid the jeweller considerably less than the RRP.

meer53

I've been burgled too. The jewellery stolen came to about 2k but luckily i had receipts for most of it so i had no problems at all. I was sent a card loaded with 2k to spend at certain jewellers. Not ideal as some of it was bought in the US but nothing they can do about that really.

What i did was to buy one item, a diamond ring, which i wear every day. It can't replace the sentimental items i lost but when i look at it, it reminds me of the items i used to have.

Things like laptops, cameras, phones, xboxes etc were all replaced like for like and i received a full payout for my 3 week old car which was taken too. Luckily my Rolex watch was missed by the burglars, it was on the kitchen windowsill ! The police gave me a real telling off about leaving it there ! I spotted it whilst the scene of crime officer was taking photos and fingerprints !

I found the insurance assessor really helpful, i think they have an idea when things aren't quite as they seem (if you know what i mean !) I don't think you'll have a problem.