Can I change insurers prior to a claim being settled?

Sebbie87

Hello, I am presently insured with Direct Line for my home insurance. I am in the middle of trying to settle a claim with them for my walls and gates which an insured driver ran into! Eight weeks on and I am starting to lose the will to live (but that's another story)! My insurance is due for renewal in June, can I switch insurers and still carry on pursuing my claim with Direct Line? At the end of the day, their recovery people should be able to claim back the costs from his insurance. I would appreciate any guidance anyone can give me on this. Thank you

Quentin

Yes, your ongoing claim won't stop you switching at renewal.

(Is it too late to cancel your claim and pursue the third party insurer yourself, assuming liability is not in dispute?)

InsideInsurance

Yes you can switch insurers however be aware that some insurers wont want to take on someone with an ongoing claim.

The other issue will be that until settlement has been received from the Third Party Insurer you will have to have it as a "fault" claim and inform them that it has become "non-fault" after it has been settled. That said, the concepts of fault and such are not as strong within Home insurance because of the fact that over 95% of claims are "fault" (in fact in all the insurers I've worked on it has been Motor Recoveries teams that have actually done the recovery work on behalf of Home Claims because there isnt enough volume to bother training Home Claims Handlers on how to do it etc)

Sebbie87

Thank you for your reply. Yes it probably is too late to cancel the claim and do it myself. They did give me this option when I reported the accident, but I didn't want to have the hassle of doing it myself, surely that is one of the reasons for having an insurance claims department, so that they can do this time consuming chasing around for you? I might as well get my money's worth out of them!