More Than: Do I have Grounds for Complaint

Ruby_Soho

Hello,

I have been thinking about contacting MORE THAN about the service i received during a home insurance claim. I've come to MSE because i've been through complaints proceedures with different companys over different things and i usually end up wasting my time. I'll give you a quick run down and could you tell me whether you think i'll get anywhere with it or should i just not bother.

Bought Home Insurance with morethan in mid January.

2nd Feb we had a really bad storm and three quarters of my newly built boundary (half existing brick wall with new fence panels and half new concrete posts and slot fence panels) and large wrought iron gate came down. Brick walls, pillars and concrete panels and all, snapped and scattered across road.

I rang the claims line straight away to report it, they said an assessor would be in touch.

Meanwhile, my house was unsecured, we had managed to bodge together the remaining quarter of fence and prop up some old farm gates to keep the dogs in but if somebody wanted to get in and take the dogs/cars/stuff in sheds, there was nothing stopping them.

Two frought weeks later an assessor came out. Quotes obtained within the week and sent back.

Great, it was getting sorted.

After that, apart from a few irrate phone calls from me to More Than, in which i was told 'someone will ring you back by the end of the next working day' we heard nothing.

TWO MONTHS LATER i called again, we'd had another bad storm and this one had now brought down the remainder of the fence and the improvised fence we had put up and dented my car in the process. I officailly raised a complaint at this time (no ones mentioned this since).

Finally, the assessor emailed me saying she'd checked my past insurance policy and 'google streetviewed' the property and then finally made a settlement offer which i just accepted, paid in and instructed the builders before any other damage was done.

Is this time scale of over three months acceptable in this kind of claim? And why did it take her three months to check google earth and my old insurance provider?

Is it worth the time complaining?

Thanks for reading,

Ruby

InsideInsurance

Are they covering the additional damage under the one claim or is their settlement just for the first set of damages?

Three months is a relatively long time to make a decision on a claim but if you've had bad storms in the area it could well be that there are plenty of others having similar claims meaning that both the assessor and any fencing companies they may refer to are exceptionally busy which can delay things.

The fact you had a claim so close to the inception of the policy may well have triggered counter fraud checks, hence discussions with your previous insurers which may have only been possible by letter depending on the two insurers, and these almost always add delay.

Ultimately you can complain but you need to be clear about what resolution you want from them. You may get a small token inconvenience payment if you threaten to engage the FOS if you dont get the response you want.

I would reword matters however, it is your property that wasnt secure due to the missing boundary fencing not your house.

Ruby_Soho

Thats really helpful, thank you. I will write to them I think and see what they say.

I did report the secondary damage but no, it wasn't included in the settlement. It should all be logged though.

rs65

It looks like Morethan cover storm damage, other than damage to fences hedges and gates (fairly standard).

If I was you, I would keep quiet.

Ruby_Soho

We were told quite early on that they don't cover fences and gates but they do cover walls, we only got paid out for the wall to be fixed, we had to foot the bill for the rest.

rs65

That's good.

Its up to you whether to complain or not.