Norwich Union .... Home insurance Problems

therealtim21

Hi,

About five months ago my girlfriend's family home was broken into and all hers and her mums jewellry was stolen. Their home insurance policy is with Norwich union, who requested that a list be drawn up of all the jewellry that was taken, this was done and ever since Norwich union seem pre-occupied with the fact there are "alot of items".

It has taken five months of ringing NU every week for them to finally make an offer. Even tho the loss adjusters calculated the jewellry to be worth around £16,000 they are only willing to offer £6,000 as after five months they have finally decided My girlfriends mum was under-insured. This seems a little unsatisfactory to me as their insurance policy was tailored to suit every item in the household, at no point was her mum informed that she would need to or could possibly put the jewellry on an additional policy.

I was wondering whether or not anyone has had any experiences or knowledge related to this issue, any advise would be gratefully received.

Many Thanks

mattymoo

Quite often policies are sold with what is called an inner limit for valuables. For example, if you have £30k contents the inner limit might be 33% of overall value in respect of valuables.

Valuables will be defined in the policy booklet as TV's, computers, furs, jewelery, cameras, etc etc - varies from one firm to another.

In my example above, you have £10k cover for these valuables. If they felt the valuables in your house where worth £20k (the adjuster will have estimated this during his visit) then you are underinsured by 50% and the claim will be reduced by the same amount. £16k claim reduced down to £8k.

The figures differ slightly in your case but that is how the insurers have worked it out.

therealtim21

Thank you for your response, I understand where you are coming from, however, the loss adjuster didn't survey any of the possessions in the house. He came, stayed in one room, asked a couple of questions and left ?

mattymoo

Check the policy documents for their official complaints procedure and then look at going down that route.
At this stage, you need to ask them to justify how they have arrived at this view and the figures they are using. Try to get something in writing to avoid confusion over the phone.

dunstonh

jewellry is a high risk item/valuable.

NU state on their bedroom rated household policy that:

Valuables are included in our standard cover up to the value of £6000 The single article limit for valuables is £1500; any single item over this value needs to be specified.

So, if the insurance held was the standard bedroom policy (which most internet/direct plans are nowadays) then it appears that NU are correct in issuing £6k. Indeed, they could technically reduce it further if they wanted to due to being underinsured.