Freezer contents loss

Enigmaman

My Hotpoint fridge freezer - an appalling purchase that goes wrong all the time - recently defrosted itself temporarily, with the result that I had to throw away around £40 worth of food.

I have an extended warranty with Domestic and General but they say that freezer contents loss is an exclusion.

My only option seems to be my Home Insurance Policy, but after a £25 excess it does not seem worth it because presumably it will cost me ore in the long run by affecting my claims record.

Does anyone with experience of this situation/knowledge of the insurance industry know how such a small claim might impact on future renewal quotes?

More importantly, do I have any leverage with Hotpoint or Domestic and General?

InsideInsurance

How old is the freezer?

You wont have any claim on a warranty/ service plan if it explicitly excludes consequential loss which I would expect it would. You MAY have a claim against the retailer under the SOGA depending on its age etc.

As to impact on home insurance - do two dummy quotes using similar data to yours but not identical. First without the claim and how ever many years claim free you are and the second with the claim and 0 years claim free.

A quick check on some fairly typical data for contents only the premium of the top 3 insurers changes from £95/year to £164/year. The impact will be for 3-5 years but will reduce each year.

Enigmaman

Thanks - great suggestions. It's just under three years old so presumably it is far too late for any claim against the retailer?

redmalc

I had a freezer issue last summer with Direct Line,briefly the cover was for contents of £400,I called them to advise our contents is a lot more than that and they asked me to give them an average cost so we emptied the freezer and I was shocked £800.
They increased the premium to accommodate the level advised and after returning from holiday we entered the utility room to maggots every were,the freezer had packed up.
I photographed everything and priced it up,£920 was the claim,as expected they started challenging the cost,after a few letters I produced the photographs and they conceded and paid up

bbk87

redmalc wrote: »

I had a freezer issue last summer with Direct Line,briefly the cover was for contents of £400,I called them to advise our contents is a lot more than that and they asked me to give them an average cost so we emptied the freezer and I was shocked £800.
They increased the premium to accommodate the level advised and after returning from holiday we entered the utility room to maggots every were,the freezer had packed up.
I photographed everything and priced it up,£920 was the claim,as expected they started challenging the cost,after a few letters I produced the photographs and they conceded and paid up

That is because when you make a claim on your home insurance, you need to provide the evidence to support your claim. If you just send in a list of items that were damaged, that isn't enough evidence. If you had sent the photos in earlier on in the claim they would not have 'challenged it' as you say.

dacouch

bbk87 wrote: »

That is because when you make a claim on your home insurance, you need to provide the evidence to support your claim. If you just send in a list of items that were damaged, that isn't enough evidence. If you had sent the photos in earlier on in the claim they would not have 'challenged it' as you say.

Freezer claims are not so common now days due to the potential increase in your premium.

I remember back in the day customers had a tendency to exaggerate the amount and value of the contents of their freezers when claiming. They had a habit of being full of recently purchased sirloin etc.

A few Insurers started going out and buying all of the items claimed and then looking up the cubic space of the customers freezer. They would then see if the items would all fit in to the space.

It rarely fitted in

InsideInsurance

Enigmaman wrote: »

Thanks - great suggestions. It's just under three years old so presumably it is far too late for any claim against the retailer?

SOGA gives a maximum of 6 years but after the first 6 months its up to you to prove it was inherently faulty and not either (a) fair wear and tear or (b) miss use

Enigmaman

I may have a case then, as the service engineer said a computer circuit board-type affair had blown that apparently controls the temperature of freezer and fridge (which had the opposite problem of icing up) and he changed it.