What constitutes carelessness on Home Insurance?

mrbluejay

Hi All,

As the header says, what constitutes carelessness on Home Insurance policies, with particular regard to losing contents when away from your home?

If it were an item that you only used away from home, but lost it, surely unless it is stolen the insurer could use the carelessness clause for anything - In which case is this cover worth having?

Aretnap

Depends on what the policy says.

Often there will be a general clause about taking reasonable care of your possessions - quite a vague clause. The Financial Ombudsman doesn't like insurers using vague clauses to avoid paying claims, so the bar for activating this type of clause is set quite high. IIRC the insurer has to prove that you were reckless, ie that you knew, or must have known, that what you were doing was dangerous, but that you went ahead and did it in spite of the obvious risks. So they might be able to refuse a claim if you threw your expensive camera to a friend on the other side of a busy road - but simply dropping your camera would not mean that your claim was rejected due to a lack of care.

There may also be more specific clauses, for example saying that they won't pay if the item is stolen while left unattended in a public place, or stolen from a car if not in a locked boot. These clauses should be specifically worded so that it's clear what they do and don't cover.

FutureGirl

I don't believe there is a carelessness clause for the majority of home insurers.

mrbluejay

Being careless is definitely mentioned in some context within the policy, I will check.

But if you left something in a taxi, would that be covered?

rs65

mrbluejay wrote: »

But if you left something in a taxi, would that be covered?

I would say that this is accidental loss. You haven't been reckless.

dacouch

rs65 wrote: »

I would say that this is accidental loss. You haven't been reckless.

Ah an i Phone...

As RS mentioned the key word is "Reckless".