Home Insurance Rejected Burglary Claim

djc2015

Hi,

Approx 6 years ago my house got burgaled and my whole house got stolen. I went for a claim and they came out investigated taken evidence etc.. even found out who done it.... But did not pay out as I did not disclose I had a criminal conviction. Which at the time was spent.

I buried my head in the sand and accepted it. 6 Years on I got speaking to somebody about it and they think I may have a chance of reclaiming it as the conviction was spent and did not have to declare it if so.

Home insurance company was Birmingham Midshires.

Thanks

FutureGirl

It might be bit too late to complain now. Did you complain at the time?

Do you know each item you want to claim for, and have evidence to support you owned them? The insurers will usually ask for this when making a claim.

Was the conviction definitely spent at the time? As the rules changed in 2014/2015 about when a conviction is spent, so just making sure you aren't looking at the newer timeframes.

TSx

The six years is really important here...

this is the ombudsman guidelines around how long you have to make a complaint

If you complained at the time and received a final decision then unfortunately, there is little that you will be able to do now.

If you didn't complain, then providing this happened less than six years ago, you should still be able to make a complaint. You will need to give the insurer time to investigate the complaint and if you're still unhappy then you can take it to the ombudsman.

If this happened (and 'this' would be the point where they declined your claim) more than 6 years ago then unfortunately you have no recourse via either the ombudsman or the courts.

Aretnap

FutureGirl wrote: »

Was the conviction definitely spent at the time? As the rules changed in 2014/2015 about when a conviction is spent, so just making sure you aren't looking at the newer timeframes.

Also importany to check that the conviction was spent at the time you took out the policy. If it wasn't then they'd be within their rights to reject the claim, even if it had become spent by the time the burglary actually occurred or by the time you made the claim.

djc2015

Many thanks for replys.
I did complain at the time and had letters sent from their underwriters with no avail. Conviction was spent at the time. Burglary was in 2010 conviction was 2008.
No worrys will just leave it. I havent forgot about it 6years down the line as it makes me physically sick some of the scum bags out there.
They had the cheek when i was out to put some ladders against the front of house climb in open the back window, and completly empty and trashed house. Loaded all of my stuff in my own van which was later discovered 300miles away.

dauphin

A 2008 conviction could not have become spent by 2010 unless the Court gave you an absolute discharge. Even just a fine would mean that the conviction would not have been spent for 5 years. So it does look as though your conviction would have been disclosable.

Aretnap

Indeed, most convictions take (or at least, used to take) much longer than two years to become spent. The length of time depends on the sentence you got and you can see then here



(as this happened before the recent changes it's the "current period" that would have mattered, not the "new period").

It sounds like you should have disclosed the conviction at the time, I'm afraid