Laptop claim

Siam17

I fell asleep in bed while watching a programme on my laptop and woke up in the morning to find it closed and upside down on the floor. The screen is cracked in several places and the touch screen no longer works. I'm wondering if I submit a claim stating what has happened if the insurers will say that I was careless having the laptop on in bed and decline on that basis? Does anyone know if this might be the case?

[Deleted User]

What does your insurance state about negligence?

marlot

Do you have accidental damage cover?

Siam17

Unfortunately my husband had a major paperwork clearout recently and he must have thrown out the policy booklet. I've been looking online to see if I can download a booklet but have been unsuccessful I've been able to download a summary but it doesn't go into enough detail to find out about negligence.

My policy summary says i have full accidental cover

Blibble

If you have full accidental cover, then it'd be a very stingy insurer to turn this incident down under a negligence clause.

Remember to ensure that you are 100% you wish to claim before notifying the insurer, as if you're not it may still affect your future premiums should you withdraw the claim. Remember to also weigh up the value of the laptop to repair / replace like-for-like in today's market against your excess + the knock-on effect of premium increases before claiming.

Dynamic_Panda

If you have full accidental damage cover on your policy then you should be covered...........my daughter fell on the stairs with her laptop and broke it and it was replaced...............

Siam17

It was really the fact that I had my laptop in bed might be seen as being careless and made me think any claim might be rejected

Aretnap

An insurer cannot reject a claim for accidental damage just because you were a bit careless. The vast majority of accidents are the result of carelessness - or at least they could have been prevented with more care and a bit of foresight.

Most policies do have a catch-all clause which says something like "you must take reasonable care of your posessions at all times", but the courts and the ombudsman quite rightly don't like insurers using such vaguely worded clauses to refuse customers claims, so the level of stupidity required to activate them is very high. Essentially the insurer would have to prove that you knew (or must have known) that what you were doing was unreasonably dangerous, and that you went ahead and did it in spite of being aware of the risks. That might apply if, say, you'd tossed the laptop down a flight of stairs for a friend to catch rather than walk up and down stairs (and he failed to catch it), but it's hard to see it applying to watching TV in bed and falling asleep during a (presumably) not very interesting programme.

FutureGirl

Make sure you do want to claim first, as the insurer will first look to repair the laptop in the first instance.

FutureGirl

lumani12 wrote: »

So I broke my wife's laptop which is a Sony Vaio VPCY115FG ... I have put in an insurance claim with State (IAG) and sent it off for assessment.

They send it off for assessment to see if it's repairable or not. If it's repairable they'll repair it or give you the repair cost minus your excess if you want the money instead. If it's' not repairable they'll replace it with an equivalent laptop. (depending on if the model you have is still available etc).

rs65

Siam17 wrote: »

It was really the fact that I had my laptop in bed might be seen as being careless and made me think any claim might be rejected

Nothing to worry about.

It might be worth checking out a local repairer first.