Underinsured question - AA contents and Cunningham Lyndsey Loss Adjusters

Ajp1967

Hi All,
We recently had a house fire which destroyed a spare bedroom/dressing room and affected most of the house with smoke. Our contents and building insurance was arranged through AA though sites with two different insurance companies. The contents side sent Cunningham Lyndsey loss adjusters to us to asses the claim last week. The adjusters attitude was poor from the start and he seemed to want to get going asap and only spent 20 minutes in the house. When asking me some questions he said he thought we were under insured and pressed me on how much i thought it should be. I had no idea and said he was ther expert. He estimated 60-75k was more realistic than the 40k we have. At this point I wasn't aware of the whole under insured issue but I suspected something was up as he focussed on that more than anything else.
So yesterday I received an email form CL saying that I had agreed I was under insured to the tune of 39% and that this would impact any claim agreed. They said that they didn't think I had done this deliberately (!!!!) and it was a genuine error.
Having read up on it now it seems to be commonplace this happening. I looked back at our insurance cover and checked the AAs website which interestingly only lets you get a quote for up to 30k of contents cover. We like in 3-4 bedroom terrace house with a value around 250k. Having done some veryy basic sums I came up with 40-45k contents value.
I feel like I am being scammed here to be honest and the Loss Adjuster left me no paperwork or evidence of how he calculated his figure.
Any advice ?
A

paddyandstumpy

How can you live in a 3-4 bed house? Which is it?
I'm sure you'd sell it as a 4 bed, did you insure it as a 4 bed?

When I used to underwrite for a one of the insurers that was on the AA's panel (the AA are just a Broker, not the insurer), the contents options were £40k, £50k or £75k.
I doubt they would have gone from this to just offering £30k, and suspect it's still selectable (I haven't checked, but logically they wouldn't take this backward step).

We used to have our own algorithm to "suggest" a contents value, based on property type and number of bedrooms. Ultimately it's up to you, as the customer, to ensure you're adequately insured. No one knows what is in your home apart from you.

If you are underinsured it means they may (at their option) choose to apply average to your claim. If they say you are underinsured by 39% they will reduce the payout by this amount.

If you want to challenge it you will need to ask the insurer how the loss adjuster came to that calculation, and you will need to itemise everything in your house and replacement value it.

Remember, it's the cost to replace everything as new, not the second hand value.

Quentin

If you didn't agree you were underinsured as they say in their email then you must challenge this as a lie. Complain, and if unhappy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

And see if you are underinsured by doing a room by room inventory and costing at current replacement cost.

tempus_fugit

Used to "love" it when I was a loss adjuster when you asked people about their claims and insurance and they would say "No idea, you tell me, you're the expert" and then when you applied your expertise they wouldn't like it. Wonderful job that was.

FutureGirl

It is your responsibility to ensure you are adequately insured. It is not the loss adjusters or insurers job to calculate the replacement cost of your contents to ensure that you're adequately insured..

You asked for his opinion, and he gave it.

Usually and insurer will send you a form to fill in, where you'd need to estimate the replacement cost of all of your contents in each room - this is how you then get that figure. This is what you should probably do.

If AA only offer £30K of contents cover, this doesn't mean it's a scam, or that they are to blame. In fact, their website states "varying levels of cover starting at £x".

The insurers will therefore deduct the % you're underinsured from your claim.

I live in a 1 bed flat, and the cost to replace my contents will be around the £30k mark.

Ajp1967

Thanks for the advice Quentin.

I seem to have interrupted a Loss Adjusters convention ! It is insured as 4 bed house though only 3 are used as bedrooms. To be clear the loss adjuster has challenged our estimate of 40k contents insurance. He said we were underinsured so I fail to see why I should just accept or "like" his valuation which was done without any discussion with me and in a remarkably fast time. A 4 bed house inventory/assessment in 15 minutes ? If he believes this then the onus is on him to say by how much surely ?

And I can assure you that when you go through the AA website to get a quote on Home and Contents insurance the upper limit is 30K. We tried it again last night and i have a screenshot. I appreciate that elsewhere there will be caveats a plenty.

rs65

Ajp1967 wrote: »

He said we were underinsured so I fail to see why I should just accept or "like" his valuation which was done without any discussion with me and in a remarkably fast time.

You don't have to accept it.

Prove him wrong.

rs65

Ajp1967 wrote: »

And I can assure you that when you go through the AA website to get a quote on Home and Contents insurance the upper limit is 30K. We tried it again last night and i have a screenshot. I appreciate that elsewhere there will be caveats a plenty.

It looks like personal belongings has a limit of £30k, not contents.

Blibble

You're welcome to ask the loss adjuster how the figure's been arrived at, however it would be best if you calculated the new replacement value of your contents to see for yourself.

The loss adjuster has likely made such a swift assessment by having a quick calculation based on the size of the property. I for one would be surprised if you only had 30k of contents in a 3-4 bed house (as you term it). And if your calculations confirm it's greater than 30k, this would go down as your error, not your insurer's - only you could make the decision whether the insurance product was for you.

tempus_fugit

I agree with all the comments above. The loss adjuster will do a quick and dirty estimate of the value of the contents and although he will have the expertise to have a fair idea that the actual value would be above the sum insured on the policy, he can't know everything that you have, whereas you do. So you just need to sit down for a bit, try and do an inventory of your contents and work out the replacement cost. Remember to account for as much as possible as even the lower value items can add up and add a fair bit to the total. Then, if it's way out from what the loss adjuster said, contact them and give them your calculations and they should give it their attention, or complain directly to your insurance company. It does seem strange that he said you had agreed with the figure when you hadn't and I would definitely complain about that.