Legal Cover with Home Insurance

SDP79

Some information for those taking out this type of extra cover with their home policies.
We took out the extra cover believing that we had a good war chest for legal claims which would include consumer issues. We have a problem with some double glazing and believed that the company should cover the problem under their warranty - surprisingly enough they refused!

We resorted to our home insurance legal policy for support and advice and were told that we did have cover - however when questioned about the details we were told that as the contract for this installation was in-excess of £5000 then we could not make use of our legal assistance in this matter even though the claim was only with part of the installation and we were not trying to claim back anywhere near the total amount of the installation cost.

So lesson learnt. If you have such cover and maybe have an extension, conservatory, new roof, or in our case double glazing you will not have the benefit of any legal support if the total contract price was more that £5000. As most similar items that are built on or added to improve a property are more than £5000 you effectively have no legal cover! So if possible separate the jobs up in to smaller contracts of less that £5000 to ensure you have protection.

Just another way that Insurance companies use small print and weaselly words to get of of giving a service. I will name the provider if anyone wishes. Good luck.

Quentin

SDP79 wrote: »

Some information for those taking out this type of extra cover with their home policies......
We resorted to our home insurance legal policy for support and advice and were told that we did have cover - however when questioned about the details we were told that as the contract for this installation was in-excess of £5000 then we could not make use of our legal assistance in this matter .....
So lesson learnt......

Isn't the lesson here that before you buy insurance make sure you read the cover on offer first before you buy!

SDP79

Thank you Quentin for that stunningly obvious reply. The aim of my post was to raise the awareness of others who, like me, did not know the limitations of these policies. The point I am making is that any building improvements that you are likely to make will cost more than £5k and hence this type of cover is extremely limited for property issues and practically worthless in this area.

OnanTheBarbarian

Nothing surprising here

Legal protection policies are generally there to fail people as it avoids the insurer behind the policy ever having to pay out legal fees to the panel lawyers they either own or refer cases to. A lot of the time people calling the legal advice lines are dealt with by burger flippers with headsets following flow diagrams on what to say etc.

bellypan42

HI, slightly different question - I have separate Contents and Building insurance - is it worth paying 2 lots of Legal protection or would one cover all potential issues?