Can I claim for time spent on managing an insurance claim?

diegosjf

I've spent 9 months dealing with a buildings insurance claim after a serious escape of water. Although we were assigned a project managing adjuster because of the size of the claim, he handed a lot of responsibility for admin over to me. This included finding suitable alternative accommodation, getting 3 quotes for everything, dealing direct with the insurance contractors and effectively project managing the whole thing. Just looking at my email and phone records this is running into hundreds of hours over 9 months; time I could've been using for something else (like my job!!). I've asked if there is any provision for claiming back admin time - of course he says there isn't but also admits it is not specifically excluded from my policy. Is there any precedent out there for being compensated for a claimant's time spent administering a claim? Case law? Or have I been totally scammed by my insurance company by effectively providing free labour?
TIA

Ebe_Scrooge

You could certainly give it a try - it's one of those rare cases where a "compensation claim" may actually be justified.

However, you're going to need to be able to provide hard evidence of your losses. Firstly, proof of the time you've spent doing the admin. Secondly, any actual loss of income - if this means you had to take time off work, then you need to prove you took the time off in order to deal with the admin, also you will need proof of the hourly rate that your salary equates to. It won't be easy to obtain proof that's would stand up in court, so to speak, but if you think you can get it then it may be worth a go.

You've spent "hundreds of hours" doing the admin - really ? That's a heck of a lot of hours, are you sure you're going to be able to provide concrete proof of this ?

Chickenlips

This is a difficult one. Under contract law, you cannot seek costs for your time after the event. Generally, you have to propose something at the start. Your adjuster could have given you more advice or agreed to do more for you, but it hard to claim something back after the event. The other difficulty you may face is proving that this was a burden to you-m - especially if you made no noise about the process during the claim and appeared happy to have full control over your claim.

If anyone reading this is at the start of a claim and don't want to do the leg work themselves, I'd suggest getting an assessor. Whilst assessors can delay a claim whilst arguing costs, they can present your claim for you and save you time.

The difficulty with claims is that the policyholder will need to be involved to some extent. Would any of us be happy with a third party telling us where to live for nine months, selecting any old contractor, and picking how our home is put back together? Probably not.

I have had some policyholders demand I do everything for them. Whilst it isn't my job to present their claim for them, I have done everything for them if they ask... but I make it very clear that if they are to reject any offer I make after hours of putting it together, I expect them to put the same level of detail in to their counter argument. I believe in offering fair and reasonable settlement offers so go in at a single fair price, it obviously smarts if someone decides to argue the costs without doing any work to figure out what they should be. Losses are capped at what you lost, they aren't a bartering match to try and make a bit of cash. Sorry.... rant over.

As the other person has said, you will need to provide quite a lot of evidence to support your request for payment.i think you would be hard pushed to add the time taken to collate the proof of time spent dealing with the claim to your claim for admin time. So take that in to account.

I have generally found that my policyholders don't spend hundreds of hours dealing with their claims, nor have I spent hundreds of hours dealing with £250k claims where I've done all of the work and multiple site visits. On those one there can be upto a thousand contents items alone to price and we charge hourly... it still doesn't reach hundreds of hours. I have found that retired policyholders spend more time on their claim than most, taking it on themselves to check every little thing and try to argue things that clearly aren't covered under the policy. I normally find it is due to the fact that they have the time and I look a little younger than I am so some like to question everything.

Barny1979

diegosjf wrote: »

Just looking at my email and phone records this is running into hundreds of hours over 9 months; time I could've been using for something else (like my job!!).

I hope you aren't salaried and are self-employed

diegosjf

Thanks for the responses. Given I do a project management role professionally, I probably took on more responsibility for this claim than most would've. In terms of time spent we are certainly over 100 hours (3h a week for 9 months? I could 100% demonstrate that) but between 100 to 200h is probably more accurate. I've now had agreement from the insurance company that they will compensate me for some of my time e.g. when they asked me to do specific things that their staff or contractors would otherwise have had to do; stuff over and above what would normally be expected of a claimant. I'm happy with that. Hope this thread helps someone else out in future!