Private school fees refund insurance

colinmacey

Has anyone had any luck getting a position from Marsh fees refund scheme?
I have contacted the school, who have told me that Marsh are using the exclusion clause that we are keeping our daughter from school because of fear of infection, which is not true. If there is no specific inclusion of this situation in the policy, but no exclusion either, what’s the legal position of the insurer?
Many thanks.

paddyandstumpy

Without reading the policy wording, it's hard to say. 

Some policies (generalising, I've not come across school fees insurance) cover specified perils, like home insurance will cover fire, flood etc; other policies cover all risk any situation as long as it's not excluded. 

You will need to read the policy document and determine if your policy is the former or the latter. 

If the former, is there an inclusion for this scenario?
If the latter, if there is no exclusion, it should be covered. 

prjwhite

Hi Colin,
We've just received the attached - where Marsh/Eccliesiatical argue that "Cover is limited to closure caused by an actual outbreak of an infectious disease amongst Pupils or staff."  That said they also say "Provided that the infectious disease affects Pupils and/or staff, and in turn that leads to a necessary Closure, the “outbreak” of the disease does not have to be on School premises."
In the absence of large scale testing - nobody is able to prove whether specific pupils or staff were actually infected - but Corona Virus has clearly affected pupils and staff and lead to a necessary closure..
The policy wording (also attached) talks about claims be excluded if absence is as a result of inoculations or similar preventative treatments, unless such treatment is insisted upon by the Insured School as a result of an epidemic in the vicinity of the Insured School or the Pupil’s residence or outbreak of an infectious disease.
I'd argue that social distancing is preventative.
Have you made any further progress ?  I think it is worth a fight.  You ?
Best regards,
 

daveyjp

Its a similar situation to businesses with Hiscox insurance.  Hiscox are arguing every way they can to try and show businesses closure due to this virus isn't covered, despite it not being excluded.

I suspect they are playing the 'we aren't paying, what are you going to do about it?' game, knowing any decision on who is right will take months if not years to sort.

Keep plugging away with Marsh.

Jeremy535897

I wish you good luck with your claim. I have three questions.

Is the school actually closed or are there any children still attending?

Are the school still charging full fees and are they offering any services like remote learning? 

Does your contact with the school say anything about circumstances where you cannot send your child to the school due to government legislation?

jfinnie

Good luck with it, it looks like a real slog; some of the exclusions look exactly like the present situation.  I won't make the arguments here as don't want to risk making it worse for you.  The argument they present actually seems like the weakest of the lot.

If the school are I guess able to furlough some significant portion of their staff (assuming they're not all working doing remote classrooms) you'd hope the school would at least be able to pass on some of those potentially significant cost savings to the parents.  If not you'd expect them to be doing what is reasonable to provide extensive remote schooling in exchange for their fees.

I have a family member who is a music teacher at a private school and who is still working remotely throughout and not furloughed.