Wedding Insurance - Covid19

hannahauty

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could offer any help or guidance on the below. 
We took out wedding insurance back in 2018, when we first booked our wedding. 

Our wedding was due to take place in June 2020, but the venue contacted us at the back end of March to inform us that the venue was closing until July due to concerns around Covid-19. 

My wedding insurance policy, that we’ve had since 2018 states that the insurer will pay out for venue costs and supplier costs should we have to cancel or rearrange due to ‘an outbreak of infectious or contagious disease’.

As we have had to rearrange our entire wedding, I’ve submitted a claim form to claim back deposits lost and additional costs incurred. The insurer is now saying the below...

“We will not pay for the following in connection with claims made under this section: 4) Any claim arising directly or indirectly from:

b) government regulation or act

And, under General Exclusions Applicable to all Sections of your policy:

The Insurance does not cover:

14) losses arising from prohibitive regulations by the government of any country. 

 The Corona Virus Act 2020 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that grants the government emergency powers to handle the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The Act allows the government the discretionary power to limit or suspend public gatherings, including Weddings. Therefore, if your claim is for cancellation or rearrangement of your wedding, then the above exclusions apply and we cannot accept your claim under this policy.”

Where do I stand with this? 

Thanks in advance.

Hannah 

Looch26

Hi there. I’m in exactly the same situation. Was due to get married in June too. I was just in the process of getting all my evidence together for my claim and then I’ve noticed they’ve updated their website to say they’re now not covering us. 

Rabbitcatcher

My venue actually cancelled before government order - though insurance not paying out anyway.. that’s going to ombudsman. I believe if venue said your event wasn’t happening after 23 March government announcement, insurance will run a mile and you’ll need to start negotiating with the venue. That’s a whole different story!

hannahauty

Our Venue announced they were closing until 20th June on 22nd March. However, many people are saying this doesn’t matter. If the insurance company have decided they are not paying out for covid19 related issues then my only hope is taking it to the financial ombudsman. 

Another stress on top of the stress and heartache of the wedding being cancelled. 

I think it’s terrible what’s happening with insurance companies! I’ll never be taking insurance out again! 

Rabbitcatcher

Ok so I agree with you and think you can argue it would be covered under ‘postponement’ part of agreement. Government action was on 23/3, and so it’s not a difficult argument to state that the postponement itself did not arise FROM government order or action and so that exclusion should not apply. The Corona Virus act only passed into law on 26/3 and was only confirmed to the public on 23/3. 

This story is being repeated over and over. 

Once the insurers reject you again and you’ve exhausted that internal process - get in the ombudsman queue - as, even before covid the waiting list was 9 months. Good luck and hope it pans out ok in the end!