Holiday insurance cover for pre-March booking. Can the insurer refuse to pay?

rosie_greengage

I booked a week away for the end of March through HomeAway.com, I was already insured by MultiTrip.com  (the trading name for Blue Insurance).
I cancelled my trip when the UK government announced that no travel would be possible due to COVID-19.  The policy wording did not exclude cancellation due to pandemics or COVID-19 specifically at the time - I have a copy downloaded.  The policy wording online now does exclude COVID-19 but I believe that's irrelevant to my claim. 
The airline refunded my ticket automatically, so I'm only claiming for the cost of the property rental.
The communications I have received from "enquiries@travelclaimservices.com" advise the following "Be aware that in the initial first stages of claims of this type. We are advising all our customers to claim the costs of their lost bookings through the travel agents/airlines/resorts they booked with. If these companies state they will not refund any costs, you would need to get them to provide evidence of this in writing (simply providing the terms and conditions of the company website would be insufficient for this)"
My question is: can they actually refuse to pay?  HomeAway.com are advising their property owners to provide at least a partial refund if a credit is unacceptable, so I know they won't provide written evidence.
It seems ridiculous that the property owner should have to refund the cost of accommodation when the cancellation was not in his control or mine, and I have insurance against cancellation.
As a side note I'd like to state to people that I would be unlikely to use this insurer again.  I know that this is a difficult time for all but to date their response has been atrocious.  The insurer website originally insisted that I submit all claims by post.  I sent an email to them asking if it was possible to submit online due to COVID-19 but received no response for a couple of weeks so submitted by post (mid-March).  After a month (mid-April) they responded to my email to say they were only accepting email submissions, so I sent an email submission.  In mid-May they emailed that they were unable to find my policy record so could I email them a copy, which I did.  A couple of weeks later I was clearing out my junk mail and discovered an auto-reply saying that the recipients inbox was full so my email had bounced.  I sent a further email explaining this and included another copy of my policy certificate.  Today I received an email saying that they had lost my original claim documents so could I send those again please, which I have.  I get the general impression that they are hoping I'll give up and go away!

lincroft1710

Insurance companies can of course decline to pay out on claims. Whether they are correct in doing this is another matter. I think you have to persevere and if no joy try the insurance ombudsman

Thrugelmir

rosie_greengage said:

It seems ridiculous that the property owner should have to refund the cost of accommodation when the cancellation was not in his control or mine, and I have insurance against cancellation.

The property owner has received money without providing a service. First call is for this money to be refunded. As you could potentially defraud the insurance company. By receiving an alternative booking date plus a pay out from the insurance company. A scam that's been attempted many times in the past