Holiday Let home owner cancellation insurance

richardJWE

I am fortunate to have a policy with Schofields who in theory cover the bookings cancelled due to COVID during the official lock down. However, they say Lloyd's (Axel) will not honour the first £10k claimed they say that this is covered by the Welsh government grant. Does anyone else find this unacceptable and anyone have ideas on how to fight it?

Sandtree

What is it you are claiming for? Having to refund peoples bookings explicitly? A general business interruption type cover that's independent of bookings?

In England certain business that operate from business premises were entitled to claim £10,000 from their local counsel. Did Wales operate a similar scheme?

Would need to read the policy wording to see if it is appropriate that this grant be deducted from the insurance settlement... the general concept of insurance is to put you back in the same financial state and if you've lost £25,000 and the insurer pays you £25,000 and the Welsh government pay you £10,000 then you've gotten £35k and so in a better position than you'd otherwise have been in. If that's how it works in practice depends on the contractual terms.

davidmcn

richardJWE said:

I am fortunate to have a policy with Schofields who in theory cover the bookings cancelled due to COVID during the official lock down. However, they say Lloyd's (Axel) will not honour the first £10k claimed they say that this is covered by the Welsh government grant. Does anyone else find this unacceptable and anyone have ideas on how to fight it?

Why would it be unacceptable? Do you not qualify for the grant?

richardJWE

Thanks both. To clarify, yes I did get a 10k grant but the expenses/overheads for that period was basically 10k too. The loss of earnings was 9k and that is what I claimed for but did not get as I had the grant. I have asked for the clause in the contract/policy detailing why they can deduct an grant.

ciderboy2009

So what loss are you claiming for?  I can't see that you've actualy lost anything.

Sandtree

ciderboy2009 said:

So what loss are you claiming for?  I can't see that you've actualy lost anything.

The OP could have been clearer but they'd have made a terrible business investment in a holiday-let property if they've not lost a single booking in 4 months due to covid19

TELLIT01

Insurance is generally to mitigate loss, and which losses are covered will be detailed in the insurance policy.  If you disagree with your insurers you first need to take it up with them, and if that is unsuccessful take it to the Insurance Ombudsman.

dacouch

It's most likely this they are relying on
"This insurance is extended to pay up to the amount stated in the schedule any one occurrence for the net ascertainable loss of rentals pre-booked in advance or the net ascertained cost of alternative accommodation resulting from"
What are the losses / expenses you described?
Are they mortgage payments etc or are they rental payments you had to refund?
This looks to be the policy wording (Page 27)
https://www.schofields.ltd.uk/downloads/hh2012_word.pdf
(They will be removing the section that covers this type of event from future polices for sure)

davidmcn

richardJWE said:

Thanks both. To clarify, yes I did get a 10k grant but the expenses/overheads for that period was basically 10k too. The loss of earnings was 9k and that is what I claimed for but did not get as I had the grant. I have asked for the clause in the contract/policy detailing why they can deduct an grant.

"Expenses/overheads" which you'd have been paying anyway? I can't see that those are relevant to the insurance or the grant - your loss surely is the amount of earnings which didn't come in?

ciderboy2009

Sandtree said:

ciderboy2009 said:

So what loss are you claiming for?  I can't see that you've actualy lost anything.

The OP could have been clearer but they'd have made a terrible business investment in a holiday-let property if they've not lost a single booking in 4 months due to covid19

Yes - but those losses were covered by the government grant (which was the whole point of the grants in the first place).

I can fuly understand the insurance company as nothing appears to have been lost.

Sandtree

ciderboy2009 said:
Yes - but those losses were covered by the government grant (which was the whole point of the grants in the first place).

I can fuly understand the insurance company as nothing appears to have been lost.

I don't know the situation in Wales but in England the local counsels only covered £10k irrespective of your losses. So a micro business with tiny rents could be quids in and a more profitable business in a tiny unit could have made losses well in excess of £10k if they were forced to close.

I can fully understand that insurers say that they will only cover losses above the grant value but to say no business has any right to a BI claim is odd.