Advice on travel insurance claim

Tammykitty

Hi all, we were booked to go to Malta on the 18th July, and we didn't go - at this stage there was no FCO advice against travel
However, we live in Northern Ireland, and only hold Irish passports - the NI executive, still had in place legislation against non essential travel (it was amended a few days later), and the Irish government was still directing against non essential travel to Malta

As I expected my claim has been rejected as my insurance company are saying that only FCO advise is relevant.

The policy does not state you have to be a UK citizen, just UK Resident, which we are.

However the specific clause in their policy is in relation to "a" government, and I feel we couldn't travel as we were travelling on a Irish passport
A government directive prohibiting all travel to, or recommending evacuation from, the country or area you were planning to visit
or were staying in, as a result of natural disasters (such as earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, landslides, floods, hurricanes or epidemic(s)
/ pandemic(s)).

Do you think I have a case for pursing this?

bradders1983

Is the NI "executive" classed as a "government"? 

Tammykitty

bradders1983 said:

Is the NI "executive" classed as a "government"? 

There is no definition of government in the policy. The NI executive and NI Assembly is similar to Scotland where we have our own devolved government. I personally would class it as a government - they make our laws

bradders1983

I would assume it has to be called a "government", which it is in Scotland, isnt in Wales ("assembly") and it isn't in NI.
I presume this is the basis of the rejection, no idea tbh.

ARH_2

The NI executive is plainly a devolved government, in the same way the Welsh Government or Scottish Government is a government - it just doesn't have Government in its name - so I agree with your reading of the clause, albeit it could read differently in the context of the whole policy. 

So then, were the NI executive  "prohibiting all travel to" Malta at the time? No, they were advising against all but essential travel. Were they "recommending evacuation from" Malta? Maybe, we'd have to refer to the wording of the advice. 

If it does fall into the latter part of the clause (i.e. NI executive were recommending evacuation from Malta on the day of travel) then I'd suggest you follow the insurers complaints process, ending up at the FOS if needs be. 

pj27559

I would continue to pursue the claim and if rejected respond and CC the CEO of the company into the email.  I have just had a request for partial refund of an annual policy from a different company rejected, and yet responding in this way has lead to the  company deciding that their first advice was incorrect and that a refund was appropriate.

Tammykitty

Just an update, i pursued the claim on a different grounds, relating to one of our party shielding, and it was successful, so i never had to argue my case regarding the meaning of "government"