Lost wedding and engagement ring in the most stupid way!

toffeenut29

Hi, I’m looking for some help. I had a wedding and engagement set from when I got married in 2005.  Back then it was worth about £5K. We got divorced in 2011. For decades now I’ve let my contents insurance auto renew with no claims ever made. I know I made a point of putting the rings down as an item of value at the time but apart from that I don’t remember much else.

I recently moved house after 12 years of being at the same address and while packing, a friend helped pack up the kitchen. Unbeknownst to her, my rings, along with letters from my dad who died in 2016, some cash and other sentimental things were in one of those safe cans in the back of the cupboard. She threw out all the out of date food, and the so called “safe can” too. 

It’s been several weeks now and the can, rings, notes etc are definitely gone. Is this something I can claim on my contents insurance for, or is it too negligent on my part? Obviously they didn’t have a huge amount of sentimental value but I’d have liked to at least have passed the diamonds on to my son to create his own ring for a future spouse etc. Now I can’t do that.

Would you put a claim in or just accept the loss and move on? I’m worried that the moving house, not particularly clever hiding place and friend being involved would all be used to deny the claim. 

Anyone able to advise?

thank you!!!

8871Jlw

There's no time limit - so you can definitely make a claim.  However, I'd read your policy wording regarding accidental damage/loss.  There's a clause in my contents cover which states they would only cover me in the scenario you have given if items were lost/damaged by a professional removal firm.   Given its just a friend, it may be excluded that.  Obviously without seeing your policy wording its difficult to say for sure, but I'd have a read through first. 

If it doesn't mention it, then it's Worth giving it a go though, they can only say no.  Give them a call and explain the situation 👍🏻

toffeenut29

8871Jlw said:

There's no time limit - so you can definitely make a claim.  However, I'd read your policy wording regarding accidental damage/loss.  There's a clause in my contents cover which states they would only cover me in the scenario you have given if items were lost/damaged by a professional removal firm.   Given its just a friend, it may be excluded that.  Obviously without seeing your policy wording its difficult to say for sure, but I'd have a read through first. 

If it doesn't mention it, then it's Worth giving it a go though, they can only say no.  Give them a call and explain the situation 👍🏻

If it was lost by a removals company though wouldn’t the claim be with them?

Thank you so much for the advice.. I’m worried it’s such a crazy scenario that it’s not likely to be believed! Haha. 

unforeseen

If it was lost by a removals company though wouldn’t the claim be with them?

The friend threw it out as an out of date tin. 

TELLIT01

Ask your insurer, the worst they can do is refuse to pay.  We very nearly had an almost identical situation when a family member died.  One of the people dealing with the house had been promised an item of jewellery but it was nowhere to be seen in the house.  They phoned me to ask if I had ever seen it.  I hadn't, but almost unbelievably, the person who had died had shown me their 'safe can' just the year before for the first time.  Her can was actually a talcum powder tin where the top section did contain talc but the majority was the 'safe'.  The item was in there and would have been thrown away in exactly the same way but for that chance event.

Before anybody says the item shouldn't have been taken on the basis of somebody saying they had been promised it, it wasn't.  The executor was a family friend who was also dealing with clearing the property.