Content Insurance claim post burglary

HS007

hello,
I would like to gather some thoughts here around the situation I find myself in.
I had a £75k content insurance and unfortunately, I was a victim of a burglary while I was away on a holiday. My insurance company is telling me that after reviewing all the evidences they think i am severely underinsured and the loss is substantially more.
Upon asking further details, I was told that the "valuables" were only covered for £10k and the jewellery loss assessment is quite high.
They have informed me that they are waiting for the underwriters to review and till that time they are not even able to progress with the doors replacement which was damaged during burglary.
How do I pursue this further? Any suggestions please?

Sandtree

Were you under insured? Did you declare only £10k of valuables when your valuables were worth a lot more? What is the ball park valuables value?

Your insurers may be considering under CIDRA if this was reckless/intentional false declaration and therefore the policy is voidable or if to apply any averaging clause in your policy that enables them to discount your claim by the percentage underinsured you are.

Inevitably you will be complaining in either event so its worth thinking of the basis of your complaint to explain how you got to thinking £10k was an appropriate limit etc... if it was careless rather than reckless the treatment is similar to averaging rather than voiding the policy.

HS007

I have been told I am under-insured by the insurance company. When I bought the policy i opted for the silver cover which has contents insurance for £75k, which is the worth of all the contents in my house in my opinion. It seems the silver cover had a £10k cap on valuables - which i wasnt aware.
I am told that the review of the valuables stolen from my house revealed that they were way more than £10k

izawa

Yes, this is right. The overall insurance value is misleading figure. They may say £75,000 but small print will say "Jewellery will max £8000, Collectible coins max £1000, Cash max £300" like that. 

HS007

Hi @Sandtree as you predicted, I have received a letter from my insurance company that as per them the total loss of valuables if £45k and I declared only £10k as the insurance limit for valuables.

This is the response from them now and I am really worried what course of action I should take

"Had your insurer been made aware of this information when you completed your application for insurance, they would not have provided a quotation as this falls outside of their underwriting acceptance criteria.
It is your duty as the policyholder to ensure that all information provided is accurate and up to date, and your responsibility to verify that the answers you have provided are correct.
Your insurer has offered you the opportunity to either provide evidence that disproves our findings, or alternatively, explain why this detail was not declared when asked. We require this in writing within fourteen days from the date of this letter"

However, if you are unable to provide sufficient evidence, or if your response is not accepted, then we will seek the instruction of your insurer regarding how to proceed. Unfortunately, a likely outcome will be to issue voidance against your policy, as had the information been known originally, your insurer would not have provided a quotation.  

frederick1950

Every policy I have ever taken out clearly asks how much cover for valuables you need.
I honestly don't see how you can claim you were not aware of any limitations.

Sandtree

How did you get the quote and buy the policy?

What does your policy define as "valuables", traditional policies are art, jewellery, precious metals etc but some more modern budget polices add in home entertainment, computers etc.

Assuming you bought online you need to go through the process and double check the questions asked and if bought on an aggregator like Confused.com then you need to check both the aggregators site and the brokers... too many ignore the instruction from the aggregators to recheck the quote on the sellers site. 

Need to work out how you came to the number you did declare (no chance there was no question asked) and if you agree with the insurers view that the true number was much higher and where the difference comes from.

HS007

In my case most of the jewellery were gifts. Wedding and other occasions and were bought in India around 10-15 years back. Putting the exchange rate in place I never really imagined it would be worth so much tbh.

HS007

is there a template or guidance on the best possible response to the insurance company in this matter?

tasticz

Let us know how you get on.

 I remember asking similar question and was told you need receipts for last 3 years or valuation from jewellers but then when you go to value the jewellery you give away your address with the jewellery lol