Home insurance excess

lfors

Sorry to contact yourselves but just looking help.
I contacted my home insurance to make a claim and was told I had to pay £200 upfront for them to look at the claim. I begrudgingly paid it but confirmed several times with the girl on the phone that if the claim was not successful that I would receive a refund of the money to which she said I would.

The claim has now been declined after months of chasing them and sending multiple e mails and when I questioned as to why the exes of £200 had not been refunded to me if the case was closed I was told that it would not be as it was payment for the underwriters. 

I would never have agreed to pay this £200 if I believed it would not be refunded if the claim was not successful and this is why I confirmed before payment this would be the  case.

Can you confirm if this is normal procedure? I just feel I have been penalized for making a claim on my insurance and basically ripped off

SaverRate

Whos your home insurer? What does your terms and conditions state? 

Sandtree

On what grounds was the claim declined?

lfors

The underwriters are Davies group and that’s who I have been dealing with. There was water leaking down the back of a tile, it is a shower room that has been used 5 times as I use my e suite yet they were putting it down to wear and tear. There is a crack in the tile which I damaged just before Xmas and I asked why this wasn’t covered under accidental damage to the tile yet they have declined that despite the face I am covered for accidental damage. At the time of getting my home insurance the policy was e mailed to me. I have checked through what I received and cannot see anywhere that says about paying an excess that would not be refunded. I have went back to the company to ask them to send me where it shows this information and am waiting for a reply. 

Sandtree

Davies Group won't be the underwriters as they are not an insurance company. They are a third party administrator and so do provide claims handling services to many insurance companies and MGAs.

If you are saying the water ingress is due to the damage you caused and has occurred over a period of time then this will be why the claim for the water damage has been declined... insurers cover a one off event not something that happens gradually. The individual cracked tile itself would be covered under AD, assuming you have appropriate building cover, however to replace a single tile is likely to fall well under the excess and so fails on that basis.

One of the challenges of dealing with TPAs is the level of authority that is delegated to them varies massively... they may be allowed to deal with claims up to £100,000 without reference to the insurer but cannot decline a claim for £100 without authorisation from the insurer. Similarly the monies may have been paid to them, paid to them and passed to the insurer or paid directly to the insurer. To refund it the monies may need to follow the same chain back.

Ultimately you need to follow the complaints process as outlined in your policybook