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Any Recommendations of Home Insurance Based on Actual Claims Experience?

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13

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  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Annemos said:
    Yes the Insurance Product is actually so opaque. (A car is not..... even I can see which is a top range car.) 

    I start to wonder if the Insurance Industry as a whole is trying to get a bit too clever with its 'deflection of responsibility' techniques. In the end they can end up bearing much more costs than if they had just made the required effort right from the start. 
    I assume by deflecting responsibility you mean by outsourcing aspects to third parties?

    Again its not that different to any other company... where are your expertise and where can you add value? Where are you better buying the services of others who have the economies of scale, expertise etc which you will realistically not be able to build yourself in a cost effective way? Where do you need flexibility to deal with peaks/troughs in demand which is much easier achieved through partners than own staff?

    Up until recently every OLED TV sold to consumer had an LG screen in it (Samsung have just started manufacturing them) even if the box said Sony or Panasonic etc. The rest of the electronics in it would have been the brand on the front's own but again they decided that buying a screen was better than trying to develop their own ability to manufacture them and hoped that their electronics, marketing, styling etc will be a differential. Insurance is little different, many claims are outsourced, especially with smaller insurers/MGAs because maintaining a network of engineers/loss adjustors that cover the whole country is expensive if you may only have one RTA in the far north of Scotland every couple of months.
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,048 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 14 June 2022 at 12:41PM
    It's the whole chain where there is a lot of deflection going on      ..... Insurance Company.....    to     MGA .....   to the Arranger ......   who (?)  chooses  Claims Handlers...... who pass it to its related Company that arranges Contactors..... that hires a company.... that then uses another company that they bought out two years before  ....     that then uses the most appalling Subcontractors. 

    Expertise....... 


    Claims handler gives you an Engineer and a Surveyor that, amongst many things, did not bother to map the actual cracks and design an optimal and efficient plan that would comply with Helibar installation guidelines. Then they allow Unaproved installers to be used on the walls and corner. Those contractors ignored EVERY instruction for Helibar installations. Severely damaged the two Walls and left the Corner in a mess. 

    When challenged by me on what on earth is all this?.... Claims handler says "your insurer does not require the use of Approved Installers." "We stand by our Contractors!"   (I do not believe that Approved Installers of Helibars would ever have acted in this way. If they do, then Helifix would also have some questions to answer. But I do believe their Approved Installers would indeed be competent and have expertise.) 

    (Insurer and MGA are either not aware of what is going on, or act as if they do not know. Even when it has ended up at the Ombudsman. Now they have started to acknowledge the utter disaster.) 



  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
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    Ahhh, the joys of delegated authority, which may or may not be in relation to outsourcing. 

    There is often a rather odd power play between these types of relationship. You would assume the one delegating the authority is the one in control and can dictate to the other what they must do etc, in practice a number of these players have a track record of profitable business and will point out they have choices. Its not too uncommon for the one receiving the authority to act outside of the agreement but you have a conflict that the one managing the relationship is normally rewarded based on profitability and not compliance. Plus with some things its easy to say "well we thought it'd be under £1m so was within our authority and were equally surprised that its on track to do £10m"

    In time more regulation may come but at the moment insurers are seen as slow and lumbering so things like MGA or Lloyds' "syndicate in a box" are seen as easier routes to innovation as they aren't hampered by legacy systems or ongoing claims from decades ago etc.
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,048 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 14 June 2022 at 1:37PM
    I also ask myself, if my property was a 2 million pound pile, and not a small bungalow on an estate, if the handing of the claim would have been tip-top? And a superb building company would have been utilised.  If that is the case, how appalling. 


    Anyway, at this stage. It is obvious I am upset, angry, furious, perplexed and any other such adjective you may care to add.

    (I also have several EXTRACTED Helibars in my garage and you can imagine what I would like to do with them!..... a small joke can still be EXTRACTED from me.) 


    So, I had better give a piece of positive advice to any homeowner that finds themselves in such a mess. 

    We homeowners just do not know where to turn for advice with Subsidence. The Loss Adjusters have their own agenda. The Insurance chain goes into denial mode as soon as they mess up. Many Loss Assessors do not seem to touch Subsidence claims. So what do you do? 

    1. I did this.... and this was trial and error. I finally met the very best Tree Inspector in our County. And of course he had worked with an Engineering Company on major Subsidence Claims. I had the huge good fortune that this very reputable Engineering company was prepared to take my case on and give official reports. I am eternally grateful to them. 

    2. Then I had to research lots of Ombudsman's cases and take the chain on at many stages in the claim. I also made sure that I did not miss the 6-month window for the Ombudsman, even thought they were still in the process of trying to sort it out. (That did not go completely to plan either, so I was thankful I had submitted the protective complaint. It was needed!) 

    3. In short, you have to spend a lot of your own time and fight for your life! And for your pains, you may then become a half-expert in Helibars, foundations, Trees and the Insurance Industry! And you may find a lot of courage within yourself. 


    Dear Original Poster, you did ask for claims experience. 
  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Annemos said:
    I also ask myself, if my property was a 2 million pound pile, and not a small bungalow on an estate, if the handing of the claim would have been tip-top? And a superb building company would have been utilised.  If that is the case, how appalling. 
    No it wouldn't, assuming you aren't on some VIP/ media connected list.

    If you had a £2m house however you would more likely have bought a policy from Hiscox, Chubb etc or other insurers that aim at the HNW market and so the difference in claims experience would have stemmed from that... if you were happy paying £1k for your Home insurance you could probably still buy a Hiscox 505/MNW policy and get the same experience as someone with a country pile though slightly less than a 606/HNW policyholder but that policy they'd probably refuse to sell you
  • TadleyBaggie
    TadleyBaggie Posts: 6,622 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Made my second ever claim in 45 years last year. Ceiling damage due to leak from cold water tank. Claim was with LV, it was handled very well and their contractor was very good.
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,048 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 14 June 2022 at 2:09PM
    Funny you should mention that Sandtree, re media. 

    My friend in Europe was hit with the German flooding last year. The claim was stalling. She is a Journalist for one of the big newspapers over there. She mentioned this. The claim is now going like a dream. 

    Oh and I have to say.... my complaint was about the Outside Building work. Two contractors came later for the Inside and did a wonderful job. (Not the first subcontracted company.)

  • Sandtree
    Sandtree Posts: 10,628 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Annemos said:
    Funny you should mention that Sandtree, re media. 
    All sorts of companies tend to keep a tab on those that have easy access to getting things into the media or other high profile places. Its certainly not foolproof and some people do just go online and buy standard insurance for their run of the mill car despite being a multi-millionaire and in the news on a weekly basis and go undetected. 

    Never had a claim involving such a person personally and to be honest the general approach was that they were treated the same as anyone else but the PR team did keep tabs on the claim to make sure it was making appropriate progress and were they to complain then it did tend to go to a more senior complaint handler... Joe Blogs could also be randomly allocated to such a person too but there was an active steer. 

    We didn't insure those in media, sports etc and so naturally didn't get too many of them as policyholders.
  • BucketFull
    BucketFull Posts: 73 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts
    Thanks for the replies and helpful info.
    That is exactly the reason I had to start this thread. I usually thoroughly research products before I buy but in the case of insurance, it's almost pointless! I really don't know why people leave rave reviews (or any reviews) for a company just for their signing up process! Makes it harder to gauge. There is also that aspect of it as mentioned in the reply above that we are more likely to take to pen and paper when things go wrong than if the process just works as normal without any problem, so then negatives then do stand out more.
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,048 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 14 June 2022 at 9:23PM
    Yes and often on review sites, it is often hard to gauge whether a claim was a more involved one. Or whether it was a more straightforward one. Sometimes the Invited Reviews are great and the uninvited ones aren't. 

    For example, if a homeowner sends in photos of storm roof-tile damage. Claims Company looks at it and judges it is only about 350 pounds worth of damages. And so just "sends the cheque" by return. (I think that's what might happen sometimes?) Then the homeowner gives a great review? 

    You can often tell on the review sites which ones have gone badly awry. Eg water damage, involving drying machines and folks having to be moved to other accommodation. You can see them spiralling into difficulties. I find them heart-breaking to read. 

    We never expect ours will be the one to have problems. It causes untold stress. 
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