can insurers put good customers on a blacklist? 23 August 2022 at 12:41PM in Insurance & life assurance 5 replies 241 views

captaindavid

I had an insurance claim declined three years ago by Directline. The water damage had been caused by ingress of heavy rain around the toilet soil pipe that passed through the roof.We are now in our 70,s and lived here nearly 40 years and this was my first ever claim. I usually go for an excess of about £250 which means I would only cklaim for something fairly major. I had to pay the roofer, plasterer and trades quite a lot out of my savings. The house was built in 1970 but I was not aware the rubber could have weathered so much. When I went to renew this year I could not do it online and had to speak to an adviser. The adviser with Admiral said my online application had been flagged as Directline had put my unsuccessful claim on a blacklist. I still believe I made a genuine claim in good faith. I have an outstanding record with the insurance industry and this is very unjust. Has the industry got a watchdog I can complain to. Directline have ignored my origional complaint for over 3 years.

user1977

Had you failed to tell Admiral about your claim?

dunstonh

can insurers put good customers on a blacklist?

There are anti-fraud registers that can be shared with other companies and they also have their own internal systems which may be shared across companies within the same group or underwriter.

 Has the industry got a watchdog I can complain to.

You complain to the firm in question first.  However, before you do that, it may be best to understand what has happened.

Did you declare the claim to the new insurer?   Failure to declare is the sort of thing that could put you on an anti-fraud register.   Whereas having a claim declined would not.

DullGreyGuy

Blacklist is far too strong a word for what exists.

Most likely this is an issue of CUE which insurers simply report high level details of claims and DL, if they subscribe, would have noted a claim that was declined. A declined claim is nothing to worry about, particularly for home insurance, there are hundreds of storm claims declined every week as people dont understand the insurance definition of storm.

There are fraud databases too but again insurers only list what happened and let other insurers decide if they want someone like this as a customer. A declined claim wont be added to a fraud registered without good cause... like you claimed your Rolex was stolen and submitted a doctored receipt as proof of ownership etc.

The most common issue is that people forget to declare claims so when their new insurers check the stated claims history against what's been loaded to CUE the mismatch is the issue.

Speak to Admiral again as anyone talking about "blacklisting" doesn't know what they are talking about. 

As to escalating the matter... there is the Financial Ombudsman however you can only go to them after either 1) you receive a final response from the company first or 2) 8 weeks have passed from the date of complaint. The FOS however will only look at complaints escalated to them within 6 months of when it became eligible. So if you say you complained 3 years ago then the timescale has passed. That said, this may be a different complaint but still you would be hit by the second issue of the FOS which is a 3 year overall time cap.

eddddy

Did the Admiral advisor use the word "Blacklist" or a similar word?

More likely the advisor was saying that you made a claim (which was unsuccessful) so you need to mention that unsuccessful claim when you apply for insurance.

You can probably still use comparison sites, but you need to mention that unsuccessful claim - probably until the claim is more than 5 years old.

And some insurers might decide not to offer you a quote because of that unsuccessful claim.



As a general comment, it's best not to contact an insurer about a problem, unless you're pretty sure it's covered by your insurance policy. A rubber seal weathering is gradual wear and tear - which is unlikely to be covered. And water damage from a roof leak is unlikely to be covered by "escape of water" cover.

I know that hindsight is unhelpful here, but it's best to read your policy to see what is covered, before contacting the insurer. That would help to avoid the problem you're having.

BargainBear

Previously working as an underwriter for a large motor insurer, there are two parts to the answer to your question.

1. Yes, there is a blacklist insurers can put you on which ensures they never provide you with a quote via any avenue.

2. No, they can't put you on the blacklist for no reason as it's unethical, and there is an internal process that will be followed to ensure justification for placing you on the blacklist is obtained and saved in line with FCA regulations.  This is to protect the business should a customer complain, find out they're on the blacklist and then take their complaint to the Ombudsman.

As others have said, there are other systems insurers are obligated to report information to, the main one being the Claims and Underwriting Exchange database (CUE).  Any report received from an insured customer of damage occurring will be recorded, even if no claim takes place, and reported to the database to build a history for each person.  All insurers can view this information. This allows all insurers to rate customers correctly on the risk they pose to them at quote stage, and is an automated process that happens in the background i.e. Check against CUE to establish if you'd divulged all claims you've made in the past.  If not, they may not quote, or the premium will be increased significantly and a fraud flag placed against the quote for the fraud team to review, and potentially cancel cover or apply further terms.

This is why it always pays to be honest when obtaining quotes, as anything you've told an insurer previously will be recorded on a database somewhere, and lying can have a detrimental effect in obtaining cover in the future.