Unfair home insurance practice to keep unclaimed notes that push up your premium.

Mistri

I recently got a quote from One Call Insurance for Home insurance policy for my father. So I paid for the policy and a week later a letter arrived to say the premium will increase by £26 becasue we didn't list a previous claim. We were not aware of any claim! On calling them they said it's noted in their records an inquiry was made in 2019 to Legal & General ( LV=) about Storm Damage that was never made. No Payout No claim. Why does anybody feel this is fair to increase a premium based on a conversation (which my father still does not recall)? My father has never claimed on a house insurance - he is 87 and he can't understand how this is fair. Is there somewhere i can log this unfair and what seems like illegal practice to inflate premiums. Why is this acceptable and legal? Is anyone taking them to court over this practice?

MeteredOut

Insurance companies can and do take all calls into account in calculating premiums, even if no claim is ultimately made. Such calls provide the insurance company with data that changes the risk profile of the customer.

Is your father sure he did not phone up, even to make an enquiry?

If you do not believe such a call was made, ask the company for a record of the call, but they'll likely say they no longer have that. If you are adamant no such call was made, take the issue to the insurance ombudsman to have it removed from your fathers record, as that will be used by all insurers.

DullGreyGuy

Mistri said:

I recently got a quote from One Call Insurance for Home insurance policy for my father. So I paid for the policy and a week later a letter arrived to say the premium will increase by £26 becasue we didn't list a previous claim. We were not aware of any claim! On calling them they said it's noted in their records an inquiry was made in 2019 to Legal & General ( LV=) about Storm Damage that was never made. No Payout No claim. Why does anybody feel this is fair to increase a premium based on a conversation (which my father still does not recall)? My father has never claimed on a house insurance - he is 87 and he can't understand how this is fair. Is there somewhere i can log this unfair and what seems like illegal practice to inflate premiums. Why is this acceptable and legal? Is anyone taking them to court over this practice?

Go back and check the question they asked you, normally they will ask you to declare any claims or losses you have suffered in the last 5 years irrespective if you claimed or not. Presumably in 2019 you did sustain a loss, hence LV/LG logged it, and therefore you should have declared it. 

Unfortunately this is part of One Calls business model to ensure you answered all questions accurately but at the same time fortunately they only increase the price whereas under CIDRE they could void the policy and keep the premiums if they believe the false declaration was intentional or reckless. If you think the premiums are high now, wait to see what they are when you declare a void policy! (which has to be declared for life).

If no claim was made then you'd still benefit from the lower price for having not made a claim in X years and just pay an uplift for having a property that has shown to be prone to storm damage. If you'd made a claim and it was declined (eg it didn't meet the defintition of a storm) then you'd have the double whammy of loss of no claims year and the uplift that your property has shown to be susceptible to high winds.

The bit that's unfair is that many "forget" to mention losses they've had that they've decided not to claim for but insurers do all they can to stop that behaviour. 

dunstonh

Why does anybody feel this is fair to increase a premium based on a conversation (which my father still does not recall)?

The fact your father does not recall it is not a reason for it being unfair or fair.

A notification to the insurer of a loss event, whether you proceed with a claim or not is still a loss event.  Technically, even if you dont contact the insurer after a loss event, you are meant to tell them.  Most do not and they would be non-the-wiser.   However, if you do, then this is what happens.

 Is there somewhere i can log this unfair and what seems like illegal practice to inflate premiums. 

It is not unfair. It is industry standard.    It is also not illegal.

Why is this acceptable and legal? Is anyone taking them to court over this practice?

Because it is legal and acceptable.   If a loss occurs, you are meant to inform the insurer and the insurer bases their premiums on the risk.   If you choose not to proceed with a claim and cover it yourself, then you have still suffered a loss.   Many people will make that decision before calling an insurer and avoid the loss event being recorded.

The only potential issue is if he denies there was a loss event and the call was incorrectly applied to his policy.  He could ask for evidence of that call as he has no recollection.