Loss claim on home insurance - lie detector?!

Lavon1

Hi all

I am new here so hopefully I am in the right spot but I am after some advice. 

I have lost one of my rings and with Sky Protect/Zurich. I made my claim and it seemed to all be progressing. 

Last night I had a request to do a questionnaire, it was a strange auto mated questionnaire just said I needed to be in a quiet place, It asked random questions some about my claim some not.

Today I was phoned and told one of the answers I gave has flagged 'high risk' (despite many others about my claim being fine) and that ultimately this is a lie detector although they wouldn't call it this. 

I was told I had two options and 24 hours to choose:

1) go through an investigation and if unsuccessful will be placed on a insurance fraud register making it harder for me to get insurance. 
2) I could stop my claim and find a new provider within 14 days otherwise they will cancel my policy... again making it harder to get insurance. 

I feel trapped, there feels no good outcome. I have told the truth, I have lost the ring and I don't know what else they can possibly investigate to suggest the ring isn't lost?!

Has anyone been in this predicament before? I feel sadly this is the way a lot of insurers avoid paying out and in this case its a genuine loss! 

MattMattMattUK

Is there anything unusual about your claim that would lead them to view it as suspicious, eg. you had the ring valued then lost it a few days or weeks later? If not then go with option 1.

Lavon1

Hiya nothing suspicious about it. 

I think I will have to. It’s a honest claim and I imagine they are just trying to scare me out of claiming and that any bogus claim would of course be fraud but this is not! 

Thanks for the advice 

TELLIT01

Is the value of the ring exceptionally high?  I lost my wedding ring a few months ago and put in a claim.  It was settled quickly and they valued the ring at a much higher price than I expected.  I accepted a bespoke replacement which was, as near as made no difference, identical to my original ring from over 40 years ago. 

Lavon1

No I don’t think so. It was between 1000/1500 about 9 years ago. That’s amazing that it all went smoothly. They say if I’d have passed this questionnaire then it would have gone through with no investigation but because one of the questions was flagged as a high risk they have to do the investigation. Basically something to do with the tone in my voice indicating there’s a risk I lied. It’s all very strange I’ve never heard of anything like it before and had no clue it was some sort of lie detector. The fact I’m not lying I’m worried the odds are against me already and I will end up on some sort of fraud register and be stuck. I don’t know how I can prove it’s lost other than saying it’s lost. We have no documentation for the ring, just the box and old photos. The bank only keeps statements for 7 years so don’t have that either. 

DullGreyGuy

Insurers use a variety of techniques to attempt to identify claim fraud... cognitive questioning, voice stress analysis, scorecards etc. On the first pass it's normally just to decide if the case requires further investigation in which case it goes to counter-fraud/ "special investigations" else the original file handler can continue the claim. 

Given your insurers this is presumably your first year with them... so a risk indicator... "lost" is always another flag -v- stolen/broken etc. If you don't have Personal Possessions cover then that will compound the "lost" issue significantly.

Ultimately if you have been honest and believe you are within the terms of the cover your opted for then naturally you'd agree for the claim to proceed. 

Lavon1

Thank you. Yeah it’s our first year with them. I have the ring specifically insured so it’s covered. Sounds like I just need to stick with it and continue to be honest and hopefully it resolves itself! I don’t know how they can say I’ve got something when I don’t. 

Morph4610

Think it's fair to say that insurers are seeing more spurious claims at the moment so are being extra vigilant. Bear in mind that it's very unlikely that a 'lie detector' is guaranteed 100% accurate so it's really used to identify cases which 'might' not be on the level. If you're confident you've been completely straight with them I'd continue with the claim and expect it to be dealt with   

DullGreyGuy

Lavon1 said:

Thank you. Yeah it’s our first year with them. I have the ring specifically insured so it’s covered. Sounds like I just need to stick with it and continue to be honest and hopefully it resolves itself! I don’t know how they can say I’ve got something when I don’t. 

By standard home insurance covers items in the home. You need personal possessions cover to cover items outside of the home. 

Clearly it will depend on what your account of how it has been lost will be important, especially if you don't have PP cover. 

Lavon1

Thank you I have proceeded with my claim given it is legitimate and I have the cover that’s what it’s there for! 

Sea_Shell

Wow.    Hope you get this resolved.

Who's to say your voice is stressed!?!  A computer?

Some people find using the telephone stressful, or get nervous even if they are only being suspected (quizzed) of something*.  Or you might be exaspierated for being on hold, listening to rubbish music for 20mins!!



*Like being pulled over by the police for routine checks...you feel instant guilt, even when you know you've done nothing wrong.