House insurance damage and sudden death

rose28454

My brother was taken ill mid November and while he was in hospital it appears that there was a leak in his bathroom. He died at the end of November and when the seperated wife visited the property she found the leak and got it fixed. Subsequently it appears this has damaged some of the floors and the insurers should probably be involved. 

I am helping with the estate and have collected the policy from his office yesterday when I visited with the executors . 

I now realise that the insurers need to know he’s deceased and this may lead to cancellation of the policy. 

So the question is what do we do about the claim as the damage most certainly happened when he was hodpital ? 

Brie

Talk to the insurance company's bereavement team.  If they don't have one ask about a vulnerable customer team (working on the assumption that when so very ill your brother would be considered very vulnerable.)

They may require sight of a death certificate in order for you to get any information from them.  They may insist that they can't talk to you due to data protection but DP doesn't apply when an individual has died.  I can't see any reason why they wouldn't deal with this if your brother had insurance with them.  It's no different (in some ways) to them dealing with things that happen when someone is on holiday.  

Sorry for your loss and I hope you can get things sorted out satisfactorily.

eddddy

rose28454 said:

So the question is what do we do about the claim as the damage most certainly happened when he was hodpital ? 

The personal representative  of your brother (e.g. the executor of your brother's estate) should be able to make an insurance claim on your brother's behalf.

It might be best to alert the insurer that a claim is going to be made.

DullGreyGuy

Most insurers will transfer the policy into the Estate Of for the remainder of the term but may not offer renewal. The problem with using standard home insurance in this way is normally the relatively short unoccupied period they allow before part or all of the policy stops being effective.

Check the policy for the unoccupied clause and work out how long it was unoccupied at the point of the discovery of the damage. The policy was in force at the time of the damage and so as long as the unoccupancy clause hasn't been breached then a claim shouldn't be an issue.