Home Insurance Complaints Advice

KeithC1971

Hello All
I am hoping for some advice about making a complaint to the FOS about the LV Home Insurance. Also whether anyone has had similar issues with this company. Now for the back story.

Back in December 2023 we had water ingress from a flat roof which covers the kitchen and bathroom area of the house. The water initially appear to be coming through to the bathroom ceiling and as a result caused an electrical fault with the spot lights in the bathroom ceiling. I initially called the roofer who fitted the roof. They inspected roof and found no fault with ours but said the water may be coming from the joining property which has recently had ridge tiles replaced and in the opinion of the roofer the workmanship was of poor quality.

I contacted LV and was informed I could make a claim for the repair of the electrics as the issue was not caused by poor maintenance of my property. They arranged to spend a building inspector to assess the damage.

The inspector visited the property in early January and arranged for an independent roofing company to inspect the roof. The independent roofer agreed that the water was likely to coming in along the party wall. The inspector approved the claim and appointed some one to remove the bathroom ceiling for so that the wiring could be replaced. However, I would have to pay my excess fee before they would commence any work, which I did.

Once the ceiling was removed an electrician was appointed to inspect the wiring and carry out the repair. On arrival of the electrician, he informed me that he was not happy with the standard of existing wiring and dismantled it. He did some further testing and said the fault was not in the bathroom area and that the fault must be under kitchen ceiling and left the property. In my opinion he did not fully inspect the wiring under the kitchen ceiling.

Following the visit of the electrician the building inspector informed me that they would not be continuing with the claim as the issue was poor wiring and not damaged caused by water ingression. They did not return to the property 

Early February I contacted the claims team at LV to dispute this, as the space above the bathroom and kitchen ceiling is one space. Also that there was evidence of water ingression in the kitchen area as well which was present when the inspector had originally visited the property. The water ingression in the kitchen has progressively become more evident since the initial inspection. The LV representative informed me that they would pass the complaint over to their "customer relations" team.  At the time they did not inform me that they had up to 8 weeks to deal with the claim. 5 days later I received an email acknowledging the claim.

After a couple of weeks passed (early March) and with no further contact from LV, I contacted them again. With no direct access to their "customer relations" team, I had to contact the claims team. At this point their representative informed me that they had up to 8 weeks to resolve the claim. When I informed this representative that water was still coming into the property, they asked why had not opted to use the emergency repair option when I initially made the claim. I informed them that I was not aware of this extra cover and asked why I was not made aware of it when making the claim. Their response was that LV doesn't have to make me aware of it and that I should know it or read the policy before making the claim.

I emailed LV "customer relations" team expressing my concerns with the handling of the claim and again hi-lighted to them that we have had no electrical supply or ceiling in the bathroom since early February. Which is made worse by having 2 autistic children living in the property which has made visits to the bathroom in hours of darkness traumatic. I have yet to receive acknowledgment from the LV "customer relations" team to that email.

I again contacted LV's claims team last week (2nd week of April) in an attempt to speak with their "customer relations" team. The claims representative said they were not able to forward on my call but said that the claim was still being investigated. That was week 7 of the 8 week period. The representative said that I should have contact by the end of week 8, which has now passed.

Has anyone else had such a poor experience dealing with LV?

They seem to have a "customer relations" team that seem to be intent on not having a dialogue with customers to resolve issues.
They failed on several occasions to provide me with requested evidence of any reports sent to them from the building inspector. 

Can anyone offer advice on best to deal with the FOS?

Thanks for reading this.

Keith

dunstonh

Can anyone offer advice on best to deal with the FOS?

The FOS prefer you to speak in simple language.  Don't go all legal on them as they then have to pass it to their solicitors who will reply on a legal basis and you lose the benefit for fairness.   Be clear on the issues - bullet point them.    Be clear on what you think is a suitable outcome.

Don't go war and peace on them.  Important details can be lost if you do that.  Hence bullet points.

KeithC1971

dunstonh said:

Can anyone offer advice on best to deal with the FOS?

The FOS prefer you to speak in simple language.  Don't go all legal on them as they then have to pass it to their solicitors who will reply on a legal basis and you lose the benefit for fairness.   Be clear on the issues - bullet point them.    Be clear on what you think is a suitable outcome.

Don't go war and peace on them.  Important details can be lost if you do that.  Hence bullet points.

Thank you for the advice.