Intrusive and disproportionate insurance company request. ?

paul_a_scott

Hello.
My partner recently had an unfortunate minor damage accident in her car in a supermarket car park.
She damaged two doors on a low level structure. No other person was involved, no one was injured.
She claimed on her insurance, for the first time in 23 years.
She asked if the car could be repaired at a preferred garage near to where her office is based which is a trusted business, rather than the insurers garage in North Wales, where she lives. 
There were no issues until she mentioned to the claims handler that her office was England and not in Wales.
He used the underwriter as an excuse to ask how many days a week she went to her office in the car, and how long she had worked there.
She explained away her working practises, honestly, and now he wants,
1  A copy of the v5
2  A copy of the purchase receipt from the dealership
3 The finance agreement documents
4 Copy of driving licences for herself and me as I'm on the policy
5  DVLA validation codes for both
6 Three utility bills for the past 3 months for her address
7 Her last three months bank statements.

The vehicle is worth £25,000 the repairs, £3000.

Is this a correct way of going about matters or are Aviva being disproportionate, intrusive and on a fishing expedition.

Do they have justification to demand all of this in these circumstances. (all of which can be provided)

Do they have a legal right to request all this personal material in these circumstances.

Their actions have caused her great distress and anxiety.

If anyone has any knowledge of the claims procedure in this type of claim, I would be happy to hear about it.    


  

Veteransaver

Does seem quite disproportionate to be honest. Unless they suspect some sort of fraud. Have they arranged for the car to be collected yet? Or do they know the value of the damage?
Did she have the accident whilst commuting and does the insurance cover commuting?
I had an accident quite recently in which the car was written off (no one else involved), I was surprised how little my insurer asked, I reported it over the phone, they arranged a courtesy car and then when it was written off arranged a hire car and then settled. I didn't once provide any documents or sign anything at all. And the whole thing was dealt with in a week.

paul_a_scott

She was shopping on a Saturday, but has full business insurance in any case.
But I helped a friend about 7 years ago with a life insurance claim. Aviva made her jump through hoops after the sudden loss of her partner. They then refused to pay on a technicality, but settled within weeks once the ombudsman and a solicitor started an investigation.
So pardon my mistrust of them. 

Mildly_Miffed

paul_a_scott said:

Do they have justification to demand all of this in these circumstances. (all of which can be provided)

Do they have a legal right to request all this personal material in these circumstances.

Yes.

They clearly suspect she's lying about her home address in order to get a lower premium due to living in a lower-risk area.

There were no issues until she mentioned to the claims handler that her office was England and not in Wales.

That could just be the other side of the road. How far apart are we actually talking about?

DullGreyGuy

paul_a_scott said:

Hello.
My partner recently had an unfortunate minor damage accident in her car in a supermarket car park.
She damaged two doors on a low level structure. No other person was involved, no one was injured.
She claimed on her insurance, for the first time in 23 years.
She asked if the car could be repaired at a preferred garage near to where her office is based which is a trusted business, rather than the insurers garage in North Wales, where she lives. 
There were no issues until she mentioned to the claims handler that her office was England and not in Wales.
He used the underwriter as an excuse to ask how many days a week she went to her office in the car, and how long she had worked there.
She explained away her working practises, honestly, and now he wants,
1  A copy of the v5
2  A copy of the purchase receipt from the dealership
3 The finance agreement documents
4 Copy of driving licences for herself and me as I'm on the policy
5  DVLA validation codes for both
6 Three utility bills for the past 3 months for her address
7 Her last three months bank statements.

The vehicle is worth £25,000 the repairs, £3000.

Is this a correct way of going about matters or are Aviva being disproportionate, intrusive and on a fishing expedition.

Do they have justification to demand all of this in these circumstances. (all of which can be provided)

Do they have a legal right to request all this personal material in these circumstances.

Their actions have caused her great distress and anxiety.

If anyone has any knowledge of the claims procedure in this type of claim, I would be happy to hear about it. 

So does she stay over when going to the office or is she just commuting there each day? 

What's the distance of a round trip? If she's commuting how many times a week? What's your declared annual mileage?

In fairness to Aviva there are brokers that ask for most of the above each time anyone buys a policy from them. So by comparison only doing it at claims stage is much more reasonable. 

It's certainly more than you'd expect to be asked for at claim stage but historically Avivas checks on sale were lighter than most and checks on claims slightly heavier but the two balanced out. It would be pure speculation as to if something has triggered some counter fraud checks, if you are just one of the lucky ones to be randomly sampled or it's something else. 

For the majority that go through the special treatment, they provide their docs, everything is in order, the claim continues as normal; maybe 1.5 days delay but then the delay of using your own garage rather than their approved repairer network is likely to add more time than that anyway. 

Clearly some are caught out and then there are the ones that add 4 weeks of delays arguing about why they should have to provide the docs. 1-6 are all fairly normal docs and regularly requested at different times. Only the final one is more of an outlier, though would be less so were it Home rather than Motor. 

user1977

If she can provide all the items requested, why the great distress?

elsien

I can see why they are asking for details of the car and where she lives. The bank statements seem ridiculous.

paul_c123

If you are asked to supply the V5, can you redact the reference number? 

XRS200

Sounds like they are validating addresses, hers or maybe questions like where the car is kept.

Yes, sounds like they are justified.

Yes they have the legal right.

I would give them everything but the bank statements.  Ask them why they need bank statements and if redacted copies would suffice for their needs.

Voyager2002

elsien said:

I can see why they are asking for details of the car and where she lives. The bank statements seem ridiculous.

If someone is under financial strain, they are more likely to be tempted to make a fraudulent claim. Therefore, if the bank statements indicate difficulties she is likely to be given extra scrutiny.

HillStreetBlues

Voyager2002 said:

elsien said:

I can see why they are asking for details of the car and where she lives. The bank statements seem ridiculous.

If someone is under financial strain, they are more likely to be tempted to make a fraudulent claim. Therefore, if the bank statements indicate difficulties she is likely to be given extra scrutiny.

I think that's called a fishing expedition.