Insurance Renewal Problem

Missionhall

I'm unsure if this is the kind of issue that should be discussed here , but need to get advice.
My mother was admitted to hospital several weeks ago in a rush.
She is 96 years old and not very well.
She received a message on her phone telling her that her COOP house and contents insurance was due for renewal soon, with no dates or details as far as I know.
I phoned COOP renewals and explained the situation.
They could not discuss it with me because I did not have power of attorney in place for her finances etc. 
I suggested that as they had already contacted her they could at lest tell her how long it it before the policy expires.  answer no
Could they extend it until she gets home and can deal with it , answer no.
They said she could phone in herself and discuss it . She is 96 years old, unwell, cannot cope with the myriad of options to get to the right department , as I recall two sets of 4 options and another of 2 options. 
I asked if they could give me a direct number for her to call, answer no.
I have lodged a complaint by email, which is going to be sent to the relevant department or I can take it up with the ombudsman. 
None of which helps to resolve the problem in the short term
She is worried sick that her house is now not insured.
She has been a customer of the COOP for an estimated 65 years, having taken out life insurance etc from when I was a boy, I'm now 75.
What happened to common sense and compassion .
In the COOP s defence , it was incredible stupid to leave home in an emergency ambulance without first picking up her Home insurance document and for that matter her purse even.
A  lesson for us all to learn from.
Thank You for taking the time to read this . 
P.S. She started work at the age of 14 packing explosives into artillery shells for use to defend our country. 

Annemos

Oh Lordie. Security overrides everything these days. (The same issues can arise with Travel Insurance.)


All I can think of is.... can you telephone the Renewals Department yourself BUT with your Mother seated right next to you?   So that, as you get through to the Renewals Dept, she can then immediately take the phone and tell them that they must talk to you (her son) and she gives them that permission....... and then you take over again on that very same telephone call and continue it. 

 Can she manage to do that? 

(It is probably too late now for this instance, but a Power of Attorney helps with this sort of thing. Can you now get one for her? One does need to be put in place, as soon as possible.)

I hope you can get this settled for her. How wonderful she must be. I am so sorry she is not well and having this extra worry.  

Missionhall

the reply I received by email.
[Removed by Forum Team],
30 July 2025
 Your complaint to Co-op Insurance Services Limited [Removed by Forum Team], Complaint ref: [Removed by Forum Team]
 Thank you for contacting the Co-op Marketing Complaints team on the 25 July 2025 regarding your mothers policy, I am sorry that you had cause to complain. As your complaint is regarding the policy that’s been provided it needs to be addressed by the correct team. For this reason, I have forwarded your details over to Marker Study who are responsible for handling your complaint.
 They will pass your complaint to the correct team and ensure you get a response as soon as possible. If you are unhappy with what we have done, or how we have handled your complaint, you have the right to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), free of charge
 The FOS can look at complaints and decide if firms, like us, have been fair. Please note that if you did want the FOS to look at how we have handled your complaint, you would have to refer it to them within 6 months of the date of this letter. After this time, they may only be able to look at it in special cases, like if the delay happened for reasons you couldn’t control. For more about FOS, check their website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. Or you can contact them below. Telephone: 0800 023 4567 Whilst we hope this gives you everything you need, feel free to reach out if you have any more questions.
 Kind regards, Jake
 Complaint Specialist Co-op Marketing Complaints Team 

Missionhall

this is a 'Complaint Specialist' who has to pass it to some one else so that they can pass it to the right person ? Is that correct ?  

Annemos

It looks like it.    It all smacks of    "The Computer says No!!"  

Truly heartbreaking actually. 

elsien

They are correct they can only discuss things with the policyholder or someone else with with explicit consent or a relevant power of attorney.

Otherwise anyone can be phoning up pretending to be someone else or a relative or whoever, and you’d pretty soon to be complaining if a company shared your confidential detail details with someone without confirming with you first.

It was unwise if her not to have thought of a power-of-attorney a lot earlier but you are where you are. 

So as above can you phone with her from the hospital (although she may have a job passing security if she doesn’t have the documents in front of her) and get her to pass the phone to you once she’s confirmed she is who she says she is. Or you can write something for her to sign to discuss the policy with you, presuming she is still well enough to do that to understand what she signing 
There is normally a two or three weeks grace from the first reminder to when the policy expires.
or Plan B go to her house and  find the information yourself.
You are going to be hitting this problem with all the financial institutions without a power of attorney, should she be in hospital for any length of time. 

cw8825

What's to stop you answering the security questions and saying you are her?

user1977

cw8825 said:

What's to stop you answering the security questions and saying you are her?

Because I guess Mr [redacted] isn’t going to sound convincingly like his mother?

MyRealNameToo

user1977 said:

cw8825 said:

What's to stop you answering the security questions and saying you are her?

Because I guess Mr [redacted] isn’t going to sound convincingly like his mother?

In my first call centre job we had two customers, maybe more that I never dealt with, who's account was in the name of Mrs/Ms [redacted] but there was a special warning on the screen to say they sound male. Probably get in a host of problems for doing that these days. 

These days however you often have the option of Live Chat or using something life BT Relay where you type and the BT Operator reads out what you've typed. Obviously not intended to circumvent security but certainly could be used to avoid the issue of the wrong gendered voice. 

Missionhall said:

I'm unsure if this is the kind of issue that should be discussed here , but need to get advice.
My mother was admitted to hospital several weeks ago in a rush.
She is 96 years old and not very well.
She received a message on her phone telling her that her COOP house and contents insurance was due for renewal soon, with no dates or details as far as I know.
I phoned COOP renewals and explained the situation.
They could not discuss it with me because I did not have power of attorney in place for her finances etc. 
I suggested that as they had already contacted her they could at lest tell her how long it it before the policy expires.  answer no
Could they extend it until she gets home and can deal with it , answer no.
They said she could phone in herself and discuss it . She is 96 years old, unwell, cannot cope with the myriad of options to get to the right department , as I recall two sets of 4 options and another of 2 options. 
I asked if they could give me a direct number for her to call, answer no.
I have lodged a complaint by email, which is going to be sent to the relevant department or I can take it up with the ombudsman. 
None of which helps to resolve the problem in the short term
She is worried sick that her house is now not insured.
She has been a customer of the COOP for an estimated 65 years, having taken out life insurance etc from when I was a boy, I'm now 75.
What happened to common sense and compassion .
In the COOP s defence , it was incredible stupid to leave home in an emergency ambulance without first picking up her Home insurance document and for that matter her purse even.
A  lesson for us all to learn from.
Thank You for taking the time to read this . 
P.S. She started work at the age of 14 packing explosives into artillery shells for use to defend our country. 

Unfortunately "compassion" isnt an excuse that the ICO or FCA is going to take as acceptable. Whilst your story may be true there are many who are not honest and some who are vindictive. Remember two cases where a "husband" phoned to make changes to their wife's car insurance, one turned out to be an ex-husband who was trying to cancel her insurance so she'd be done for driving without insurance and the other was their teenage son trying to add themselves to her policy so he could take mums car. 

To the agent you are just a voice on the line that they do not believe is their policyholder. Unfortunately this is why getting a lasting POA whilst people are still healthy and cognisant is so important. 

Missionhall

Thank You all for your comments and I totally agree she should have got the LPA in place. I asked the COOP advisor if they had an LPA and they said they were too young. I tried to explain it isn't about age and that there could events in their life that they might have the same problem as my Mother is having. 
All I wanted is for someone to say , tell her not to worry will continue to insure her house and contents until she gets home. Is that too much to ask. I would have even paid for over the phone as even if they contact her she doesn't have her purse with her cards in with her. She was rushed into hospital.
I have decided to take out insurance with another company but will have to explain that I don't have all of the details like when the house was built etc. 
Any how, Thank You all again for your input and support. 

MyRealNameToo

Missionhall said:

Thank You all for your comments and I totally agree she should have got the LPA in place. I asked the COOP advisor if they had an LPA and they said they were too young. I tried to explain it isn't about age and that there could events in their life that they might have the same problem as my Mother is having. 
All I wanted is for someone to say , tell her not to worry will continue to insure her house and contents until she gets home. Is that too much to ask. I would have even paid for over the phone as even if they contact her she doesn't have her purse with her cards in with her. She was rushed into hospital.
I have decided to take out insurance with another company but will have to explain that I don't have all of the details like when the house was built etc. 
Any how, Thank You all again for your input and support. 

But what if you weren't her son but instead a person with a grudge against her? Or she wasnt in hospital and was perfectly fine and your just making the whole thing up?

We've had plenty of cases on here where people have complained because a firm has allowed a third party to do something without proper authorisations and the person or another random relative is asking how many thousands in compensation they should be getting. 

If you go onto Confused.com and so a quote for Home insurance it will give you a suggested build date on most properties. It's worth checking a few neighbours to see if they are the same or not if they are all the same style of house. 

For other things like locks and alarms choose the worst answer you know to be possibly true; you'll pay more premium but claims won't be declined because you declare a BS compliant lock and it turns out it isnt.