Home insurance getting cancelled

Jussi23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81969546#Comment_81969546

I have just turned to the second page in the latter I had in 2015 from the Halifax about the drains survey which was carried out when they were tracking the source of the subsidence, and it says in it that the client is Lloyds Banking Group, so maybe the Halifax was working for Lloyds? So if Lloyds was was the client then and they are my existing provider now, then should that mean that they will definitley offer me a new policy now?

Annemos

Please can you look at your original Policy for the year you had the Subsidence Claim. The one that lists who the exact Underwriter is. For example, they go like…. this policy is arranged by bla bla and underwritten by bloo bloo! That's what you need to look at.

Jussi23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81969635#Comment_81969635

It will take me a while to find this, though I have found the renewel letter from the following year and there is no mention of an underwriter on it. I will continue to look for the letter from the relevant year. I don't know if this is important, but the insurance arranged for the drain company to come and paid them, but I arrnaged for the builders to come and I paid myself for the building work. I noticed that my policy number was different in 2016 than it is now and also itstarted with the letters NHP, whereas in yesterday's letter it starts with the letters HPB/.

Annemos

It is very important really, as it is the only way to be totally sure what the exact name of the Underwriter is, for checking if the Continuation of Cover has always been maintained with the original insurer. (Rather than having been severed and moved to another Entity, even if has a similar name or is in a similar Group of companies.)

You see, there are often chains of companies involved in the Insurance Policy, including managing agents and the retail merchants. And some of them can be acting from within the same group of companies. But it is the actual Underwriter itself that we are interested in who actually did your claim… the one who your policy was with when you opened up the Subsidence Claim.

To give you an example of this.. I once saw one where a Continuation of Cover had failed because there had been a change from a UK entity to a Gibraltar entity with a very similar name. But they were different companies and so the Insurance Link with the original Insurer had actually been broken.

If we can show that you have been with the exact same Underwriter all along ….. Lloyds Bank Gen Ins Ltd, then you will be 100% sure of the Facts when you write your Letter/e-mail to the Underwriter, as soon as we have pinned this down. Asking for the Continuation of Cover to be maintained.

I have actually just done this with mine to get clarification. Mine is also due in early July. I did this to make sure the Insurance Company had not overlooked/forgotten the rules… and if they had, to prompt them into acting. And I did get my reply of what they intend to do for me.

One other thing, it is to be hoped that you would not have to go to the Ombudsman, but if you did, the first thing the FOS would ask is… who is your Underwriter?

Good luck with tracking it down. I hope it is not in the Loft or something!

PS Mine is in the Form of a Policy Schedule…. which refers me to the Policy Booklet which contains the Underwriter. Also, a "Home Insurance Product Information Document" should also have it on there.

=====================================================

See next point…..

You are correct those rules of Continuation of Cover apply in the following conditions…. just looking this up for you……

Here is the ABI Guidance:

"Where a claim arises, the insurer handling the claim should normally continue to provide subsidence cover on the property after the repair is effected where the repair has been carried out under the insurer’s direction, or with their approval. This would reflect the confidence the insurer has in its own claims handling arrangements. This intention should be made clear to the policyholder as early as possible in the claims handling process so as to provide maximum reassurance."

Did they give their approval for you to get that work done (as they did not do it themselves?). Did you have a chat with them about what you were intending to do? Etc

Jussi23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81969801#Comment_81969801

I have just been googling and found that policy numbers starting NHP are underwritten by St Andrews Insurance plc (my policy number started with NHP on the 2016 renwwel letter) and policy numbers starting with HPB (which mine is on yesterday's letter) are underwritten by Lloyds Bank General Insurance. So it does look as though there is not continuation of cover. I don;t understand, though, in this case, why Lloyds Bank General Insurance are listed as the client on the letter about the drains. If St Andrews was the underwirter at the time, shouldn't they have been the client?

Annemos

If it was taken out through Halifax, then I am wondering if they were actually working with a basket of different Insurers. If Halifax the Arranger was part of Lloyds Group, then this is why you would perhaps be seeing that name in many places.

Mine was set up by AAA on behalf of BBB, where BBB was the actual Insurer/Underwriter. I just looked through all my Subsidence Claim, and every letter I was getting from the Loss Adjuster, Claim Handlers etc was listing AAA as who they were actually working for. It was not until I looked at my Policy in detail when AAA stopped doing the Policies with my Broker and tried to drop me from Insurance, that I actually found out I was with BBB and that was the one I needed to approach to maintain the cover and get a new policy.

Please also see the last comment I made in the previous comment, about who did your repairs. (In case you missed it, as I added it later.)

Take a good look through your original documents to find the actual Policy information, to be really sure of where you are with this. And how you would need to approach any eventual letter. (It is just possible that the reference number on the Policies might not be consistent through the several years. The actual Policy wording itself will confirm yes or no.)

I think that if the answer is a negative, then you will be hoping for the good will of Lloyds to offer you a new policy. But there would possibly not be any solid grounds to go to the Ombudsman over it.

Annemos

Another follow-up….. Just looked at Lloyds Bank dot com. They seem to have policies underwritten by

Lloyds Bank General Insurance Limited.

In previous posts on this site, others have found that Lloyds have been prepared to offer home insurance quotes, if 10 years has passed since the Subsidence Claim. You are referring to a 2016 Policy. How close are you to meeting the 10 years when your current policy expires. I wonder if this could help you?

Jussi23

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81969843#Comment_81969843

I feel so naive because I hadn't known about any of this until today. The company who did the drain survey was Geotechnical and it says 'for Lloyds Banking Group' underneath. The company which then repaired the drains was Innovation group Environmental services. I will search tomorrow for as many documents relating to this as I can find. I will also have a look at the reference numbers on my policy through he years and see how often it changes. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me, because I really feel I am drowning at present.

Annemos

(The thing is… Lloyds Banking Group is not the same as Lloyds Bank General Insurance Limited. I am not sure, but Halifax was perhaps a member of Lloyds Banking Group too, in those days.)

Please do not feel naive and try not to worry too much while you are working through this.

We are all caught up inside a big Business Structure/Industry, and we are given only partial information or confusing information, because we are not on the inside.

(Thank heavens the FOS is there! Also the ABI.)

I did not have a clue about any of this when I had my claim. I only found out, when 2 years in, I was dropped from Insurance. One of the Experts on here helped me so much in understanding how the Policies are set up and that we can end up within chains of Companies. As customers, we have no idea at all that this has happened to us when we have just purchased a Policy, especially when it is through a big name.

So many times, when all the Company chains are moving around and relationships between companies have suddenly ended, a customer can end up breaking the connection, without even realising they have done it. And nobody tells us from within the Industry, itself. I even asked my Loss Adjuster about my "loss of insurance during a Subsidence Claim" problem, and he gave me the brush-off! Yet with his experience, he must have known this was not fair treatment of me and not actually allowed.

(Side note: my problems were occurring when Companies in the chain, were bought out, and this happened to me on two different occasions in 2 different years with 2 different parts of the Chain. The Chain consisting of "Policy arranged by RRR for AAA on behalf of BBB")

I was lucky, that my claim was still in process when the Insurer pulled out of the chain and they dropped me. So I did find out what we are actually supposed to do. Other customers whose Subsidence claim had just finished, were passed onto a different insurer and thus their link was broken. Who knows how long they were able to stay with that new Insurer. They would not have realised what had happened to them and would have just been happy with their new policy, in blissful ignorance that they ought to have stayed with that original Insurer, who did still have policies available, but through a different Broker.

If you find you have lost the Continuation of Cover with the same Insurer who did your Claim, I think my first step in your shoes, would be to try Lloyds Bank, as you seem to be near the 10 years since the claim. Especially as you have also been with their LLoyds Underwriter, recently. (See my post at 9.53pm, if you missed my comment on that.)

If that fails, then you might try Howdens or Prestige Underwriting. Or try Brokers through BIBA.

Many of us are finding ourselves in this position and I hope the Insurance Industry will take account of us. I think it is called "Non-Standard Insurance" when you are doing any search for home insurance, if a home has had Subsidence in the Past.

And as I say, mine has completely pulled out of the Home Insurance Market, now, so I have lost the Continuation of Cover myself, from July this year. Nothing I can do about it.

MyRealNameToo

Lloyds bought HBOS in 2009 and they remain part of the Lloyds Group

Lloyds moved to self underwriting around 2014, before that they operated a panel of insurers.

The obvious problem is that the OP hasn't continued cover with Lloyds Bank having instead switched to Sainsbury's who until 2017 were exclusively written by UK Insurance (aka Direct Line) and a panel of insurers including UKI since 2017.

Also confusing why Lloyds is mentioned, their website says LV= is buying the data and will be the one potentially offering renewal.