Home Insurance Told I was covered, work started then stopped as wasnt covered

jord01455

Back in January I had a escape of water at my 2nd unoccupied property.

I reported it straight away and told I was covered. I asked them to carry out the work as I'm currently ungoing cancer treatment. Insurance started work 4 week later strpping out the property and destorying the fitted kitchen and fitted wardrobes (not near the escape) without my knowledge or any evidence. I was told it was due to mould.

7 weeks after the strip out I was told I wasnt covered and all work stopped. the cost of the new kitchen/wardrobes is £14000

I sent a strong email stating why I felt ive been unfairly treated and they have offered me £2500 compensation

My agument isnt the fact Im not Insured but the fact they had 4 weeks to look at my policy and tell me I wasnt insured before stipping out. If Id known from the start I would have arranged work sooner

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6673470/home-insurance-told-i-was-covered-work-started-then-stopped-as-wasnt-covered

Did you know that you weren't insured as you said "i am not insured "?

Why were you declined the claim ?

If you have the photos of the kitchen and fitted wardrobes before they started work that should be proof of they were in good order and I would also expect that the people removing the stuff would of took photos as well for their records.

Without knowing why the insurance was declined you don't have much to go on.

jord01455

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043136#Comment_82043136

In the small print it states I wasnt covered as property unoccupied which I accept

yes have pictures before escape of water, directly after and now have pics from contractors. I was told the kitchen units would be stored in the conservatory and never received ascope of work document

eddddy

So I think you're saying that:

• you made a claim, without realising that you weren't covered because the property wasn't occupied.
• the insurers started repairs, then found out the property was unoccupied at the time of the incident, and cancelled the claim and stopped work

You're suggesting that the insurers didn't look at your policy to see that it didn't cover unoccupied properties. That seems unlikely. It's much more likely that they didn't realise that the property was unoccupied.

Perhaps because:

• You didn't tell them it was unoccupied (maybe they didn't explicitly ask during the claim process)
• You told them it was unoccupied, but somebody at the insurers missed that point until a few weeks later
• (I'm assuming that you didn't mislead the insurer by telling them it was occupied.)

I guess a lot revolves on the points above - i.e. Did you tell them that it was unoccupied? If so, when? etc.

Jemma01

Pics are not enough, you should go to the property and inspect it.

Piggybacking on @eddddy 's comment, if you told them it was unoccupied, most of these companies record their calls, so you might have something there to support you get maybe half of it paid. You would still be at fault for not reading the terms and conditions.

14k is crazy, I'm sorry this happened.

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043293#Comment_82043293

Th OP said it was unuccupied so are they a landlord?

If the people working for insurers kept the units in the conservatory (but apparently didn't) why would they do that and not just put them in a skip if they were that bad?

In hindsight t was best to have someone overseeing the work but as they were in hospital maybe not have able to do so.

dnpark38

It is my understanding with insurance that if unoccupied for over something like 30/60 days arrangements have to be made with the insurer, like house visited at intervals and water turned off etc.

jord01455

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043258#Comment_82043258

when I took the policy out I told them the property would be unoccupied for the period of the policy.

I didn’t see in the small print the clause about unoccupied and presumed I was covered

The kitchen units and fitted wardrobes were destroyed mainly due to mould not water damage

I didn’t receive any scope of work forms until the kitchen and wardrobes were already destroyed

jord01455

The insurance company had 4 weeks to review my policy before work commenced.

I had electricians and assessors visit. After the strip out a firm brought dryers in and ran up £1000 electric bill

The property was my parents and on the market at the time of escape of water

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043342#Comment_82043342

If you bought it directly from the insurer then it would be an unadvised sales, as such its your duty to ensure that the policy is suitable for your needs, they legally cannot advise you.

If you bought it from a broker then it may or may not be an advised, sale, from a personal lines broker its most likely not, from a commercial lines broker its probably 50/50 which it would be.

Were you explicit about how long it would be unoccupied for? Did you ask them how long a period of unoccupied status they would cover? Direct insurers are very nervous about being caught giving advice as the consequences are significant, to the extent one of my previous client's call centre agents got hauled over the coals for saying a Ferrari 612 was a "nice car" to a customer who'd called for a quote as they were thinking of buying one.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043344#Comment_82043344

When you registered the claim did you tell them how long the property had been unoccupied? Were I betting person I would guess someone other than the underwriter took the initial call, whilst some underwriters do delegate full authority to TPAs/Brokers for claims handling, its not too uncommon amongst those with TPAs to require higher value declines to have to be referred.

Realistically referrals take time, often they will want to consider all matters at once rather than decline based on unoccupied, that gets challenged, then decline due to incorrectly declared values etc. They want a complete file to see all the problems, a good estimate of costs etc and make one decision on all aspects.

More commonly only emergency repairs will be done during this time to prevent further damage in the interim. Obviously if you didnt clearly mention it was unoccupied when claiming then it moves it into a different territory and naturally they would commence full works until the issue came to light.

jord01455

I told them from the outset and when I made the claim the property was unoccupied.

I don’t dispute the small print and that I’m not insured

My argument is they had 4 weeks to review my policy before work commenced and my property was destroyed without my knowledge, consent or permission. Leaving me in financial hardship whilst going through cancer treatment