Insurance Company Not Paying Up - Need Advice - Help!!

Niallclear2008

Hi, this is my first post and Im not even sure if I am doing it right (hope so).

Could someone help me please, I will briefly explain my situation and hope that someone out there will be able to give me some advice. Here goes, my hubbie carries out household removals and recently a statue got broke whilst in an auction house, (long story), but it wasnt us that broke it. The auction house laid the blame on us informing the customer that his contract was with us etc, etc, therefore the customer has come to us for a payment of £416.00, we therefore put it in the hands of our insurers as the customer started to threaten legal action if he didnt get his money and we dont have the funds to fight it, only to find that apparently our insurance (which we have been paying for 10 years) does not cover us for this as apparently we have a weight policy on our policy and this one item falls below the weight. Leaving us to pay out!!!

I feel strongly now that all this time we have been happy in the knowledge that our insurance for goods in transit has covered us only to find it doesnt really, totally mis-sold in my opinion. The underwriter has recommended we contact the insurers and review our policy (bit late in this instance!) furthermore they add that all this would have been made available to us on our terms and conditions obviously to cover themselves. We have in the past called on our insurers to pay out (only about twice) which they have, but not in this case. I am at a loss what to do although I will be ringing them first thing in the morning concerning this.

Can anyone make any sense of my rambling and have some advice for me please, I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks.

MarkyMarkD

You've had ten years to read your policy terms and conditions.

Whether or not the policy was mis-sold to you, it's way beyond the time when you can claim that it was. In any case, you really should have understood the insurance you were buying and its adequacy for the protection of your business.

You aren't going to find this very helpful advice, but I think you just have to learn from what is, in the scheme of things, a very small loss and change your insurance if you aren't happy with the level of cover offered.

But, regarding the actual circumstances of the loss, is there any evidence either way? Presumably the auction house's line is that the item arrived damaged as delivered by you, and your belief is that they subsequently dropped it or somehow damaged it? I honestly don't see that you'll manage to prove it was delivered perfectly UNLESS they signed for its receipt and didn't mention any damage, in which case their position is substantially weakened.

Niallclear2008

Thanks for your quick reply, yes I agree your advice isnt very helpful but its honest and I agree. I will be contacting them in the morning to discuss changing our policy! Concerning the auction house the statue was delivered perfect they maintain when we returned to remove it one of our guys broke it, apparently seen by a member of staff, not true the statue had actually been moved by them and came apart as we moved it. We wont be working for them anymore!!! Thanks again.

dunstonh

totally mis-sold in my opinion.

Lets look at general insurance regulation. Did you at any point specify that you needed a policy that did not have a weight limit on removals? If not, its not a mis-sale.

Ignoring the fact that home insurance sales were not regulated 10 years ago, if you apply todays rules (which wont be the case in any complaint) you have to ascertain the key requirements and recommend a policy that meets those key requirements. That assumes you actually bought the policy under advice and didnt just buy one direct or over the phone. Buying direct gives you little or no FOS protection for mis-selling as you have no sought advice. If you dont take advice, you cannot complain about the advice given as there was none.

I doubt this particular event would be something you would even dream of mentioning and its certainly not a key point that needs full disclosure at point of sale.

they add that all this would have been made available to us on our terms and conditions obviously to cover themselves.

terms and conditions cover you as much as it does them. That is the contract after all.

I'm afraid that if it is clearly defined in the policy booklet then there is little you can do about it.

Niallclear2008

Hi, thanks very much for reply. I will be reading terms and conditions out of interest as I doubt very much they wouldnt cover themselves. Its a policy that is renewed yearly and yes, when originally taken out my hubbie thinks it was all done over the telephone. Will be checking very carefully in future it doesnt pay to assume!!

MarkyMarkD

If it's all done over the phone, obviously no insurer can explain the full terms and conditions. That's why reading the policy when it arrives is key, and also why most insurers will now allow penalty-free cancellation if you are unhappy with the Ts & Cs once you get them in writing.

Mr_Bear_2

my 1st thought on reading the post is why are you having to claim on your insurance if you didnt break it?

If it was an employee of the auction house they should surely deal with the claim - the contract doesnt come into it!

MarkyMarkD

Because, Mr Bear, the auction house is lying and saying that the delivery firm broke the item before it became their responsibility.