To think the insurance company shouldn’t be causing me this much stress after a fire?

[FireAdvice]

So had a massive garden fire in May. Thankfully the house was undamaged but we lost the garden office and sheds and all contents. I still have received no payment for the contents. The insurance have accepted the claim and say I’m fully covered, like for like, old for new, etc.

They sent a disaster firm out to clear the site. Apparently careful lists of stuff which was damaged beyond repair was taken before they removed it. Plus a list of stuff removed to see if it can be restored. The latter list was mainly electrical stuff like laptop, smart monitor.

and then things have gone very quiet. I have chased , emails go ignored. I’ve uploaded photos to the portal, etc. provided links of how much stuff will cost to replace.

so at the weekend I left a shitty review on TrustPilot that got things moving. Phone call today. Which to be honest stressed me out more. He wants me to provide receipts for my bikes. Well I can for one but not for the other. He tells me to go back to the shop and ask them to go through their records and find paperwork. Or me look through bank statements. It was years since I bought it, I can’t remember how many years. I have photos of the bike (with me sat on it) with the brand very obvious, they only make one model of bike (it’s expensive). I have a quote for a new bike. If I have old for new why do they need a receipt from when I bought it ten years ago? They could see the remains of the frame (with the make on it) in the ashes.

Then there is the multitude of stuff which you could see remnants of in the ashes, lawnmower, hedge trimmer, bbq, eglu chicken coop. Rather oddly the disaster company haven’t listed these…..well they removed them. So as far as the insurance company are concerned they didn’t exist! Thankfully I took a video of me raking through the ashes before the site was cleared so I should be able to prove the majority of it.

I’ve still no idea of whether my electrical stuff is retrievable. Been without a laptop for months now!

Haven’t been able to cut my grass for months! Haven’t been able to go on a bike ride in months and I used to be out 3 x a week. I cried on the phone to the insurance today. I’ve paid a lot of money and never claimed in 25 years of having insurance and never thought it would be this bad sorting it.

is this normal for insurance claims? The dawdling and the difficulty in proving stuff?

I haven’t even got onto the topic of stuff of which there was no sign of in the fire such as my surfboard or gortex jackets.

Expensive items usually need to be listed separately? Of course that depends on the insurer. Same as if it’s a garden room it can add some complexities, but again providing insurance covered this, there should be no issue

it does sound like incredibly poor customer service, have you raised a complaint with them?

Was this the fire I remember that was caused by your neighbours?
Outrageous it’s not settled yet, I swear they try to wear one down by dragging it out.

Yes have raised a complaint.

the 2 bikes were insured as separate items and I paid an extra £90 a year on the premium for this. I’m fully insured for the contents of garden buildings, there’s no limit which I’ve exceeded there so that’s not the issue. Definitely fully covered.

Yes it was the fire which the neighbours caused and I have (finally) a fire brigade report which says this. So my insurance knows that they’ll be able to claim everything back off their insurance eventually and they’re still dragging their feet!

Log a formal complaint with them. That should get things moving. It could be that if another person is liable for the damage, their insurer is requesting the extra information. Re the bike, some policies stipulate they have to be specified when worth over a certain amount.

The insurance have accepted the claim and say I’m fully covered, like for like, old for new, etc.

Like for like and new for old are two different things though. If you have ,say, a five year old lawnmower destroyed, like for like will give you the value of exactly that, not a new one. Are you sure that you and the insurance company are not talking at cross purposes?

The first thing to do is complete your own list. The disaster recovery company will miss things so do an absolutely complete list of everything lost or damaged. Submit that to the insurance company with as much proof of ownership that you can - they should already have asked for that. Ask for a payment to be made to allow you to replace essentials, include the laptop because it’s not going to come back from smoke damage

For the remainder of the claim provide as much information as you can, but challenge anything ridiculous - it’s unreasonable to ask for a receipt for a 10 year old bike. In dealing with their call centre, ask to speak to a senior, the folk on the phones don’t have much authority to use their initiative. I’d also ask them to appoint a loss adjuster, they’re usually much more experienced and more pragmatic about getting things done.

It shouldn’t take months for a relatively simple fire claim.

Log a complaint.
Include in it that you are in line to get a poor outcome. Even if they eventually cough up, the delay means it is a poor outcome.
Remind them of their obligations under FCA guidelines to ensure that customers get good outcomes.
Id also cc the CEO for good measure.
And yes they ask for reasonable proof but frankly if you have specifically insured an item, have new for old and a picture of you actually on the item, expecting you to go looking for a receipt that you don't have is not reasonable.

Totally understand my partner lost his entire contents of his home, it took over 2 years to be fixed and livable in again and the insurance/loss adjusters were a nightmare totally awful and he was pushed right to breakdown with it all. Axa are the insurance and Crawfords loss adjuster we got some compensation and lodged a complaint due to their incompetence (you could not make it up) complain again, and go to the ombudsman if needed

Can you give an rough idea of the value of the claim?

When I was a claims manager, admittedly 25 years ago now (and where has that gone?) we would have appointed a loss adjuster to manage such a claim. They would have visited and inspected. Liased with the disaster company and basically been a personal claims handler.

It's unreasonable for the insurer to ask to go and get a receipt for an item that's years old. They accepted premiums to cover it.

You need to speak to them again tomorrow and check that they have registered a complaint. They have 48 hours initially to resolve it, before it's falls into a complaint they need to record for the FSA, or at least that was the rule back in my time.

Hmmm, not sure. So policy definitely says old for new. When I say “like for like” I could have sworn that’s what the first guy in the phone said but maybe I’m using the wrong term. He was explaining I am entitled to something I’ve lost being replaced with something of the same spec.

So if I have lost 49x 10ft trees I’m entitled to 49 x 10ft trees. I don’t have to accept 2ft trees.

if I have lost a carbon fibre racing bike with Ultegra gears I am entitled to a bike of that spec, not an aluminium bike with Sora gears.

Thank you, I’m just glad this is not my actual house. Can’t imagine how much worse that would be.

Thanks. I sent them a spreadsheet over a month ago. List of everything, with prices by the side of each item. Then a link to where the equivalent is available to buy online. I have also submitted photos of the big value stuff such as my bikes, the eglu cube, the lawnmower, the garden before the fire. I have submitted my original invoice for my garden office and a receipt for one bike and 2 gortex jackets.

my claim has gone up a tier as it’s of too high a value for the first person to deal with. So I have a claims manager. I haven’t been sent a loss adjuster. My neighbour got one and his damage was about a quarter the value of mine!

That's what they do. Can you hire an insurance mediator remove some of your stress, my Dsis hired one, she was over 18 months waiting for an answer, oil tank accident, she had been with the insurance company 20 years, no prior claim.
They couldn't care less about the stress or environmental damage.

Around 40k I think

The bulk of it being garden buildings and boundaries.

Then about another 10k worth of miscellaneous contents. And then the bikes.

They rang up today begging me to say that I considered the complaint dealt with….which I bet is due to that 48 hour rule. I caved and said ok as the bloke has promised he will get stuff moving and I felt bad. I wish I’d refused and said and it can stay open until they pay! Fingers crossed they actually do something now though or I’ll complain again.

I looked at this, they take 10% of your payout so I’d lose around 4k to them! I’m too tight for that. 😁

First of all the phrase is “new for old”. That means you are insured to have a brand new item to replace your 10 year old item. You can check your policy easily. Does it say “new for old”. If it doesn’t it’s going to be a valuation of what you lost based on its current value, not what you paid for it. So if a car costs you £20,000 but after 5 years it’s worth £10,000, you won’t get £20,000. If you insured the bikes with a new for old policy, you get the insurance claim met based on the new price of the bike.

I think you need to be clear on the wording of the policy and make sure what’s “new for old” replacement and what isn’t. Often they pay a sum based on like for like which means a sum of money based on the value of a 10 year old bike, not a new one. The sheds etc should be replaced with new sheds.

Yes, it definitely says “new for old”. They happily paid out 10k for the price of a new garden office. They didn’t try and say oh well your office is 4 years old so we’re only giving you 8k. Same with the aviary and to be honest that was ancient, but the quote for a new one was 1k and they paid that.

What was the outcome of the complaint, have you received one yet? How long ago did you log it? If you've had a final response or it's been more than 8 weeks you can go to the financial ombudsman.

Insurers are going to be jumpy right now as the FCA literally today have published findings from a review they did on home claims and it wasn't good. Find the ceo or compliance manager email address l - it's listed on the financial services register of you search for your insurer and copy them in. They'll light a fire under the claims arses if they know what's good for them.

What was the subject of the first complaint? If it wasn't delays then make another one. Call them and state that this is affecting your mental health as that then makes you vulnerable and more options become available to the call handler.

The 48 hour rule doesn't exist anymore. It was removed in 2011.

But if the complaint is closed (and you've received a final response - or it might be called a summary response letter - get straight to the ombudsman).

And I can remember asking the first guy that if my laptop was wrecked will they say oh it’s 5yo so we will only give you £100 but it will cost me £600 to actually buy one. And he definitely said no we will give you however much it costs to buy a laptop of that same spec. He said they would either give me the money or potentially provide a laptop through their “partner firms”. Same with the bikes, might be cash or might be a same spec bike.

Any action being taken against the neighbours?

Thanks that’s good to know. I made the complaint on the basis of delays. They said they’ll send me a letter saying I’ve agreed the complaint can be closed. I only logged the complaint on Saturday. I cried to my claims manager today and said how stressful I’m finding this. But thanks for the info about emailing the compliance manager. If I’m no further forward by Friday I’ll do that.

No, never seen the police again since the day of the fire, not heard from them. If I had more energy I’d be complaining about them too.

Hopefully it won't come to that.
Try not to let it stress you, stressing won't rush them along, it'll take a hit on your health.
Best of luck.

Lastly before bed! If you felt pressured to close the complaint today raise a complaint about that! You should never feel pressured to say yes to a resolution. Mention that in your email.