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.

OP, i think tweeting them or doing a scathing Trustpilot review might be an idea.
Reach out to a local paper.
Your video will be most useful there.
People read stories like this and pay attention.

Cause noise.
Good to know that Aviva are so shite.
Will avoid them in future.

I’ve done them a 1* trust pilot review already which they know about, it got their attention quite quickly!

So after initial phone calls on Tuesday I heard nothing further yesterday. Am not holding my breath that I’m going to hear anything this week.

Aviva are awful. I had my car insurance with them and we had a dreadful time when the car was broken into and several windows needed replaced.

Their Perth office was flooded on Monday when a month's worth of rain fell in an hour and they are treating the staff really badly. No doubt they will use the fact that the office is closed as an excuse for delaying claims.

I had an appalling time dealing with Aviva (policy sold by M and S) and their loss adjuster Sedgewick, to pay out for storm damage to a chimney and roof. It went on for absolutely months on end - so long that a bird built a nest and raised a family in the open chimney - which they then tried to claim meant they didn't have to pay out as it was classed as vermin and not covered. Seriously, they tried everything to avoid paying - I won't bore you with the details but I spoke to so many different people, over the course of months (thankfully I took notes of every single name and phone call, and followed them up with emails to outline what had been said to me). Basically, I knew I was right and they were wrong and I was not backing down, and if someone said they would call me back at a certain time/day, and didn't, I called them immediately. I think they were really pissed off I wasn't backing down and just giving in to what they were saying, so at some point Sedgewick got some guy higher up to deal with me, he was really aggressive and rude. I was always calm and polite, but I wasn't going away. I think my calm politeness really riled him and after a lot of toing and froing and reiterating of what happened, time lines, what was covered, weather reports, site reports from an expert etc he really lost it and called me a liar (my 'story' had never differed in any way from the very beginning because it was the truth, and I don't think he really thought for one minute I was lying or else it wouldn't have got as far as it did - I'd have been investigated for insurance fraud I assume).
I never bothered to find out, and never bothered to complain. But I can only imagine (and assumed at the time) that calling a claimant a liar is quite serious, because he suddenly went absolutely silent and when he did speak, his whole demeanour had changed. He was polite and conciliatory and though he didn't go back over all of the things they had said were right/wrong to explain why he was suddenly changing his mind, he simply told me the claim would be paid and the total amount that would be sent to my account....
Anyway, good luck OP, I hope it all gets resolved satisfactorily. And after what a PP said, I'm off to look at a Hiscox policy for when renewal comes round!

The guy who called me on Tuesday was Scottish so maybe he’s in the Perth office.

@MandyMotherOfBrian that sounds awful. I wouldn’t go with Aviva again for sure. Hiscox are sounding promising

They are bastards, I had an electrical fire many years ago now and it was a nightmare. I don't know if it's possible or not, but I would investigate the possibility of appointing your own loss assessor to speak to the insurance company's one and negotiate your claim for you and make sure you get everything you're entitled to do. Their fees can be added to the claim hopefully as your insurance company are dragging their feet.

unless you've had the misfortune to go through this, I don't think people realise just how hard your insurance company make it.

This sounds very poor. My parents garage (separate to house thankfully) burnt to the ground last year. Insurers asked my parents to list everything in there. They had a lot of building tools, golf equipment, tumble dryer, electric bikes, kayaks etc. Nothing left, completely ashes. They had to list everything they could remember, a few of the expensive items they were asked for purchase evidence. They took their word for everything else. Had a loss adjuster around to look at the rebuild costs for the garage but my Dad was very impressed with how easy it all was. It did take several months but they definitely did not act like yours. I'd be putting in a complaint to their CEO

Excellent suggestion to employ a loss adjuster and add it to your claim because of the poor service.

You could always go straight to the top if you're not having any luck:

[email protected]
[email protected]

@MandyMotherOfBrian

How many people lose out because of treatment like that though? People have other things in their lives to contend with at the same time too. It's awful.

So just had an email from my claims manager apologising that he’s not been in touch since Tuesday. He’s off tomorrow and will pick it up on Monday.

i think I might blow my lid.

😡😡😡

Thank you. I think they may be getting emails.

I didn’t realise I could add the cost of a loss adjuster to the claim and try and get that money back. Think I may investigate this next week.

Oh and amazingly I have found emails between myself and the shop which sold me the bike that I have no receipt for. From 2013! No actual receipt but the email trail consists of price negotiations, a price being agreed, the shop owner detailing what extras were included on the bike such as better spec components, him giving me his bank details for the payment and then me saying I’d paid the price agreed. So that’s something I guess.

It’s just an independent bike shop/bike builder who runs a shop out a terraced house and has no proper computer system. It’s not like buying a bike from Evans.

As I've said previously I spent 20 years in insurance. Calling a customer a liar is a big big no no. It's unprofessional and can lead to disciplinary action.

I've turned down hundreds of claims. I've declined claims because of fraud but I have used specific language. Like they have not acted as if they were uninsured (an important implied condition of any insurance contract and fully supported in UK legal precedent) or that they have failed to prove that they suffered a loss covered by the policy. Never once have I said the customer was lying. It weakens any legal case.

You never hear of fraudulent claimants being taken to court, that's because it is so hard to prove they are committing fraud, only if they are making multiple claims does it proceed. The policy will often be cancelled ab inititio - from the beginning - and all premiums refunded....the customer has to declare this to any future insurer, failure invalidates any policy.

Given that they have failed to appoint one yes, indemnity could in theory include a la. However, it will be termed a consequental loss...one that would arise out of the incident but which isn't covered by the policy such as having to drive further to work if your insurance company re-homes you temporarily following a claim.

That said I would expect that any decision from the FSA would include the la's fees given the failure so far of the insurer to adequately deal with the claim. For example it's unreasonable to expect anyone to have a receipt from 2013. It's unreasonable to delay this type of claim for this length of time without starting reconstruction.

Op personally tomorrow morning I would find out the address and name of the CEO and write a recorded delivery letter. I would also contact my MP and perhaps the daily mail/radio 4s you and yours ( they read every email)

After more advice and hopefully reassurance if anyone has any knowledge, maybe @Yabberwok

so just when I thought things couldn’t get any more stressful there is a big problem. So my first claims manager had incorrectly reassured me (or I had misunderstood him) and said they’d accepted my claim. I think I probably misunderstood him actually…I thought it meant apart from a bit of individual item quibbling they were paying out.

someone earlier said check my limits. Yeah, £2500 outbuildings cover. And £1500 garden cover. So my new claims manager rang today and said basically the most they can pay out on contents is 4k. That will be in addition to what they’ve already paid out for the actual buildings/structures as that came under building insurance.

now initially he seemed to think that 4k would include my 2 expensive bikes. But I’ve pointed out I pay aviva an extra £75 for pedal cycle cover , up to £4500 per bike. There is no mention on the schedule of how many bikes. So he says he now needs to go and check if the bikes will be covered seperatly or whether because they were in an outbuilding then the outbuilding limit still applies! But surely you can’t have bikes insured up to £4500 but if they’re in an outbuilding you don’t get that much?

I then pointed out on the schedule it says I have business cover up to 6k which he hadn’t realised. So he’s agreed (I think) that laptop, monitor, webcam, office chair and desk can come out of that pot rather than the 4k pot

Does anyone else agree that the bikes must surely be covered under the separate bike cover or what’s the point in paying an extra £75 a year for bike cover? Also will they turn round and say £4500 total or should it be £4500 x 2 for 2 bikes worth that amount. One bike is worth 4.5k, the other is actually worth 3.5k. That cheaper bike had extras, such as fancy panniers which were a couple of £hundred. Could that £200 be added to the 3.5k cost to make it nearer 4.5k or will it have to come out the 4k pot?

in other news apparently the fire starter has told a mate of his in the next street he started it on purpose. Can’t prove anything though and there is some muttering on the village jungle drums about the reliability of the “mate” and whether it’s true or not. There may be general shit stirring.

This is what happened when we had a house fire.

All receipts were burnt.

You need a loss adjuster. We had a guy who gave us his mobile number. We could contact at any time. All paid up within 6 monyhs

I would be chasing up the police about your neighbours

Don't forget that arson carries a discretionary life sentence

You've got me wondering....I'm going to try to look at an Aviva policy wording... back in a mo

Ok read a policy and it says "we will provide cover for loss or damage to your pedal cycles.... anywhere in the world" as long as they are"in your immediate control....or in a locked building"

I thought that would be the general jist...so if you have cycles cover then they are covered anywhere. Therefore, they will be separate to the cover provided for items in outbuildings.

As regards to the fire under the metropolitan fires act 1777 there is a strict liability situation to deal with people who let fires get out of hand whether intentionally or not. Therefore op if you have legal assistance as part of the house or your motor insurance, or as part of membership of the AA etc they might be able to help with recovering anything not covered by your house insurance.

Thank you, mine says

Personal Belongings in and away from your home:
These limits apply in addition to the limits stated above

Unspecified personal belongings £2,000
Single article limit (unless a specified item)
Personal money £750

Personal Belongings – Specified Personal Belongings (in addition to the
£2,000
limits stated in the Personal Belongings section): not covered

Personal Belongings – Pedal Cycles:
Individual cycle limit £4,500

They surely can’t say if your bike was burnt or stolen away from the home you’d be covered for £4500 but if it gets stolen or burnt in your shed then you have a £2500 limit???

Thank you. Yes some legal firm are on the case with chasing uninsured losses. I’d assumed this would be just my excess. But now I’m thinking it might be quite a bit more.

to be honest if I get 8k for my bikes, 4k for most of my contents plus a bit more under business for my desk, laptop and monitor then I’m good. They’ve obviously already paid out around 20k for replacement buildings and fencing.

i might be a couple of £thousand down still I guess. The sofa was £800 so that’s a massive chunk of the 4k contents gone.

Some stuff such as my laptop, monitor, turbo trainer may yet be recoverable and not need paying out. Still waiting for electrical testing. If I get those back then I might not even max out the 4k limit.