Had to cancel holiday and insurance co wont pay up - any ideas?

[redwineattheweekend]

HI

We needed to cancel our holiday. I've gone into premature labour and so can't travel. It's only the coast, but I can't leave local area in case anything starts.

We booked a holiday cottage through an agent and when I called them to cancel they thought we would be covered. Turns out we're not. They've sent it to their insurers and apparently because I booked the holiday when I was already pg, the risk is ours and we wont get anything back.

But there was no problems with the pregnancy when I booked and we had no idea that this was going to happen...I'm emotional and pissed off now and could well do without throwing £500 down the drain.

If anyone has any ideas about what we could do to contest this or find a way around it, would be much appreciated.

Thanks

You need to read the small print of the insurance/booking

Did you get specialist insurance that covers late pg ? If not may struggle as pretty sure pg is exempt on most policies when know about it when book but as soup said check small print.

To me and the agent the small print isn't entirely clear. It says:

The Insurer will reimburse the Insured for Transport and
Accommodation Costs refunded to the Insured Person up to the
sum insured stated in the schedule as a result of the Holiday being
cancelled or curtailed due to:

1 death, Accidental Bodily Injury, or illness of:
a the Insured Person and/or any person with whom he/she
has arranged to travel or meet at the specified Holiday
establishment
b any close relative or business associate of the Insured
Person or of any person with whom he/she has arranged to
travel or meet at the specified Holiday establishment.
2 a jury service
b witness call
c compulsory human quarantine on the instruction of the
Government or any competent public authority
d unemployment through redundancy, after the date of
booking and before the commencement date of the Holiday
e pregnancy

of the Insured Person and/or any person with whom he/she has
arranged to travel or meet at the specified Holiday establishment,
occurring during the Period of Insurance.

they are saying this means that to be covered I needed to book before I was pregnant. As I was pg at time of booking the risk is mine. But this doesn't seem that clear to me from the wording.

Unfortunately pregnancy is highly likely to be considered a pre-existing medical condition and cancellation of the holiday as a result of a pregnancy-related issue will be excluded from cover. How soon is the holiday meant to start? Unless you've cancelled with only a couple of weeks to spare you might be entitled to some of your money back under the rental contract so have a good look at the t's and c's.

No Gigondas, not specialist, just came with holiday - I just saw pregnancy was covered on the info we received, didn't really get the other bit.

You need to look at the exclusions - it will almost certainly refer to pre-existing medical conditions. If you were pregnant when you booked you won't be covered, unless you disclosed that to the insurer and they agreed to cover notwithstanding.

I think this might come under pre-existing conditions, so if you'd told them your were pg when you booked they could have adjusted the cost of the insurance. It's often hard to claim if you don't declare a pre existing condition and that causes the cancellation.

I agree with what the others have said, you need to read through the exclusions.

If you saw that pregnancy was covered, then you need to get that information and point it out to them.

Could you transfer the booking to some friends so you could get part of the cost back?

How long is it until the holiday? How far away is it from you + nearest hospital? What have the hospital said about the likelihood of baby's imminent arrival?

ds almost came at 32 weeks when contractions started on the way home from holiday after helping to take down tent in force 9 gale after a few hours contractions died down, and just a few braxtons until 39 weeks. I would have gone away in the interim if it had been fairly local, there was a hospital nearby and if the girls didn't have to be at school!!

It's not as if you are going abroad, worth discussing with drs etc if being on holiday relaxing in holiday cottage is going to make you less stressed than the thought of losing 500 pounds.

looking into selling/transferring it, but prob too late as was due to go tomorrow.

Must admit hadn't thought at time of booking about pg being a pre-existing condition.

bugger

dr said not to go.

waters have broke and need to go to hospital x2 weekly to check for infection and baby ok re: fluid. contractions could start at any time and had speedy delivery previously. he'll also need NICU if born now and don't want that 2.5 hours from home.

It does sound like you are not covered-how annoying for you, is there any way you could transfer the holiday to a different date or maybe to friends or family?

oops-you have already answered my question.

Pregnancy is not a pre-existing medical condition.

I have a nasty feeling that the "pregnancy" bit refers to becoming (or discovering) pregnancy after booking, and being unable to go on the holiday simply because of the pregnancy (especially for deals booked months ahead).

Medical conditions arising because of an existing PG would be covered under the illness heading, and that might be the section of the actual policy (not just the headline bumf about the policy) to see if there is any wriggle room at all.

It is really annoying to find you are not covered. But pregnancy is a pre existing condition. So you'd only be covered if you weren't pregnant at the time of booking. Could you not ask for the booking to be transferred say to October. Why not see your GP. And see if the illness part applies to you.

did you tell the company you were booking with that you were pregnant - if they went through the insurance details with you then aren't they supposed to point out things like that? Not an expert but seem to remember something along those lines.

But I guess if they left you to read (and understand!) it yourself then that's not much help.

Might be worth telling the holiday agent/insurers that they need to make their blurb clearer - and say explicitly that if you are pregnant when you take out this insurance out, you will not be covered for any losses as a result of the pregnancy. If you have asked if pregnancy was covered and they say yes but don't tell you that it isn't if you are already pregnant then that is very misleading.

Plus, lots of people don't automatically think of pregnancy as being a pre-existing 'condition' in the same way they would think about mentioning asthma or a bad back or a dodgy heart. You think of your pregnancy as being normal and want to make sure that you are covered for anything that might happen whilst pg.

sorry, this is a bit of a bumbling post, but I definitely think you should get them to agree to clarify their blurb/spoken info when selling as it is not clear (and if you are anything like I was when pg, not necessarily always feeling in tip top mental form to notice things like this - either from being tired and sleeping badly or hormones making you forgetful/ditzy etc etc)

and then if they do make a change - well then that's an admission they weren't very clear and maybe they would meet you half way and give you half a payment...

oh and good luck over the next few days/weeks waiting for your baby to arrive!

Thanks for all the replies,

Edith, that would be great, and I might go down that line, but the illness is pg related so that will be their get out.

I don't think that will work Mary, they will let me transfer it to someone else tho.

Trying to see if DH travel insurance that comes with his account will pay

Thanks zip,

they didn't ask me anything, the insurance is just included as part of booking, so I didn't even see any blurb until we'd brought the holiday. Nothing was asked re existing conditions. I'm hoping they'll realise that it's not clear, particularly as the agents we booked through also thought we would be covered!

Woo hoo,

Most likely covered by DH travel insurance and we only lose £100. Said that as no indication of any problems before we booked it shouldn't be a problem providing we have medical evidence, which we do.

Might complain about lack of clarity in other insurers docs tho.

Thanks for replies everyone

Umm... who sold you the policy you tried to claim on, but couldn't?

Firstly - you already had travel insurance via your husband's account, so you didn't need it.

If the travel agent sold it to you - then (a) did they know you were pregnant? [and failed to tell you that you needed to declare this] and (b) was it a condition of the holiday that you had to buy travel insurance with them?

If either is yes, I would be thinking that they mis-sold the policy to you & would be looking to make a complaint.

For what its worth I claimed on my travel insurance when I went into prem labour at 29 weeks. Not a specialist policy just general, and pregnancy was pre-existing but not the placental abruption leading to the labour. The doc had to write a letter saying there had been no indications of likely probelms when we booked. (Which withhindsight was interesting as I now know that various issues could have been markers but only through repeated questions of various very eminent consultants. However the same consutlants had told me i would be fine and no placental issues at a scan only 4 weeks earlier- which helped form the decision to book a holiday)

As it happened I asked before I went on holiday about the insurance and the company thought I was mad to even ask.