Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

[Amethyst]

Our property was burgled on Christmas Eve and the scroats (now banged up) ripped up the flooring and took all the copper piping, emptying the water cylinder on the floor hence needing replacement heating/plumbing/electrics/plastering and so on and so forth.

The property was normally let out to tenants, however the previous tenant had moved out in October and the property was empty whilst renovation took place (new kitchen/bathroom/plaster/decor etc) in order to make the property ready for sale. The work was completed and the property for sale with estate agents.

I live a few doors up and visited the property regularly (ie every couple of days) to check it, turn heating on/off, finish off odd jobs, and empty dehumidifiers (it had a bit of a damp issue).

Then it was burgled.

After 5 months of waiting for the insurance company to make up their minds (in which time the house has been unlet as it is uninhabitable, and is off the market for sale) they have decided because the property wasn't let out at the time of the burglary that constitutes an increased risk of damage which we should have pre notified the insurance company about. So I think we need to go to the Ombudsman, so really looking for past adjudications / case law we can use to get the insurance to pay out. We had a specific landlords policy.

We only had buildings insurance cover (as tenants had their own contents cover).

Value of the claim is looking like around £10-£15k for the damage caused by the burglary to be fixed.

[enaid]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

Think they can state you must inform them if it's empty but they would probably have said if it's checked as often as you say and as you live so close it would be fine. I think they are fobbing you off to be honest.

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

hmmm another issue they bought up was that the water system should have been drained while the property was unoccupied, however (I dont have a copy of the insurance documents at the moment) I hear some insurers ask you to keep the property heated etc while unoccupied during winter months to prevent pipes freezing etc ? or would they not freeze if the system was drained ? Anyway we couldn't as we were there most days working on the renovation etc and needed water for loo, kettle, mixing plaster, washing brushes etc etc.

[di30]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

Sorry about that Ame.
Just a thought have you also raised this with the CEO of the insurance business as well, as Enaid says possibly a fob off x

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

Think they can state you must inform them if it's empty but they would probably have said if it's checked as often as you say and as you live so close it would be fine. I think they are fobbing you off to be honest.

Seems like it. The courts awarded victim compensation of £1000 payable by the perps (so not holding my breath on seeing that), but the house is uninhabitable (confirmed by the council for the council tax purposes) and to make it right needs £10-£15k spending. House value is approx £60k and the mortgage is for £60k, and we'd just spent nigh on £10k making it right after years of crappy tenants.

So basically cause two p*ssed up scroats decided to ruin Christmas for us to make £40 in scrap copper costs we're going to have a ridiculous shortfall on paying the mortgage as we'll have to sell at a massive loss.

So just waiting of copy of the clauses they have decided to rely on now and I'll have a hunt about for some positive action we can take. We've already been through the giving statements to say how often we'd visited etc and they just came up with something else to turn us down on.

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

It's with NIG ( http://www.nig.com/ ).... will try suss out the CEO.

http://www.nig.com/contact-us/complaints/ Jonathon Greenwood seems to be MD. Not sure of CEO seems to be Bank of Scotland own it?

[enaid]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

I just had a look around and most insurers (Landlord Insurance) state they wont pay out if property is left empty for a continuous 30 days some even say 120 days.

[enaid]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary


T&Cs


http://www.nig.com/media/12184/nig100504e_05_13___commercial_landlords_keyfacts__ cob_.pdf

Policy booklet

http://www.nig.com/media/12121/NIG10...Policy_COB.pdf

[di30]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

I did have a look on CEO email addresses, annoying that they not all listed........

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

T&Cs


http://www.nig.com/media/12184/nig100504e_05_13___commercial_landlords_keyfacts__ cob_.pdf

Dunno what they are insuring for their exclusions cover almost everything possible lol.

[di30]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/b...executive.html

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

I just had a look around and most insurers (Landlord Insurance) state they wont pay out if property is left empty for a continuous 30 days some even say 120 days.

That was the first argument we had with them which we countered by informing them we were there every couple of days either working on the property or just checking in. This increased risk thing is a new tactic.

[enaid]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

This may be helpful
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...perties-34.htm

[MissFM]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

(per Amethyst)......which we should have pre notified the insurance company about.

This is their get out, if you didn't notify them. I know that's not a lot of help but am trying to think of ways round it :tinysmile_hmm_t2:

[Amethyst]

Re: Insurance company refusing payout after burglary

This may be helpful
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...perties-34.htm

not very positive but they seem quite extreme cases - however I think the Belfast one gives us a little bit of hope - I think formal complaint to Md/CEO then FOS.