Firstly, OMG!! What I nightmare for both of you, I would be tearing my hair out by now! Lesson 1....never ever buy insurance offered by the store for any kind of product, inc sofa's & electrical goods etc...But i'm sure you don't need me to tell you this! Have either of you approached your Home insurance companies? If you have Accidental Damage cover on your Contents, they will replace the dmg'd item for you. Admittedly there will be a policy excess, & they will only replace the dmg'd item plus a maximum contribution of 50% towards the undmg'd items, but that has to be better than all this. Why don't either of you approach Watchdog? I am sure they would be very interested in this appalling situation, this is far worse than the usual delays you see in claim situations. Also, to sell insurance of any kind they must be regulated, therefore I am sure the Financial Ombudsman Service would be happy to review your complaint, that's assuming you have been through their coomplaints procedures internally. If it were me, I would be going into the store & demanding a new suite now - & i wouldn't leave until I got one. After all, £150 for an Accidental Dmg policy is pretty extortionate anyway, my whole Buildings & Contents policy including Accidental Damage doesn't cost much more than that!!

That sounds good to me, they can't argue with that!! My only concern though is the forensic evidence, they must feel they have enough forensic evidence to prove that the incident did not happen in the way in which you say it did. This type of investigation costs insurers alot of money, as they are able to tell which way the paint fell, how long it has been there, how it was applied (i.e. dropped, thrown, painted on). They will not back down on this if they feel they have sufficient evidence, but i'm sure you won't either! They may will void your policy from inception as well, which basically means treating the policy as if it never existed - this will make it very difficult for you to get insurance in the future as you have a duty to disclose to any new potential insurer whether you have had insurance cancelled in the past. I would be very interested to find out how this turns out for you.

Hi there, I am very sorry to hear about your loss. It is a shame insurers cannot be more compassionate during difficult times. Unfortunately alot of companies do tend to treat their customers as numbers, rather than individuals, & rather than looking at the individual circumstances of every case, their staff just follow rigid procedures, as they have been trained to do. Happily I work for an insurer that is making great efforts to move away from this mindset, & we seem to be making progress. As far as a cancellation charge goes, yes unfortunately most insurers do have this written into their policies. And unfortunately again, they don't differentiate on reason why the policy is being cancelled, they don't make a judgement call - to them, a cancellation is a cancellation, regardless of reason...& unfortunately it is processes like this that give the insurance industry a bad name. I would imagine the cancellation charge itself is somewhere between £30-£60, & the remainder of that is premiums due up until the end of the year, as insurance is an annual product, paying monthly simply spreads the cost across 12 months, rather than paying on a month by month basis, as alot of people assume they are. If I were you I would just pay it, they aren't doing anything unlawful but I fully appreciate why this has left a very nasty taste in your mouth. It is easier just to pay, move on & forget it, you've got more important things to think about right now.

Have you told your insurance company that you wish to retain the salvage of your vehicle (keep your vehicle)? If so, the total loss settlement offer would be less the salvage value of your vehicle (usually a few hundred pounds) - you shouldn't have to 'buy your vehicle back at auction'. Therefore you should get to keep your vehicle & receive a chq for the total loss value net the excess & salvage value of the car. Once you have had the vehicle restored to a roadworthy condition, you will have to have another MOT done before the insurer will insure the vehicle again. Not sure if you have had these discussions with the insurer? There is nothing wrong with accepting an 'interim' payment, & if I were you, I would write back to them clearly stating that you are happy to accept their chq as an interim payment ONLY, & that you still think it falls short of the market value & are therefore still referring the matter to the FOS. I think what they mean in their letter, is that it is frowned upon to refer to the FOS & take them to court at the same time, the FOS may not look on your case too favourably if you were to do both. They should certainly not be discouraging their customers to approach the FOS, I think the FOS would be very interested to hear that they are doing this!!!

Do you know who the insurance is with? Did she ring the bank because it was taken out via them i.e. Barclays? If the insurance was taken out via the bank, it won't be them that actually underwrite the policy, for example, if it is Barclays, it is likely to be underwritten by Norwich Union. Has she got an insurance schedule or any paperwork anywhere that could tell her who the insurance is with? Or when your father paid for year, there must be something on a bank statement somewhere to say where the cheque/card payment went? The simplest thing to do is to ring the bank, ask them who their home insurance is underwritten by & then contact that insurance company - most insurance companies would be happy with a copy of the death certificate, this should be enough to advise whether your mother in currently on cover or not - this could be faxed to speed things up. They will need power of atorrney in the event of a claim, or if she wishes to cancel the policy or make any amendments though. Hope this helps.

Again, the best policy is honesty in these situations. Explain that it had not been declared as your father was going through his heart by-pass at the time & it was something that was simply over looked. I'm sure they will look at it favourably & simply deduct additional premiums (if any, will be very minimal).

What they mean by 'cancelled' in this context is where an insurer has cancelled a policy due to submission of a fraudulent claim or fraudulent activity on the policy etc etc... It just means that if you don't disclose at the inception of the policy that you have had a policy cancelled by another insurer, they may not pay a claim if the non-disclosure is discovered. The best thing to do in situations like this is ring them up, tell them your concern, ask for their reassurance, take the full name of the person you spoke to, the time & date & if you have any problems in the future (highly unlikely) then you will have this to prove you queried it. How if the total loss claim coming along? Have you pushed it with the FOS? Court action is not really appropriate in this situation, the FOS should be able to sort it amicably for you.

To be honest, it is highly unlikely that More Th>n will pay out on this claim. Unfortunately for you, the loss is as of a direct result of deception, which is a standard exclusion in most motor policies. You cannot blame the insurance company although i appreciate it is a very very upsetting situation to be in. Obviously this is not what you want to here, & the only other route is the hope of catching the culprit who sold it to you, followed by a successful prosecution resulting in an order for him to pay you back your £7k + legal fee's - but this is a lengthy & often unsuccessful process tho i'm afraid.

If your car has been written off, you won't get a courtesy car anyway. I don't see any reason why the salvage yard can't post your belongings to you, I used to arrange this for customers - alot of people can't get about easily when their vehicle has been written off. As for waiting 3 months for a settlement offer, this is unacceptable. They cover you, & have confirmed your car is a total loss, so should be making you an offer now. Who's fault it was will be established in the meantime & MID/CUE checks take a matter of days - it does not hold up the claims settlement. Insurers use Parkers & Glasses guide to value vehicles, based on age, mileage, condition etc..it is worth looking on Autotrader on-line for similar vehicles so you get an idea of what it was worth at the time of the crash - take mileage & condition into consideration tho! You won't get what the vehicle is insured for, the insurers are liable to pay you the market value only.

That is correct, most insurers offer replacement policies these days & that means they have a duty to put you back in the position you were in before the loss - this means replacing the exact same TV. If that model is no longer available, they have to provide one which is the closet spec to the one you've lost - by spec I mean, size, capacity, colour etc...it doesn't necessarily mean make. All insurers will let you upgrade the item if you want to, & contribute towards a better item if you so wish. Remember though, if you go to your own shop or supplier, insurers receive a discount with their nominated suppliers, so if you want a cash settlement, this will be significantly less than the value of the TV. Always better to go with the replacement option!

Ask them where they got the £1000 from, presumably this is based on an estimate for repair from the garage it was assessed at? You want to see the estimate, otherwise how will you know that you can get the insured repairs done for £1000? And if they are telling you you can get the insured repairs done at £1000, why are they not instructing their garage to do the repairs? I get a feeling they have just plucked this figure out of the air. You are equally entitled to get a garage of your choice to estimate for these repairs, you can then compare what they say with the estimate from your insurer.

6 months is an awfully long time, however as it was such a minor knock, the third party just probably hasn't got round to booking their car in for repair yet. To put it into context, I had a fairly bad accident in February, I caused £9.5k worth of dmg to my car, wrote off 2 other cars & caused 2 (minor) injury claims. I was going on holiday the following week, when I got back from holiday my car had been repaired & since collecting it, I have heard nothing more from my insurer, nor do I expect to. Although by now, they will have paid out for the 2 cars I wrote off, & also the injury claims - this is what insurance is for, insurers do it all for you! If I were you, I would ring your insurers & ask them to get in contact with the third party insurers to ask them whether their insured still intends on claiming (for all you know, they may have sold the vehicle or anything in that time period). If they are still claiming, ask them whether they have had an estimate yet - they should have either a) had one of their nominated approved repairers assess the car or b) received an estimate from their insured for the repair. At least you will then know the costs involved, although i do fear they may well replace the bumper, as is so often the case with these sorts of claims. You are probably looking at a few hundred pounds at least. You might also find that the repair has been carried out & the claim done & dusted. Just give them a ring, they will be able to give you all the info you need.

What reasons did they give you for refusing to increase their offer? I presume the examples you sent them were on a like for like basis with your vehicle? i.e same age, same mileage, same condition etc etc?? You've done right to approach the FOS, remember, it costs the insurer approx £750 for the FOS to review your file, so it would probably make better business sense just to settle with you!

If this is what the policeman has advised you to do, then do it. It's a 5 minute call out of your day & your insurers will tell you whether they need to know or not. It's best to keep them informed of any changes that may affect your policy in some way. Although I am not entirely sure why they would need to know, it may be something to do with any potential injury claims under your legal expenses cover....ring them & see!

As I said previously, to resolve this situation amicably you should provide them with a copy of your new insurance certificate. It's all very well saying 'it's none of their damn business' but this attitude isn't going to get you anywhere & will just prolong the angst for you. If you want to get this resolved & move on to more important things in life, then do the necessary & resolve never to go near this company again. Far too many people spend hours of their precious lives argueing over a 'principle' with a company, what is the point?!

Hi Cisco Did you take insurance with another company then instead? & did you tell One Call that you didn't wish to renew the policy? If you've got insurance with another insurer, then by simply sending them a copy of the new certificate should suffice. And if you told them you did not wish to renew, they should not have continued to take payments from your bank. However, if you didn't tell them to cancel the insurance & assumed it would automatically cancel, then they were within their rights to continue to take premiums as most policies auto renew unless you say otherwise. However, as I said, if you can provide them with evidence that another insurance was in place or that you sold your vehicle, they should go away & stop pestering you! You have to remember though, from their point of view, if you didn't tell them you wanted to cancel the policy, but are now telling them you didn't want to renew, you may have been on cover with that vehicle for the last few months but are now expecting a refund. So as long as you can provide evidence that you either a) didn't need insurance or b) had insurance elsewhere - you should be fine.

Phone your insurers & tell them that you are worried because your car is sitting there in a dmg'd state & you feel that it is now more of a target for further vandalism &/or theft. I'm sure they would let you take it to the garage ready for the repairs to be completed, & push through the authorisation of repairs - it's better this way than having to deal with a theft claim! If it does get stolen, the theft will need to be reported to the police & you will be asked to go through the circumstances, including what you were doing immediately prior to & after discovering the theft. If the vehicle is found, then the dmg will be repaired in addition to the dmg already sustained - however this will inevitably mean 2 excesses as will be classed as 2 seperate incidents. Or, if it is not recovered, they will make you a total loss settlement offer based on the market value of the vehicle at the time of the loss (the vandalism dmg should make no difference to the price as they were intending on repairing this to put you back in a pre-incident position). The sum insured is irrelevant, & the price they offer will be based on either Glasses or Parkers guide, with adjustments made for mileage. This is all academic at this stage though, but I would strongly suggest keeping the channels of communication open with your insurer, call them & tell them about your concerns.

They are definately trying to decline it under Gradually Operating Cause, but it is covered under the Escape of Water peril (not Accidental Damage) - as long as she notified the insurers as soon as she was aware of the leak, that is all that can be asked. The issue in question is that she didn't notify them as soon as she noticed it, hence them trying to decline it as an on-going problem. As long as she makes it clear to the insurers that she acted as soon as her neighbours came back from holiday, & she didn't know it was a leak, they should cover under the Escape of Water peril - all resultant dmg to Buildings & Contents will be covered (as long as she has cover for both). Any self respecting customer focused insurer would cover this as a standard EOW claim, your neighbours insurers are looking for a way to decline the claim, rather than a way to help their customer. With a bit of pressure, they should cover this without question. I have dealt with these types of cases numerous times over the years - having worked for companies that try to decline everything & companies that are doing what's right by the customer....so I know how it works!

It depends on the engineer & his workload really, he'll either amend his report & re-submit it to them, which could take up to a week or so. Or they could just note their claim file. There is a slim chance he might need to go back out to ascertain what the dmg is you are claiming for, and what is old damage - this way he can ensure his estimated costings are correct & subsequently authorise the garage to go ahead if he feels their costings are fair. If they do tell you he is going out again, it may be worth you meeting him there just to be doubly sure.

I've never heard of an insurer charging any kind of penalty if you want to use your own repairer, are you sure about that??? And again, if they do deem your car to be a total loss, they should offer you the opportunity to buy the car back as salvage...do you know what category they've placed on the car? Certainy category total losses can be bought back as salvage, & others can't. If you do buy it back as salvage & have it repaired, the insurer will require a fresh MOT cert before insuring it again, but that's just common sense! I do suggest you speak to the FOS though as I believe your insurers are advising you incorrectly & this is making it hard for you to understand what your rights are.

What should happen now then is that the engineer should authorise the garage to go ahead with the insured repairs. You should get a courtesy car from the garage for the duration of the repairs, and will need to pay your policy excess before you collect your vehicle. It should be as straight forward as that!

Yes, the preferred supplier will give the insurer a discount, & insurers prefer you to use their suppliers for this reason, but you do not HAVE to. Most garages, whether they are insurer preferred or your personal preference, will offer a guarantee on works &/or parts. I smashed up my Mazda earlier this year & there was no way I was going to the insurers repairer as my car was under warranty & needed to be repaired at a Mazda garage to enable the validity of the warranty. You have every right to get your own quote for repair, don't let the insurers tell you otherwise as this is incorrect. If in doubt, contact the Financial Ombudsman Service for free impartial advice 0845 080 1800.

Under the terms of most buildings insurance policies, you will be covered as standard for resultant water damage caused following a leak from any fixed water or heating installation...in this case a pipe in the bathroom. As a policyholder, it is a term & condition of the policy to mitigate any loss, therefore as soon as the leak was evident, your neighbour should've acted & had the leak repaired. Most insurers do not cover plumbing costs, it is therefore the policyholders responsibility to get the leak asap & the insurer should then deal with the resultant damage. However, as you have explained above, your neighbour acted as soon as she was able to, as the property in which she thought the leak originated, was not accessible. Therefore she could argue that she acted propmtly (i.e. as soon as her neighbour returned from holiday) & would've acted sooner had she of know the extent of the dmg behind the panelling. This is definately worth fightin, as there repudiation is based on very flimsy ground. I would suggest referring to the Financial Ombudsman Service 0845 080 1800 if she doesn't get any joy with the insurers complaints procedure, I am certain the FOS would rule in your favour based on the information you have provided. It is free for the consumer to approach the FOS.

The best policy is honesty, the insurers can only go on what the engineer tells them in his report & when he went out to inspect the vehicle, it is quite possible your garage showed him all the dmg, possibly by mistake, possibly hoping that it would all be dealt with under one claim & they would get paid for it. Phone your insurers, explain the situation as you have explained it on here. You are not going to get into trouble with any fraud unit if you are honest, although the motor engineer may remember your garage as less than honest perhaps! A) Explain there was previous dmg but you didn't have it repaired as it was too expensive. Explain that this was to the rear of the car & was nothing to do with the new dmg. B) Explain that this is a new incident, theft of stereo plus dents & scratches. C) Explain that you told your garage what you were claiming for, & that you were not claiming for the old dmg, but they failed to make this clear to the insurers. Apologise, tell them you are embarrassed & you want to clear this up. They are only people at the end of the phone & there is often confusion like this when there are several parties involved. Just be straight with them & there shouldn't be any problem!

Am I missing the point here? The ONLY reason the car is a write off is because the insurers say it will cost more than the market value of the car, to repair it. Presumably they have established this by sending it to one of their approved repairers for assessment? Why don't you say to them that you are getting an assessment from a garage of your choice, & if the estimate for repair comes in at less than the market value, they should let you have it repaired & send them the bill! This way it costs them less too! There is no reason why they shouldn't let you do this - especially as it was only minor dmg.