Need a little advice please

My house got burgled on the 19th December 2006 (the day before I was due to go away on holiday) and it got burgled again while I was away, (between xmas and new year).

Filled in the claim forms early January. Got a couple of letters from the insurance co , Zurich and met with a loss adjuster (appointed by Zurich but not actually a Zurich employee) in February. Had a couple of letters off them then it all went very quiet, I ended up calling Zurich and was told I would have to see yet another loss adjuster. I had a meeting with this (a Zurich employee) loss adjuster early May (was like being interviewed by the police, had to sign each page like a statement).

Had still not heard anything else from them by early July so I wrote a letter of complaint. I had a telephone call from them on Friday 13th June saying they had acknowledged receipt of my complaint and had responded by post but as we had a postal strike on that day I would not receive it until a day late (I had given them 5 working days to reply in my complaint letter) , in the same call they went on to blame the delay on the floods !!! and informed me that a letter of offer had actually been sent out 22nd May (strangely enough before the floods ! ! ) . I had not received this letter which is strange because I received renewal reminders off them on a regular basis.

I had them re-send the letter of offer out which I have received today, the offer is a little under 2/3 of the original claim amount.

Do I have to accept this offer ?? if not what is the procedure for rejecting it ?

In light of the complaint (even the complaints investigator was at a loss to explaion the delays) which I believe would be upheld. Should I accept the offer , carry on with the complaint and hope for compensation, the difference between the offer and the original claim amount ??

Sorry for the long winded post but wanted to get as much detail in as possible.

Hi Andy,

From my experience of compenstation only £20 is usually offered, so I will not concerntrate on that.

However from a claims perspective, regarding the settlement amount, you need to ask how they have come to that figure. I think that they have worked out how much it would cost to replace your goods through their preferred suppliers (where they get a hefty discount), then added a further discount for cash settling it.

If you are happy with receiving cash (which will not provide real indemnity), then you can appeal against the amount, and they might increase it a little, however, you are entitled to have the goods replaced - and I would recommend this way. All you need to do is to ask for the goods to be replaced through their suppliers. If they disagree, post back and I will advise further.

Good Luck

Thanks for the reply , I dont really want the goods replaced as the whole thing has made us decide to bring forward our move abroad by a few years. So wil really want to replace the goods in Spain ....

Basically if they had offered this ammount within a reasonable time of the claim then I would accept it, but in my mind they have "dragged" it on so long that the actual cost of the goods now (mainly electrical) has come down considerably.

I want appeal against the ammount they have offered but am not sure of how to go about it ..

I can't believe how long they have taken to handle your claim, it's outrageous! I had to claim after a burglay in November 2003. I was insured with the Halifax at the time and it related to £1000 of goods. They approved the claim almost instantly and advised me to contact Empire Direct to order replacemet items. Within 48 hours my repalcement goods had been delivered.

I think you have very good grounds to formally complain as 7 months to process this is unacceptable.