Hi, Can anybody help me regarding home contents insurance. June 2010 we had a house fire and are in the process of fighting for some of our contents money that has been deducted for the removal of debris after the fire. I have searched my policy and terms and conditions to see if this would be deducted and could not find it anywhere. I rang the insurance company and asked them if they could point it out to me. I was told that it is not on there, as they cannot put all the details on, and that money deducted for debris removal was normal practice. Surely if we were never advised that this was the case or if it is not in any policy documents they cannot do this. When I took out the policy I used the 'contents calculator' and took my contents cover based on this and thought that I had enough contents insurance to cover me and my family if ever the worst happened, at no stage did I expect nearly 15% of my claim to be deducted for removal of debris after a house fire, if I had know I would have got extra cover.

Has anybody had this situation, I am going throught the insurance companies complaints procedure at the moment and then I expect to have to go to the ombudsman.

Sounds a bit odd to me. Debris removal is just part of the costs of dealing with the claim. If they were able to deduct this, the would have to include this in the wording of the policy. Make a complaint and threaten to ask the FOS to look into this.

Send the letter of complaint in writing, send it Recorded, send it to the CEO of the insurance company. You have to wait until you get a final answer from the insurance company then you can take the matter to the FOS.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

I have sent a letter of complaint to the CEO regarding this and I had a letter back yesterday from their loss adjuster, they are still stating that

'The policy provisions in addition to the contents sum insured for the reasonable cost of temporary storage, however, any other associated costs ie. in relation to disposal fall within the contents limits'.

I still cannot see where this is in our policy document and they never gave any indication when the lose adjuster came that we would be charged over £5000 of our contents insurance to cover cost of clearing the damaged furniture out. As you can imagine we have now had to borrow money from family to replace some items. Other items will have to be bought over time. Even though our policy was old for new, due to the cost of the removal of debris they have not paid out for quite a few items or given us only a percentage of what they cost to replace. I am going to wait for their letter with the final decision then take this further.

You may have a good case, when it comes to buildings, usually in the wording it will include the costs of removing debris and paying for surveyors etc, where in contents, to my knowledge this is not listed.

On the downside, I suppose the cost has to come from somewhere. If the insurer said they wouldn't remove them for you as it's not what you were covered for what would you do? The alternative is that you reimburse the costs.

Are they not offering replacement on a lot of the items? that gives a discount and manages to lower the amount spent, increasing the remainder of the contents pot.

As long as you can get by with the amount so far offered, accept this as an interim payment - you can legally bank/accept this and in your case I'd go through the FOS route.

Hi, no they never gave us the option of clearing away stuff ourselves which would have been a lot cheaper getthing friends and family to help, plus the cost of 3 skips. My point is that at no time was it mentioned that the cost would come out of our contents money, or that they would be getting 3 quotes to get the best deal for us to remove all the damaged items. I have always read any policy that I get and if it was mentioned anywhere that the cost of clearance would come out of contents if you were unfortunate to have a fire or flood then I would have increased my contents to cover these circumstances. Surely something as important as that should be on a policy by law. It is a legal document. I am expected to tell them everything that could effect any insurance claim but it seems to me they get away with the excuse 'we cant put everything down'.

We have never been given the option for replacement items in the whole 9 months since the fire. An example of items that we have not been paid out for, a watch that the loss adjuster took a picture of, replacement cost £495 total amount paid out from insurance company £0. Play station with games and accessories replacement value £305 total paid out by insurance company £131, which can just about get the play station (not the one my children had) from ebay. My laptop that was 6 months old £499 which I replaced at £499 they have only given me £369. The list is endless, the amount of things that we got a big fat £0 for is amazing as they had proof of purchase or photographes to prove that we did have these items. My cover was new for old.

Who are your insurers?

I think the fact you send in a CEO complaint and the loss adjuster answers it says a lot, clearly a complany with no strong complaint proceedures in force. They should have someone viewing it internally, whilst not independent, with a mindset of what could happen if you take this to the FOS.

Apologies about what you already know, Like for like/new for old etc, should give you the current retail replacement, not a second hand value, whilst some goods may have come down (i.e. the computer as the spec after 6 months becomes outdated), most have not.

They have no reason to ask for receipts etc, they cleaned them away !

There is always a chance the FOS will side with the insurer, you do pay for contents cover as a total rather than anything else, the FOS may take that view, but even if you don't win that part, the rest of it needs to be looked into and reviewed.

As said above, any payment you take from them does not have to be accepted as full and final setlement, so take what they are prepared to give for now and work on it.

Hi, most of the items we have replaced cost the same because the 'old' stuff was fairly new as we had just had our house refurbished, also the VAT increase put some of the items up ie, washing machine and tumble dryer up in cost. When you buy contents insurance you are asked or can calculate the cost of replacing your contents, at no stage does it give any details as to the cost of removal of debris after a house fire or flood. Does this mean that a high percentage are under insured without knowing it? My neighbour, who's house where the fire started, got the full value of their contents, plus they were paid for clearing the debris, no monies came out of their contents insurance to pay for this. The reason I am so angry with what is going on is the fact that it is not in the policy regarding removal of debris, it is not on the AA's contents calculator, and at no stage during meetings with the lose adjuster was it ever explained. He has only put in writing that the £50 excess will have to be deducted off of the claim.

shoudent you have been claming out of your neighbours insurance

Our Insurance company are trying to reclaim back from our neighbours insurance. So they may get some or all of our claim back from their insurers.