Just over two months ago my wife and I got back from holiday to discover our kitchen was flooded as the result of a burst pipe situated behind the plasterboard located in the area of the sink unit. I notified the insurer, Esure, who promptly sent out a company called Building Validation Solutions (BVS) to assess my claim. The guy from BVS acknowledged the claim and agreed we were entitled to a settlement. During the site visit I was told that he would draw up a scope of works and then authorise a cheque by way of settlement, and that he'd phone through the amount of the payment that evening. The damage was quite extensive and required the installation of dehumidifiers, replacement chipboard flooring throughout the kitchen & utility, replacement base level kitchen units (for our bespoke kitchen) and new vinyl flooring that had been fitted less than one year ago. Also included in the scope of works were replacement architraves and skirting boards, and a contribution towards the cost of redecoration. The guy from BVS said that they leave the customer to find their own contractors, preferring to put the insured in a position to get the work done quickly by making a speedy settlement. I got a phone call from the BVS assessor at approximately 7.30 pm that same evening with an offer of £1700, minus the policy excess for water damage of £350, a net amount of £1350! The vinyl flooring we'd installed less than a year prior to the claim cost £500 alone. The BVS claims assessor further said that he'd instruct a cheque to be issued the very next day. I then remonstrated that the settlement figure seemed awfully low, but was assured that the figures were properly costed and a breakdown of the scope of works he'd drawn up would be available on BVS’s website for my inspection. Having spent a sleepless night wondering how on earth I’d get the work done on the payment I’d been offered, I phoned the BVS chap the following morning and told him to hold fire on a settlement; I was going to conduct my own research. To cut a very long story short, I decided to appoint a Chartered Loss Adjuster to work on my behalf and paid for a RICS survey, the cost of which would be reimbursed IF BVS’s scope of works was found wanting. Following several meetings between my loss adjuster and then another claims company appointed by the insurer, I had a telephone call today informing that Esure had agreed to settle the claim at a figure in excess of £10,000. My learning points from this experience: Do not take it for granted that the insurer will appoint an impartial loss assessor Do not accept a first offer of cash settlement Appoint your own Chartered Loss Adjustor if you think your claim will likely run into thousands of pounds

If you're a lady driver, I would be very wary about using this company, as they have some serious computer issues that may leave you driving uninsured. I have just found out today that my wife has been driving our children around uninsured for 3 days because Esure lost her proof of no claims bonus on not just one, but two occasions. They claim they have written several letters that have mysteriously not arrived, and our first proof of no claims bonus we sent to them also mysteriously didn't arrive. I find it hard to believe that in 2015, so much post from/to one company can go missing, without it being an issue with the company themselves. I arrived home today to find out that they had just cancelled my wife's insurance policy without warning and refused to reinstate it, without me paying for a new policy via credit card over the phone. I was left with no other option but to purchase another policy, otherwise my wife would have been out driving our children home with no cover. I hate to think what would have happened if she had been in a crash and needed the insurance policy during this period.

Hi there, Need some advice here. I'm right in the middle of this and desperately need to know if im doing right, or am I fighting a losing battle? My Vauxhall Astra (RIP) went in to a garage mid July to have some work done plus handbrake tightening as it was coming up on 4/5 clicks and only just staying on. I've had all pads done March/April this year. Anyway cut long story short, I parked my car up on the afternoon of getting it back and 1.45 minutes I got a knock on my door to say my car had gone down the hill, writing it off and writing someone else car off in the process. I received a courtesy car, and then finds out by enterprise that I've received a settlement. Esure never rang me, I had to wait till the Monday to find out, In the meantime I had to take the hire car back and spend money on my credit card, buying a new car whilst I wait for the pay-out. Throughout all this, I have maintained to Esure and Kc Autos I wanted my Astra handbrake testing, because I wanted to take the garage who had fixed it to court over my excess and loss on my no claims. Esure said they would have the car examined and the handbrake tested, I was told send all documents to the breakers COPARTS, Who'd bought the car off Esure. Esure had my car collected without testing its handbrakes, and now all documentation with coparts has gone missing. What can I do now? Esure, are surly to blame for this, as they marked my incident down as a fault incident, But haven't investigated the cause so that I can go and take the garage to court. I'm so annoyed about all this. As you probably can tell from my ramblings on ;-) sorry So

Dear All I was hit by a car in the rear and my car bumped into a car in front. Luckily we were not at high speed. The car hit me failed to stop and run away. I was shocked and could not note the reg number. Police could not trace the car either. The car I bumped into claiming against MIB or against my insurance? I am puzzled, insurance company is holding me liable even though it was not my fault? Thank you.

E-Sure cancelled my insuance without notification. Below is the email i sent to them. Good afternoon, Please could you re-instate my cancelled insurance and refund the newer insurance(taken out 25/11/2013), or revise the new insurance to equal the premium of the previous insurance. I didn’t receive the welcome pack hence the following email was sent to you on the 1st of October. ---- Hi, Please could i have my policy documents sent to email 2 rather than email 1 (email removed due to zero postings) Car Reg is:AM**UC* Cover set to start from 30/09/2013 I havent received a confirmation yet, could you confirm that my vehicle is now insured. Thank you Reply: Dear Mr H*s*a*n, Thank you for your recent enquiry. We would like to advise that due to security reasons we are unable to send policy documents via email; however we can confirm these were issued to your home address after you accepted your policy. All documents are issued by first class post but can take between 3-5 working days to arrive, although receipt within 2 or 3 days is more usual. Should you require any further assistance, please contact us on 0845 603 7874 or via email. We are available Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 2pm. Yours sincerely --- No mention was given in your reply of an incorrect email on record; this in my view is a catastrophic failure in customer service which in-turn could result in terrible conations for the insured, luckily I’m commuter into central London, Victoria (TFL transcripts available); from my research the internet is littered with 200+cases to this effect e.g. (Search term: “E-SURE cancelled my insurance without notice”) GoCompare.com appears to be highly un-intuitive and its usage appears to result in a failure to update personal details which could subsequently lead to incorrect details being passed to your web-service, ESURE and GoCompare.com have a duty of care to their customers and a lack in process workflow must be substituted with an enhanced form of customer service in order to facilitate corrective measures. I received one letter from E-SURE dated, 15th October 2013 “Urgent we still need proof of your no claims discount” but didn’t receive any further correspondence from you, including emails; neither did I receive the welcome pack. I do not want to contact the financial ombudsman as this will automatically cost you £400; please could you re-instate my previous insurance and refund my newer insurance, or discount the current insurance. I believe the cancellation is unfair and a violation of my consumer rights. I didn’t receive the required seven day warning, or any other forms of warning apart from the first reminder. I believe in light of my previous email, contact should have been made; my wife also reminded me that I actually called you to discuss the status of my pending welcome pack and change of email; please may I also have all call transcripts. Could someone here advise me of my options. Thank you

Hi wanted to get some advice, My insurance had recently lapsed due to financial reasons in Aug (before that I have always had insurance on my car). Due to me not realising that the insurance was lapsing (and the new police system in place) my car was impounded within a week. I spoke to ESure they had cancelled my policy and refused to insure my car again, after going thru a couple of more companies i managed to get an insurance out thru eCar Insurance who were the only ones who would insure an impounded car. Using their insurance I got my car out and being silly enough, insured with ESURE again within the month for the remainder of the year to avoid any other problems... .but this is where my problems began! Firstly they cancelled my new policy after 4 weeks because they didnt receive the NCD docs in time (5 years), I called them up and explained that I had been moving houses which is why there was a delay in recieving and then forwardingthe doc but I had been told that the doc would have been with me by my previous insurer asap and i would forward it off. Regardless they cancelled the policy and SURPRISINGLY they offered me a new policy over the phone. So this was the 3rd policy with them in the 2month period. Now started the problems.. .they didnt find any of my NCB document acceptable. ..for the last 6 weeks i have been on the phone to them up and down and i have sent them a 5 year NCB from one insurere and the proof of no claims made from eCar but they didnt accept any of it. Everytime i recieved a letter saying that they are cancelling my policy (and i recieved around 6/7) I called them to talk and the person behind the phone would insure me nothing was needed from my side so i would be relieved and would carry on with my life.. .but then i would recieve another letter saying they are cancelling my policy..so I would call them to ask again what else was required. I think losing my 5 years NCB (which make around a £500/yr difference to my premium) is not so much of an issue as the stress that they have caused me. Everytime I go thru my mail I hope that there isnt a letter from ESURE asking for documents still and threatening to cancel my policy. Last time when this had happened it costed me nearly £600 to get my car back on the road...plus the legal trouble around it! Its when I get a conflicting reassurance over the phone but threatening letters by mail. latest was yesterday when once again I recieved a letter saying they are going to cancel my policy on the 12th because of no acceptable docs recieved (even though I have sent them 3 different PDF's/Emails and additional paper mail docs).. to ADD to this on the 23rd of Nov the guys i spoke to (Tony from ESURE) had told me all was fine and he had made a note on the system confirming nothing else was required as it was acceptable. It ruined another evening of my life trying to resolve this with their trainee operators who couldnt do anything but go thru the book and then saying call back at 9am because thats when anybody helpful will be on. So today I spent from 9am-11am and then 12-2pm going back and forth for them to confirm: - Tony got it wrong...AGAIN - I shouldnt have been offered a 3rd insurance policy because the previous 2 being cancelled. - they will be cancelling the policy on the 12th regardless of what I say. - they will be charging me £65 for admin fee on the 3rd policy..EVEN though I didnt qualify for the policy and it was done over the phone with the agent knowing what they were doing. So not only have they been affecting my home life by causing me stress at home with threatening letters but now I jeaopardised my new job to resolve this just to be pushed into a uninsured oblivion! I dont want a policy thru ESURE because of their customer service till now but I dont want them to get away with the way they have dealt with my policy. They could have just not given me a 3rd policy if it wasnt valid. Their systems played with my stress levels on every account from incompetent evening staff to overassuring morning staff to their threatening admin staff who happily continued sending me mails even though their system had been updated with notes from their customer service agents. If you can help with this then do let me know because kind regards