legal insurance sold by FSB worthless

[carolann01]

hi

can anybody advise we took out legal cover to protect us from ant future litigation that may happen regarding our business

we had our water pipe smashed broken by local farmer when he was excavating in the field /we have private water suply not uncommon in this area of aberdeenshire

farmer would not take responsability for it so we had to take civil action to recover our costs our business was shut down as the water then became contaminated, we spoke to FSB who then put us in contact with there legal dept, abby legal protection we explained situation ,then 5 days later got letter fron levy and macrea based in glasgow containing letter to say they would reprosent us and we would have to pay £750 upfront .

found that realy odd that they would ask for money upfront considering we thought are costs would be met by insuras

we quized them further they then seid that the claim had not been approved as yet .

further phone calls later we were told that abby had dismissed the claim on the grounds that the costs could not be quantifeid

we then argued this to no avail

contacted fso they investigated and seid that abby had comback wth the clause of contamination

but it was the pipe that was broken resulting in the contamination

we are at loss we feel that the FSB have in fact sold us a policy that is not fit for purpose

and considering that they set themselfs up as the champoin and advisors for small busineses it a joke

cab anybody advise on this our civil case is still ongoing have had to meet the costs ourselfes at moment and we are fighting the farmers insuras

cheers carol:-(

[carolann01]

hi

can you help we had both insurance claims regected by abby legal sold to us BY THE FSB and our business insurance

the first was to cover us against any potential legal litigation that we may have

they regected the claim on the grounds that the costs were inquntifiable

when we objected they then regected the claim on the grounds that it was due to comtamination

we had our fresh water suply pipe smashed by local famer making the water indrinkable we are now at presant into private litigation for compensation

the second insura alianz regected the claim on exclusion of polution

hair splitting or what

we have been to the fso who just interpreted the policy exclusions to us and seid nothing they could do i see that an other member has had the benifits of this inadequte service as well

are there companys lawyers who can take up the challange with these insuras on our behalf

advise much needed

thanks

Edited June 13, 2009 by citizenB
Post moved from another thread and retitled

[citizenB]

Hi Caroline, I moved a post you had made today from another thread. I doubt you will receive any advice in that section.

 

I am sure someone will be along to offer advice soon.

 

BTW, who are FSB ?

[Helford]

Hi,

 

FSB are the Federation of Small Business who offer a legal ADVICE service as part of their standard membership. THe advice service is just that an advice service and they do not actually put their hands in their pockets to pay for legal services. The legal advice service is provided by Abbey Legal Protection who are a reputable legal expenses insurer.

 

In this case did the FSB (Via their appointed Insurance Broker) actually sell you a legal expenses policy. If so you will have a Key Facts document/Summary of Cover explaining the cover provided. My suspicion is that their is only the advice service in place.

 

If your property has been damaged then your first 'port of call' would ordinarily be your own property insurers who would then deal and make a claim against those allegedly responsible for the damage. The claim would be for the material damage to the pipe and the rectification costs. The contamination issue only arises if the damage was not promptly make good. The fact that your business was shut down due to water contamination should have been picked up under the Business Interruption section of any business insurance you hold (If any. What sort of business do you run?) again the insurer would seek to make a recovery.

 

H

[carolann01]

we run holiday cottages and your right no mention of the fact that we can claim under the business interruption has been mentioned this has been going on now for 6 mnts

the legal cover was sold to us as part of the fsb membership and the rep sat in my home and told me that all litigation problems would be coverd

there was no mention of limitations

as far as allianz are concerned it is contamination in the broad sence and we are not coverd

we then claimed on our home insurance with nowchich uinion

and had our claim upheld for repaire of the smashed pipe

ironicaly it was the same company appointed to asess the claim for both allianz and norwhich union that came to seperate conclusions

its a real nightmare to us to find both policies are usless

and i am not having a go at the fso and as they seid their sevice is free

but all we got was an interpretation of the insurance companys small print

i could have done that myself

were is the fair play by insuras here

also they first declined the claim /alianz on the fact that they could not sanction owing to it being the farmewrs fault and we should persue him

when the fso became involved it was interpretad as contamination

thanks carol