Insurance is a fact of life for just about everyone, whether you are a homeowner, a tenant, or you need to protect valuables like your phone, tablet or laptop.
In an ideal world you would never have to make a claim, but insurance offers peace of mind – and if you are a homeowner it’s a pre-requisite for being able to get a mortgage. And of course insurance is there to fall back on if something goes wrong due to burglary, theft, loss or damage.
Insurance companies in the UK handle millions of claims each year, paying out billions of pounds to their customers. But what if something goes very badly wrong? Where do you turn if you try and sort it out with the insurer, but you’re getting nowhere, and you end up out of pocket or you’re otherwise unfairly treated?
The Financial Ombudsman Service
This is where the Financial Ombudsman Service comes in. It’s a free, easy-to-use service that was set up by Parliament specifically to help people who have a complaint about financial product and services.
They can look at complaints about banking, credit cards and loans, fraud and scams, insurance claims, investments and pensions, whether they are contacted by individual customers, small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs), charities or trusts.
So if you have a problem with your insurance company and you are unhappy with how they have handled things, the Financial Ombudsman Service may be able to help.
They can investigate how your insurer has dealt with the problem, and they have the powers to put things right.
Which sorts of complaints can they help with?
Every year the Financial Ombudsman Service helps to resolve thousands of complaints about financial products and services, many of them to do with insurance. These complaints can be in relation to any of a number of different types of insurance and various scenarios.
Home insurance can protect you against damage to your property, for example as a result of accidental damage, weather, such as storms, flooding, or ground movement, such as subsidence.
Contents insurance is different in that it covers your possessions, for example your TV, jewellery, furniture or clothes. Insurance companies sometimes define this as everything that would fall out of your house if you turned it upside down.
Mobile phone and gadget insurance (e.g. your tablet, camera and accessories, games console or satnav) usually protects you against things like accidental loss, accidental damage or theft. You’re normally only covered for damage that stops the phone or gadget working, not cosmetic damage.
There are a number of ways in which an insurance claim can go wrong, for example:
- Disputes over which items should be classed as contents or buildings for insurance cover
- Claims where the insurer has done the repairs but they haven’t fixed the problem
- Where the insurer says it can repair the damage but you think the item should be replaced
- Where you’ve been offered a replacement by the insurer but it’s not the same as what you lost
If you are concerned about how you have been treated in relation to any of the above areas, or anything else to do with insurance, the Financial Ombudsman Service is ready to listen and help.
Making a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service
The Financial Ombudsman is absolutely free to use. When you contact them, they will gather the evidence from you, the financial services business, and any relevant third parties, and they will investigate what has happened.
Once they’ve finished investigating, they will decide whether the business treated you fairly or not, and explain to you how they reached their decision.
If they think the business treated you unfairly, they will set out what they think needs to be done to put things right. They might also ask them to compensate you for any distress and inconvenience caused to you.