Insurance paid out but now they want more excess!

[Mel C]

I wonder if anyone has any views on this...........

I have recently (well it took 6 months to resolve but that's another story!) received settlement on an insurance claim for a leak in my kitchen.

I am a leaseholder in a maisonette and the claim was made on the Freeholder's buildings insurance.

I have today received an e-mail from the assessor telling me that a mistake was made and that the £250 deducted from the settlement in respect of the policy excess should in fact have been £500.

There is a small element of works which I have yet to claim from them (they know about this and we are awaiting final quotes) and they advise that the extra £250 will be deducted from this. I assume if my final claim is less than £250 I will have to return the money out of my own pocket.

My question is.............I am pretty sure they are within their rights to do this as the Policy says whatever the Policy says. However, would there be any ethical grounds to say that they have paid out and in good faith they should waive the element which relates to their error?


Many thanks

Mel

[ashburnham]

I don't think "ethical grounds" comes into it really. If there is a £500 excess on the policy then they can deduct £500 from the settlement amount. If they had already paid you out the full amount less a £250 excess and then try to get the remaining £250 from you after settlement has been made then once again they are within there rights.

This is obviously not good practice from the insurer/assessor in question and if I was forced to repay some of my settlement money due to an administrative error on not deducting the correct excess before my claim was paid out, I would consider making a complaint. The best you could hope for is a goodwill gesture of some sort for the inconvenience (albeit the inconvenience being that they have given you too much money!).

Thankfully it hasn't got to this stage and it sounds as though they are still due to pay out some money from which it could be deducted. Think you will just have to accept their mistake and hope that this remaining settlement payment exceeds £250 so that you don't have to repay any money that you already have.