Stolen Jewellery and Insurance Company now is offering Vouchers!

Ned Jones

Hello all,
I need some advice, about 3 months ago I home was broken into and a large number of items were stolen from our home. Some things were extremely semimetal to me like a watch my grandfather gave to me and my wife had some things that her mother gave to her. They were valuable but we never really looked at them that way.
We had a loss Adjuster visit our home (seemed to be really on our side) he told us to complete a list of items that were stolen from our home which we did. It took him 6 weeks to reply to us and then he offered vouchers!! My wife and I have tried to negotiate this with him however he won’t budge. He told us that this has been tried and tested within the courts and we have no alternative. Is this true?
Is there anything we can do?

Ned Jones

Hello all,
I need some advice, about 3 months ago I home was broken into and a large number of items were stolen from our home. Some things were extremely semimetal to me like a watch my grandfather gave to me and my wife had some things that her mother gave to her. They were valuable but we never really looked at them that way.
We had a loss Adjuster visit our home (seemed to be really on our side) he told us to complete a list of items that were stolen from our home which we did. It took him 6 weeks to reply to us and then he offered vouchers!! My wife and I have tried to negotiate this with him however he won’t budge. He told us that this has been tried and tested within the courts and we have no alternative. Is this true?
Is there anything we can do?

Jet Black

Does it say in you policy document or terms and conditions how a claim will be paid?

aisog

I have a similar story, home broken into TV, playstation, laptop etc taken along with jewellery. I went to a loss assessor when the offer of jewellery vouchers came back. A lot of the jewellery taken had been inherited and really can’t be replaced, same as yourself for sentimental value. The solicitor in Pro Insurance Claims (www.proinsuranceclaims.ie)told me that this type of thing hasn’t been challenged by the courts or the ombudsman and they are looking into it for me. I don’t know how well you will get on taking on the insurance company on your own!

RangeR

Do your insurance terms and conditions [policy] state that you will be paid in cash or vouchers? I've never heard of insurance companies offering vouchers before. But I have heard of insurance companies not giving cash but replacing the items instead [to counter potential insurance fraud].


Edit : This seems like a very odd statement for this person to make.
Note : Just because he said it, doesn't make it true.

He told us that this has been tried and tested within the courts and we have no alternative.

dudara

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

tHE vAGGABOND

But I have heard of insurance companies not giving cash but replacing the items instead [to counter potential insurance fraud]

Agreed, its pretty standard these days to be fair..

You insure item "x" for a value, so they give you a voucher to replace "x" to the insured value

Toots

Threads merged. OP please do not cross post your thread across multiple forums. One is enough.

UrbanFox

Check the policy wording.

Some policies will indicate that the insurer may provide indemnity by repairing, replacing, reinstating or making a payment. I think that the option to be used is decided by the insurers in each case. I do not think that the client has the right to select a particular option. This is usually made clear in the policy wording which is the basis of the contract.

As long as the insurers are providing an indemnity (or new for old if that is covered) there is probably no basis for complaint.

I suspect that insurers who usually settled by issuing a settlement cheque are simply trying to find cheaper alternative methods to meet their obligations to the policyholders. The trouble is that some of these "options" were always in policy wordings for years but were not applied as often as is now the case.

oldyouth

What Urban Fox said. When times are tough, jewellery claims are a soft target for insurers. The chancers bring about a situation where insurers are left with no option but to.replace the lost item rather than provide a cash option. The right to do that has always been there, though not always exercised

useless

What UrbanFox said. And its not just jewellery. I know of one insurer in Ireland who, after paying out on a rash of 'stolen & burnt out' construction equipment a couple of years ago, adopted a policy of offering like for like replacement instead of a cash settlement.