Insurance Payouts

AvonEnniskerry

Hey, this is prob a stupid question but how exactly do insurance pay outs work. Ie for contants insurance.... Say you say you need insurance to cover the value of €20,000. Something happpens and either all or part of the contents is gone... How do the insurance company value the pay out especially when they do not require a list of the goods stored within that unit... Like if the goods are stolen they can not value them after you make the claim...

oldyouth

Sorry if I'm off the mark but your question looks as if you are asking for tips on how to succeed at putting in a claim rather than asking for advice on obtaining cover to meet your needs

AvonEnniskerry

FYI.. I am not asking to suceed in making a claim but more so as I have contents insurance on my house and have just started a business. Which I need contents insurance for. I believe in understanding things in advance... and I cannot understand how they can pay out on stolen goods if they do not know if the goods were there in the 1st place.

I need to understand how a claim is calculated so we are not over or under insuring OR if anything does happen are insurance is not worth the paper it is written on...

amen

Well if you claim you have €10,000 of goods you better be able to supply an invoice for those €10,000.

Milk & Honey

amen wrote: »

Well if you claim you have €10,000 of goods you better be able to supply an invoice for those €10,000.

Some policies are new for old and an original receipt is not required. The best thing to do is talk to a loss assessor who can recommend an underwriter who will pay out promptly in the event of a claim. Always insure through a broker as well, if you want to have a chance of being paid.

AvonEnniskerry

Sorry I forgot to mention I have already asked the company providing the insurance whether or not I need receipts, as I can not provide them... I have had the majority of stuff for a number of years...

Tails142

Interested in the answer to this too...

Are you required to have the serial numbers of any item such as tv/laptop in the event that they are stolen and you need to claim?

Would be good to know what the process of claiming is, so that if the worst happens at least I'm covered somewhat from the inevitable attempts of the insurance company trying to weasel out of paying.

AvonEnniskerry

Tails142 wrote: »

Would be good to know what the process of claiming is, so that if the worst happens at least I'm covered somewhat from the inevitable attempts of the insurance company trying to weasel out of paying.

EXACTLY!!! Thank you!!

No serial numbers etc been requested...

Daisy M

What happens in the case of fire when everything including carefully kept receipts are destroyed? I doubt an insurance company can weasle out of paying anything at all.

AvonEnniskerry

Ok so... I asked my insurance broker if any receipts or proof of the items were needed for claims.. His response was no. So I asked him How exactly a claim was handled as no one seemed certain... His response was.....

They will investigate exactly what has gone missing and look for eveidence of its purchase etc and once they are satisfied that the tools etc have been stolen they will pay out…after the excess i.e. you pay the first 250


So the answer is YES they do need receipts etc. It woould have saved me a lot of hastle in the 1st place if he had just said that to begin with... I stated that we would be insuring items that had no receipts as we'd acquired them over a number of the years... He said this was not a problem... When it clearly is.. there is no point on us insuring any items that we cannot provide proof of purchase for..

Dtoffee

We have just had a fire and everything is smoke damaged. Our contents cover is €30k ...... has anyone ever got the full claim or does the loss adjuster cut your contents payout to shreds?

Strange thing is they send out a builder / fire restoration specialist and he is mad keen to get into the house and 'take care' of our belongings by boxing them and putting them into storage for us. He says he can have them cleaned as part of the service and if the insurance pays out, he will arrange to dispose of them safely !!! anyone ever have this scenario / service?


Certainly it would help us if we had an idea what is the average pay out % wise is, because the loss adjuster could throw any figure at us and say its a good deal.

kkelliher

Dtoffee wrote: »

We have just had a fire and everything is smoke damaged. Our contents cover is €30k ...... has anyone ever got the full claim or does the loss adjuster cut your contents payout to shreds?

Strange thing is they send out a builder / fire restoration specialist and he is mad keen to get into the house and 'take care' of our belongings by boxing them and putting them into storage for us. He says he can have them cleaned as part of the service and if the insurance pays out, he will arrange to dispose of them safely !!! anyone ever have this scenario / service?


Certainly it would help us if we had an idea what is the average pay out % wise is, because the loss adjuster could throw any figure at us and say its a good deal.

dont knowif you got sorted but generally you need to sunstantiate the loss. to do this you need to provide each item with a replacement cost.if something is destroyed a predamage receipt will also assist. the €30,000 is simply a max loss valuation but you wont simply get €30,000 you get an assessment against each item damaged and what it is worth.

CleoD

Photographs can be accepted also, if you are insuring jewellery or laptops iphones etc and dont have a receipt a photograph is handy for claims. Some policies have new for old, e.g your particular model of tv was bought 5 years ago and cost €1,000, however due to updated models, your particular one is now worth only €400. New for old will give you the updated version, if this isnt on the policy you will be given the deprecated value of your tv. Same goes for couches etc, if new for old is not covered you will get cost of sofa minus wear and tear.