Help Accused of making a frudlent claim on home insurance

[Gecko1978]

Any one work in insurance can help here wife is really worried.

Ok two weeks my wife tripped over in our front room with her Ipad in her hand fell onto the floor and the ipad damaged the laminate floor (gouge in it) and the glass shattered and it looks like it was bent in two.

I was in corner of the room saw her fall and saw damage to the Ipad etc. Basically just a accident.

So called the home insurance firm (whos logo is like an umberella) and made a claim the sent a guy out to look at the floor agreed it could not be patched up an agreed a price and sent us a cheque...so no news on the Ipad till today when my wife phones up and speaks to a chap for an house who says. He has never seen an Ipad damage a floor before or get in such a state from a fall and that a 6lb hammer could not damage laminate floor etc (I broke through a steal reinforced concreate floor at a property I am renovating with a hammer of similar weight it was hard but not immposible) and that my wife may be making a frudelent claim,

He goes onto say they will be using a forensic team if we wish to pursure this who are very good at spotting false clamins (Hawkins and Hawkins) and that if my wife pursues this he will advise the firm the claim is frudlent and they will cancel our cover and we will not be able to get insurance going forward.

He said he would send a lertter out and she had 14 days to think again about the claim. if she did not respond claim would be dropped but she would have to pay back thwe £500 for the floor they had already agreed.


OK so what can we do, I saw her fall I say the otherwise pristine Ipad shater and bend I saw gouge appear in laminate floor but how can I prove this other than what my wife has already said. They say its immpossible yet I saw it happen!!!!!


So do I drop it pay them cash back and forget about it. We have never made a claim in nine years of owning a home and first time we do we are accused of fraud how can this be right that insurance firm can threaten this and ask for cash back when claim is truthful.

Not that it makes a difference but I can easily afford to buy an ipad but why pay for one when you have insurance its not like there is a new model out or I have "lost it" but really sold it on ebay etc

[Gecko1978]

hedgefinder said:

If its a genuine claim , whats to worry about, just stand your ground.

The implication was that the insurance firm would require us to prove this when they felt all the evidence poited to a false claim.

So what more can I do, not being a expert in Quntum Physics I can't build a time machine and go back and film it. I can only reiterate what happened. One would hope a forensic team would find a fragment of the ipad in the floor etc (even though we hovered up the glass as we have 11 month old baby)

Seems to me the insurance firm are trying to get out of paying

[Gecko1978]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I have never had an issue like this before and after first guy had been to look at the floor I figured all was well when they sent the cheque (£570 for new flooring). Seems the issue was with the Ipad causing the damage, just had a look at the case it was in and there are tears an damages to all four sides with glass fragments from the ipad still in it.

So it seems there attitude to this being immposible is not true. But hey they are doing there job just the Oik on the phone bullied my wife for over an hour till she was in a right state thinking she had commited a crime.

But the PH faithful are right fk them we did nothing wrong and they (same firm) have taken our cash for 9 years happily until we actually weanted to use th eservice we have paid for so I am not letting this one go.

Thanks once again you have restored my faith in commen decency whihc is sadly lacking in most of the people I encounter day to day (I work in a bank so maybe not surprising)

[Gecko1978]

Simpo Two said:

If true it's inexcusable; the culprit should be sacked.

An HOUR?

Yeah an hour they said when she fiollowed up in the morning that they would call back at 2pm as someone had to ask her more questions it would take 30 mins. An hour later my wife on the point of tears tells me about it saying she is worried we will never get insurance now.

To give it a bit of context my wife is a bit sensative curretly as our daughter is about to start full time nurssery and she is 11 months old and my wife is find that hard.

Not the insurance companies fault etc but implying she is a criminal takes the piss.

[Gecko1978]

Thanks for all the replies I had not read them before my last post.

Re owning an Ipad...we did own one and gave it to the courier as per insurance request so they have seen it. They argue it could not have been done by falling on it. Maybe this is true and I am a frudster wanting £500 to buy a new one after the one I nicked on the tube stopped working...(note my wife provided the recipt to L&G)

As for breaking it frankly its an Ipad its not mine its hers I could have cared less at the time I never use it but she did and I offered to buy a new one but she said we have insurance for this sort of thing etc.

As for her injurys she broke all the nails on one hand but otherwise fine.

Really if they had come back and said its not covred I would have been fine with that bought her a new one (maoned about it for ages given she is not working since having the baby and then got on with things). However fact they are accusing her of a seriouse crime really gets to me. So not going to drop this.

[Gecko1978]

Sorry all have not updated and one of the many PH'ers who have contacted me just asked for an update.

So while there is not much to tell my wofe got the letter from insruance firm asking if she wanted to withdrawn the claim. She decided that given it was a true claim and not an attempt to defruad the insurance firm out of a few hundred quid she would stand buy it so responded as such.

Sadly thats it so far no responce from them or the CSI people to do a forensic check.

As a side note a week or two before our freezer broke down (night before we went on holiday) so we had to junk all the food and then buy a new one. At the time my wife called the insurer and asked about making a claim but they said we would need recipts for all the food etc and the wait to get a new fridge freezer was like 4 weeks or so. so we did not make a claim and just bought a new one (we have a baby so can't wait for that sort of thing).

She did wonder if they thought because we could not make a claim for the Fridge Freezer maybe they thought we were making this up etc. Who knows but given I bought a new one day I got back from holiday I am not that bothered about the cost its more a case of you have insurance so surtely tyou should use it.

If CSI come round or they pay out in the end of they take me to court I will of course update. Thanks for all the support


Craig

[Gecko1978]

I think like a lot of the other ph'ers I feel this is a case of paying for something then almost being told sorry mate oral contract not woth paper its printed on. in the past having bumped the car I have paid the repair myself thinking oh no mustn't loose my no claims etc.

its a mindset that says buy insurance but never claim etc. well I am taking a stand on this and will follow it up till bitter end.

Thanks again for all the support.