It's fortunate, therefore, that – of the hundreds of thousands of claims settled each year – the majority are handled reasonably well and leave the customer satisfied.
And unfortunately, when it comes to home insurance, record levels of complaints suggest these experiences are increasingly common.
Here we explore what a bad claim can look like, what insurers are doing wrong and steps you can take to help avoid a claims nightmare.
'My home insurer made a bad situation worse'
Billie-Paige Walker (pictured), 28, from Buckinghamshire, contacted her home insurer Policy Expert in March 2023, after noticing a crack in her kitchen skirting board. The issue was quickly identified as a water leak under the kitchen floor – and fixing it meant ripping up large sections.
Billie arranged and paid for the repair herself, but she subsequently grew concerned about Policy Expert's apparent lack of urgency in restoring her kitchen and making it safe. Nearly a fortnight passed before claims staff got back in touch – by which time damp and mould had appeared, and her father had hired and installed a dehumidifier.
Over the ensuing months, the insurer's contractors installed their own dehumidifier, but Billie and her family were losing faith in its approach. There were months-long delays and minimal contact from claims staff, and she was worried about mould around her two young children, one of whom has asthma.
In February 2024, arrangements were finally made to install a new kitchen. Needing alternative accommodation, Billie struggled to secure a short-term rental property locally, so she rented one owned by her parents for six months.
Despite having been open about renting from her parents and Policy Expert agreeing to cover the cost of the alternative accommodation – a decision she tells us was authorised by at least two Policy Expert staff in February – its fraud team raised the alarm in April. It froze Billie's claim, locked her out of its website and investigated her eligibility for the accommodation cover.
This caused months of considerable distress, which only ended in August when the insurer reversed its stance and reopened Billie's claim – shortly after we contacted it about her experience.
The chaotic claim was made worse by highly inappropriate behaviour from one of Policy Expert's workers. Billie showed us several text and WhatsApp exchanges between herself and an individual working on the claim between December and April, in which the person repeatedly makes what appear to be romantic passes at her. In the messages, the person offers compliments about her appearance and figure and asks her out to dinner on at least three occasions.
When we alerted Policy Expert in August, it launched an investigation. Now, a spokesperson from Policy Expert told us: 'Our priority at Policy Expert is settling policyholder claims quickly and fairly. We would like to apologise to Miss Walker for her experience. An investigation into the behaviour of a member of staff assigned to the claim identified misconduct, and as a result, they no longer work for us.
'Regarding Miss Walker's claim, we are pleased to say we have now settled this to her satisfaction.'
Find out more:The makings of a poor claims experience
Billie reached a final settlement with Policy Expert in early October – more than a year and a half after she started the claim.
There were clear examples of misconduct, making the protracted experience all the more difficult to endure. But while it wouldn't be fair to describe her claim as 'typical', it does carry hallmarks of poor service that are, sadly, far from unique.
When we rated 21 insurance firms for their claims service, Policy Expert had the dubious honour of ranking last out of 21 providers.
It achieved a claims score of 56% – compared to an average score of 66% and a top score of 73%. The claims score reflects how satisfied respondents to a survey in June and July were with their most recent claim, as well as how likely they would be to recommend their insurer based on how it handled the claim.
Find out more:'Even their subcontractors have subcontractors'
We asked survey respondents who had said they were dissatisfied with how their claim was handled to tell us why they'd rated their particular insurer poorly. A quarter (25%) of these dissatisfied claimants complained about delays or lack of responsiveness from their insurer.
A number of customers in our survey also complained about a disjointed experience stemming from poor co-ordination between various third parties. One commented that their insurer's 'subcontractors have subcontractors and not one talks to another. Appointments are made, but no one seems to know about it and nobody arrives'.
Meanwhile, claimants with various insurers felt caught out by policy terms or conditions of the claims process – or they felt that the insurer seemed reluctant to pay their claim in full.
One Esure customer, for example, commented that they'd lost out some of the value for an 18-carat bracelet they'd purchased overseas more than 30 years ago because they didn't have a receipt.
Find out more:Complaints reach highest level in a decade
As well as giving insurers an overall claims score, we asked survey participants to rate their provider's claims handling in specific service areas.
Insurers most frequently drew criticism from claimants when it came to the settlement value of their claim, with eight providers (out of 20 rated in this area) receiving a poor star rating of two stars out of five.
Following this, a third (seven out of 21) got poor ratings on the clarity of communication, specifically how the claim was progressing.
It says the most common reasons for complaints being brought were declined claims, delays and disputes over the value of claims.
The insurers respond
We contacted the three lowest-scoring insurers about their results: Policy Expert (56%), Esure (60%) and LV (60%).
Importantly, not all of their customers were dissatisfied with their service. However, as well as sitting at the bottom of our table, all three were notably among those that were rated poorly on settlement value and clarity of communication.
Policy Expert challenged our survey findings, with a spokesperson arguing that the 39 Policy Expert claimants we quizzed 'represents just 0.03% of the 224,988 claims we've dealt with over the past two financial years'. It also cited high scores on Reviewcentre.com and Trustpilot, noting: 'We pride ourselves on providing best-in-class customer service while also providing low-cost insurance.'
Esure said: 'This month we are introducing a new dashboard that will enable our Home customers to better monitor progress with their claim.' LV said: 'We look forward to looking at the detail of this survey to see where we can make additional improvements. We are investing heavily in technology and people to ensure we provide the very best customer service, as well as making the claims process as simple as we can.'
How to avoid a claims nightmare
Follow these four tips to reduce the likelihood of your claim going too far awry.
Pick the right insurer: Check the policy wording: Declare if you have vulnerabilities: Complain if things go wrong: Find out more:Support our campaign to end the insurance rip-off
Some claimants told us they developed physical health problems as a result of bad service from their insurance company.
We're campaigning for wide-scale change to bring fairer value to insurance customers at large.
Find out more:Which? Limited is registered in England and Wales to 2 Marylebone Road, London NW1 4DF, company number 00677665 and is an Introducer Appointed Representative (FRN 610689) of the following:
1. Inspop.com Ltd for the introduction of non-investment motor, home, travel and pet insurance, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide advice and arrange non-investment motor, home, travel and pet insurance products (FRN310635). Inspop.com Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide advice and arrange non-investment motor, home, travel and pet insurance products (FRN310635) and is registered in England and Wales to Greyfriars House, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff, South Wales, CF10 3AL, company number 03857130. Confused.com is a trading name of Inspop.com Ltd.
2. LifeSearch Partners Limited (FRN656479), for the introduction of Pure Protection Contracts and Private Health Insurance, who are authorised and regulated by the FCA to provide advice and arrange Pure Protection Contracts and Private Health Insurance Contracts. LifeSearch Partners Ltd is registered in England and Wales to 3000a Parkway, Whiteley, Hampshire, PO15 7FX, company number 03412386.
3. HUB Financial Solutions, for the introduction of equity release advice, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) to provide advice and guidance on financial products for those who have retired or are approaching retirement (FCA Firm Reference Number: 455713). HUB Financial Solutions is registered in England and Wales to Enterprise House, Bancroft Road, Reigate, Surrey RH12 7RP, company number 05125701.
4. Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers Ltd (FRN 301), for the introduction of non-investment landlord insurances, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to provide advice and arrange insurance contracts. Alan Boswell insurance brokers Ltd is registered in England at Prospect House, Rouen Rd, Norwich NR1 1RE, company number 02591252.
Other financial services:
Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), Unit 26 (2.06), Newark Works, 2 Foundry Lane, Bath BA2 3GZ. London & Country are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
We do not make, nor do we seek to make, any recommendations or personalised advice on financial products or services that are regulated by the FCA, as we’re not regulated or authorised by the FCA to advise you in this way. In some cases, however, we have included links to regulated brands or providers with whom we have a commercial relationship and, if you choose to, you can buy a product from our commercial partners.
If you go ahead and buy a product using our link, we will receive a commission to help fund our not-for-profit mission and our campaigns work as a champion for the UK consumer. Please note that a link alone does not constitute an endorsement by Which?.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/dreadful-insurance-claims-experiences-revealed-aEfKw1W20sAY