Well, this surprised us. Our house and contents insurance is due soon and our existing provider has sent us a renewal quote for a fair bit more money so we decided to do "compare the market" etc and came up with introductory offers to other companies which our existing provider wouldn't match.
Rang up one of the best quotes from a big name company we recognized and after answering a lot of questions were told we wouldn't qualify for their offer due to the claim we made a couple of years ago. What claim? I don't remember making any claims on anything either home or motor for at least 35 years, and even then it was only for a carpet. The claim wasn't on them so they were unable to tell us what it was supposed to be for but they could tell us it was roughly two years ago. Mrs J's Elephantine memory could tell me right away who we were insured with then so I rang them up and got a very helpful chap in their claims department who explained it had been for the replacement of a roofing panel to our wee conservatory.
It came back to me in detail then. We'd had the windows in the house all replaced with "super dooper" new double glazed sun reflecting windows and whilst they were stripping out the old window above the conservatory they'd literally "dropped a brick" onto it's roof which had made a hole a little bigger than a 50p piece in the plastic roof panel before then rolling down the roof, scratching it and dislodging the gutter. The window fitter tried to disclaim responsibility but I luckily found the brick in the garden with a bit of the plastic still wedged in it. With the window fitter still refusing to have anything to do with it I rang our insurance to see what the situation might be if I had to make a claim - Now know not to do that!
I got a bit angry with this belligerent fitter and ended up phoning his boss who came round that evening, was very pleasant, said it was entirely their fault and agreed to replace the entire panel. Lovely outcome. I rang the insurance company the next morning and explained the situation confirming with them that my inquiry had been just that, only an inquiry, and I would not be making a claim as the glazing company was sorting it all out.
I explained all this to the claims chap who then read through the notes on the file and said yes, that's exactly what he had down here, no claim made or payed out and your no claims unaffected. So why am I now having a problem with quotes I asked. He said the problem is that it's logged on the system that you inquired about a claim so that means you would possibly consider making a claim for something else which makes you a higher risk customer. Apparently it's going to be about 5 years or so without us making a claim before this risk is considered to be ameliorated!
In the meantime, although no-one is refusing to insure us, it seems to be adding around £100 to that quote. I'm now going to try contacting a few more to see if they are all going to do this to me. Seems very unfair doesn't it? The lesson seems to be not to contact your insurance provider unless you are making a claim for sure!
Rang up one of the best quotes from a big name company we recognized and after answering a lot of questions were told we wouldn't qualify for their offer due to the claim we made a couple of years ago. What claim? I don't remember making any claims on anything either home or motor for at least 35 years, and even then it was only for a carpet. The claim wasn't on them so they were unable to tell us what it was supposed to be for but they could tell us it was roughly two years ago. Mrs J's Elephantine memory could tell me right away who we were insured with then so I rang them up and got a very helpful chap in their claims department who explained it had been for the replacement of a roofing panel to our wee conservatory.
It came back to me in detail then. We'd had the windows in the house all replaced with "super dooper" new double glazed sun reflecting windows and whilst they were stripping out the old window above the conservatory they'd literally "dropped a brick" onto it's roof which had made a hole a little bigger than a 50p piece in the plastic roof panel before then rolling down the roof, scratching it and dislodging the gutter. The window fitter tried to disclaim responsibility but I luckily found the brick in the garden with a bit of the plastic still wedged in it. With the window fitter still refusing to have anything to do with it I rang our insurance to see what the situation might be if I had to make a claim - Now know not to do that!
I got a bit angry with this belligerent fitter and ended up phoning his boss who came round that evening, was very pleasant, said it was entirely their fault and agreed to replace the entire panel. Lovely outcome. I rang the insurance company the next morning and explained the situation confirming with them that my inquiry had been just that, only an inquiry, and I would not be making a claim as the glazing company was sorting it all out.
I explained all this to the claims chap who then read through the notes on the file and said yes, that's exactly what he had down here, no claim made or payed out and your no claims unaffected. So why am I now having a problem with quotes I asked. He said the problem is that it's logged on the system that you inquired about a claim so that means you would possibly consider making a claim for something else which makes you a higher risk customer. Apparently it's going to be about 5 years or so without us making a claim before this risk is considered to be ameliorated!
In the meantime, although no-one is refusing to insure us, it seems to be adding around £100 to that quote. I'm now going to try contacting a few more to see if they are all going to do this to me. Seems very unfair doesn't it? The lesson seems to be not to contact your insurance provider unless you are making a claim for sure!