Viewing Home and Property Insurance Claims in Blyton Terms

Did you know the hugely popular children’s author, Enid Blyton, celebrated her birthday on August 11? That got us thinking about her books and one in particular – ‘The Very Big Secret’, published in 1952.

Here at Property Claim Assist, we work on a daily basis in an insurance sector harbouring a very big secret – the fact that all homeowners and commercial property owners have the right to appoint their own representative within their home insurance or property insurance claim and that this service can cost them nothing.

It really isn’t in the interests of the insurance industry to make this known. Insurers are effectively businesses that want to make a profit. They can do so by not paying out an insured policyholder’s full entitlement from the policy they bought.

This is remarkably easy to do. We Brits have grown up respecting insurers – perhaps a legacy of the ‘man from the Pru’ days. We mostly don’t challenge what insurers tell us, no matter how little they want to pay us for our property damage. We don’t feel qualified to argue our case. We don’t like to rock the boat. We swallow the financial loss and often say nothing. Insurers can benefit from this apathy and are in the perfect position to do so, as the person sent out to adjudicate your claim, the loss adjuster, is working for them.

Too few policyholders level the playing field by appointing their own representative – a loss assessor – who can interpret the policy independently, not gaining the insured more than they are entitled to but achieving the level of protection the policy should contractually provide.

In Enid Blyton terms, there is a ‘Secret Mountain’ of money sitting within insurer bank accounts that should have been paid out to policyholders. That is why insurers never hold reserves to pay all the claims they receive because they know they can save money all over the place, or refuse to pay claims totally in some instances, without any true justification. Unless there is someone there to argue for the policyholder, it is quite a straightforward process.

This is why ‘Five Can Get Into a Fix’. Family finances can be hit hard by not being compensated fully for a loss and not being able to reinstate property to its pre-loss condition without diving into personal savings.

Five could also ‘Get Into Trouble’, by finding they cannot argue for the right to alternative accommodation following major property damage, even if their home insurance policy should offer it.

Believe this sort of thing can’t happen? We recently negotiated a claim and achieved a rightful settlement of £29,000 for a customer; the insurer had offered them £9000. Not a penny of this settlement was undeserved. The policy should have provided it and, thanks to Property Claim Assist’s intervention, did so.

Where there are complex scenarios, it is much easier to short-change a policyholder. A ‘Mystery of the Burnt Cottage’ might be why an insurer is not bringing in the required experts who will fully analyse and assess long-term damage following a fire at the property. It is easy to see why.

Many homeowners and commercial property owners may be reading this from a ‘Wishing Chair’, wishing they had known about their right to independent property claim representation before they decided to negotiate their own claim and argue things without professional support. Others may wish they had realised they can access a full loss assessing and property repairs service from Property Claim Assist at no cost.

The moral of the tale is ‘Don’t be Silly Mr Twiddle’ – or Mr or Mrs Smith, Jones, Davies, McDonald, Singh, Khan, Patel or whatever your name is. If your home suffers serious damage, due to something like a flood, fire, storm, leaking pipe or radiator, appliance leakage, subsidence, vehicle impact, or something else, do not try to negotiate your own insurance claim yourself. Chances are that you will not only be leaving yourself open to a lesser entitlement than you deserve but also find yourself having to try to get hold of claims handlers who are never available, working from home and stretched to the limit. In other words, seemingly in a ‘Faraway Tree’.

Apply the right pressure to get the financial settlement you deserve – no more and hopefully no less – by appointing Property Claim Assist as your independent representative and loss assessor today. Rather than having to tread water and ‘Plod’ through your claim, you should be able to expedite it, get the actions you need much faster and, if you use trusted and vetted contractors who work with us, pay nothing for the service.

Call us today on 0333 577 2720.