Is this a off?

[soaps]

A friend of mine had work done on her roof, but she only contacted her insurance company after she had the work done, they refused to cover her for the repairs, they told her she should have made the claim before the work was done. She had all the invoices and bills. Are they right to reject her claim because she had the work done before she claimed?

[classylady60]

I think they are right, in most cases one has to make a claim first so that they can ok it and advise et al. Don't take my answer "as read" as I think there will others to follow who could contradict it.

[JackDanielsU]

Yes.

For all the insurance company is aware there was nothing wrong with the roof, or if there was it wasnt covered under the t&c of the policy, (ie the roof was in a bad state of maintenance)

[venator]

Very likely - it's probably in her policy under something like "claims procedure".

Insurance companies often have their own repair firms who give them a discount, and in very large claims will often send a loss assessor to report before agreeing a claim.

[squarebear]

Perfectly acceptable. She might have just fancied a new roof.

[soaps]

They did tell her to read the small print. I guess it's in there somewhere, but who reads SP, not me, or her oblivious

[classylady60]

Very few of us do read the small print but it's the insurance companies let out clause, they make the rules and if we flout them, even inadvertently then they aren't going to pay up.

[alexanderd]

Insurance companies usuall insist on 2 or 3 quotes so I am afraid your friend is not likely to get anywhere

[soaps]

I applicate your reply's,thanks, I'll tell her to shut-up moaning and learn a lesson by it!

[flip_flop]

There is no such thing as "small print" in household insurance policies. They are written in plain English so that the layman can understand them, and nowadays they are very easy to understand. There is absolutely no point in making a household policy complicated becuase in the event of interpretation, if the interpretation can go either way the contra proferentum rule will apply. Much better to make it abundantly clear what is what is not insured and spell out the insured's responsibilties.

[JackDanielsU]

People just dont read their policies. Even with the sentence PLEASE READ YOUR POLICY TO ENSURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT COVER - the percentage of people who call in trying to claim for events is getting bigger and bigger.

One person got very irate as to why we werent covering his car on his contents only policy.

[pinkjudy45]

Flit-flop says the small print is easy to understand, we thought that too, but when we rang to make a claim for a burst pipe in our front garden, we were told we were not covered, so we had to pay for the work to be done ourselves, it make me wonder if house insurance is a great big con.