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zenbuffy

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Hi all,

Bit of a weirdly specific question, and I'm not having much luck finding out information about it. I am, of course, going to call my broker and insurance company, but I'd just like to have all my info to hand before I do.

In summary:
  • In 2012, bought a house and took up home insurance
  • In 2013, had a house fire, extensive damage
  • Spent the next 2 years dealing with a bunch of fallout from this
  • At this point, after much back and forth, my claim is closed, and everything settled

The thing which confuses me is this: my fire was caused by my faulty dishwasher. My insurance company essentially took legal action against my dishwasher manufacturer to recoup their expenses from paying for my house. My dishwasher company settled before going to court, and my insurance company was completely paid back for my claim. The dishwasher company accepted liability for the fire.

So in essence, my insurance company has incurred no loss through my fire, as they passed this loss off to my dishwasher company. However, this year, when my renewal documents arrived from my broker, the full amount of the fire claim is listed under the "claims" section of my summary.

So my questions are:
  1. Should this still be listed as a claim at all?
  2. Shouldn't the amount for this claim be 0, even if it does have to still be listed?

I know this is an odd situation, which is probably why I'm having such trouble finding information about it, but has anyone else had a similar situation? Or could explain to me ifI'm wrong in my thinking that the claim amount should be 0 or that it should be not listed? I am concerned that this claim sitting on my record is going to prevent me from getting reasonable premiums or moving insurers, even though it wasn't my fault (and the dishwasher company legally said so).
 
There is no industry standard of practice in relation to no claims bonus for property. They are a marketing gimmick. What you have is a notice of the details of your claim.

1. Yes it should be listed as its a record of your claim history
2. No. this would be the practice with a motor NCB. But there is no such thing as a household NCB. They may ask about any claims you have had. But no one will ever ask you for your NCB before proceeding with your house insurance. So they list it as the full amount of the claim. Because you have to disclose details to your next insurer.

the insurer is entitled to recoup their outlay by way of the subrogation clause in your policy. And by all means tell this to any potential insurer giving you a quotation. But you will still have to state that you made a claim. Because that is what you did. You didnt just get an engineer and solicitor and attempt to go directly after the dishwasher manufacture without recourse to your insurance policy. What you did was make a claim on your household policy and have your property rectified. What your insurance company did was then use their considerable resources to deduce if there was an option to recoup some of the outlay and make it happen.

Will it prevent you moving insurer? Possibly. Depends on the amount. It also depends on how the question is asked on the proposal form in relation to claims. Because you did have a claim. Fault doesnt come into it. If your neighbours house went up in flames and set yours on fire, your policy would pay out but they couldnt chase your neighbours for the money. Such is the law.
 
The claim cost shoult be the actual cost to insurer, after recovery. If they paid €100K and got back €100K then the cost of claim should only be the admin costs incurred.
 
For what it's worth even if you shop around online to get an idea of who offers good value my experience is that it's still a good idea - especially when there is some complicating factor like in this case - to call insurers and brokers to discuss the insurance requirements and specific issues.
 
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