Upheld: Home insurance claim disputes complaint against Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe SE

Decision detail

Summary

Ms D claimed for kitchen ceiling damage caused by water escape from the flat above. Liberty declined the claim as fraudulent after its senior adjuster's inspection suggested the ceiling had not been recently replaced as claimed, despite the contractor's invoice. Ms D disputed this and provided an asbestos test report, though this did not confirm the ceiling's age. The ombudsman upheld the complaint, finding that while Liberty's concerns were not unreasonable, Liberty's offer to perform a ceiling composition and age test is a fair and reasonable way forward to objectively determine whether the claimed works were completed.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Liberty's concerns about the claim were not unreasonable based on the detailed senior adjuster's report which indicated the ceiling did not appear to have been recently replaced. While the report did not conclude with certainty that the work wasn't carried out, Ms D had not provided sufficient evidence to persuade the ombudsman that it was. The ombudsman considered Liberty's offer to perform a ceiling sample test to be a fair and reasonable way forward to resolve the dispute about whether the ceiling was recently replaced, as this would provide objective evidence about the composition and age of the ceiling materials.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website