Upheld: claims handling failure, policy administration error, wrongful claim denial complaint against Allianz Insurance Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr V purchased pet insurance from Allianz in July 2025 for his two dogs. Due to a system error, the policy was not activated, and Allianz failed to respond to Mr V's queries about missing policy documents. When one of his dogs became seriously ill in August, Mr V's claim was wrongly declined because Allianz considered it under an expired policy. Mr V had to pay treatment costs on his credit card and incurred interest charges. Allianz eventually arranged backdated cover and paid the claim in late September, approximately two months after it was made. The ombudsman upheld the complaint and ordered Allianz to refund the credit card interest of £125.65 in addition to the £300 already paid for distress and inconvenience.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Allianz made multiple errors: failing to activate the policy, not responding to Mr V's concerns about missing documents, and wrongly declining the claim based on an expired policy. These errors were compounded by a two-month delay in payment. The ombudsman agreed that Mr V should be reimbursed for credit card interest as he would not have incurred this cost but for Allianz's failures. While the ombudsman upheld the £300 payment for distress and inconvenience (rather than increasing it as Mr V requested), this was in addition to the interest refund. The ombudsman considered the cumulative impact of Allianz's errors and the particularly difficult circumstances (Mr V's dog's illness and death occurring during this period) but found the case study Mr V cited was not analogous and that each case must be considered on its own merits.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website