Not upheld: Travel / life insurance claim disputes complaint against Zurich Insurance Company Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M claimed on his travel insurance policy after his phone was damaged by water ingress in February 2025. Zurich accepted the claim and paid a settlement, which Mr M did not use to replace the phone. When the phone became unusable in August 2025 due to progressive damage from the original water ingress, Mr M made a second claim, which Zurich declined. The ombudsman upheld Zurich's decision, finding that both claims related to the same insured event and that Mr M had already received settlement funds to address the damage. Allowing a second claim would provide financial betterment rather than restoration to original position.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the fundamental insurance principle that only one claim can be made for the same insured event. The phone failure in August 2025 stemmed from the same water damage incident in February 2025 for which Mr M had already received a payout. The settlement provided Mr M with the means to replace the phone, and making a second claim would constitute seeking financial betterment rather than restoration to original position, as he would receive the replacement value twice.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website