Not upheld: claim rejection - alleged unfair decline of insurance claim complaint against AXA Insurance UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

J, a restaurant business, claimed on its business protection insurance policy with AXA following a gas leak in August 2024 that caused a four-day closure and loss of refrigerated stock. AXA declined both the refrigerated stock claim and the business interruption claim, concluding they were not covered under the policy terms. The ombudsman upheld AXA's decision, finding that the electricity supply failure was not accidental but resulted from a deliberate safety decision by the gas utility company, and that the underlying cause of the gas leak (corrosion of the pipe) fell within specific policy exclusions. Although J suffered genuine losses, the policy terms did not provide coverage for these circumstances.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

For the refrigerated stock claim, the electricity supply failure was not accidental but resulted from a deliberate decision by the gas utility company, triggering the policy exclusion for failure of electricity supply as a consequence of deliberate acts. For the business interruption claim, the damage did not result from any of the specifically listed insured perils under the Denial of Access section, and even if accidental damage applied under the terminal ends cover, the corrosion exclusion would apply as the gas leak was caused by corrosion of the pipe.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website