Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against British Gas Insurance Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss Y purchased a boiler cover policy from BG in March 2025 and claimed that when the engineer attended, the boiler was already working and no repair was needed, so she should not pay the cancellation fee. BG's records showed the engineer completed a 41-minute visit and fitted an electrode, with the job sheet marked as 'completed'. Miss Y cancelled her direct debit but did not formally cancel the policy, and BG charged the full cancellation fee. The ombudsman found that BG's contemporaneous job notes were reliable evidence of a completed repair and that Miss Y's failure to formally cancel the policy meant the full cancellation charge was due under the policy terms. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman accepted BG's job notes as accurate contemporaneous records and found no reason to doubt that a repair was completed, despite Miss Y's recollection that the boiler was working when the engineer arrived. The ombudsman reasoned that if the boiler was already working, it would be unclear why the engineer would spend 41 minutes on site or why Miss Y would continue with the appointment. The ombudsman also found that Miss Y's failure to receive documentation was not evidence of no repair, as BG's policy was to only issue documentation when safety advice was given. Critically, the ombudsman determined that Miss Y did not cancel the policy itself but only the direct debit, and the policy terms clearly stated this did not constitute cancellation, therefore the full cancellation charge was due.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website