Upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Lloyds Bank General Insurance Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S complained about Lloyds' handling of two water damage claims from 2022 - one for bathroom damage and one for kitchen damage. The kitchen claim experienced approximately one year of delay due to Lloyds' failures to timely request the policy excess (not secured until November 2024), progress appliance selection (ordered late 2024 causing stock issues), and order bespoke kitchen parts (not ordered until July 2025). The bathroom claim remained stalled due to the need for alternative accommodation during reinstatement works, complicated by Mrs S and her daughter's health needs. The ombudsman upheld the complaint regarding kitchen delays, awarding £500 compensation (£250 already paid), but did not uphold the bathroom claim delay as it resulted from accommodation difficulties rather than Lloyds' failure. The ombudsman rejected a disturbance allowance claim, finding the oven was likely functional based on contemporaneous correspondence.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Lloyds caused approximately one year of delay to the kitchen claim through failures to: (1) request the policy excess in March 2024 when it should have been called for; (2) progress hob and oven choices earlier, which would have prevented the oven going out of stock; and (3) order bespoke kitchen parts promptly after excess payment. The ombudsman assessed contemporaneous correspondence and concluded the oven was likely functional based on Mrs S's August 2024 response focusing on matching items rather than oven functionality, therefore no disturbance allowance was warranted. The bathroom claim delay was not attributable to Lloyds' failure but rather to the genuine difficulty in finding suitable alternative accommodation given Mrs S's health needs. The ombudsman awarded £500 compensation for upset caused by kitchen claim delays, with £250 already paid by Lloyds.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website