Not upheld: claims handling - settlement of contents claims following fire and burglary complaint against Accredited Insurance (Europe) Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Ms N claimed on her property insurance policy following a fire in August 2021 and a subsequent burglary. She submitted total losses of £56,757.19, but Accredited settled for £42,567.90 after paying £29,203.63 for fully validated items and £13,364.27 for items with evidential concerns. Ms N complained that Accredited should have catalogued contents before disposal and that the settlement unfairly applied a 75% reduction across the claim. The ombudsman found that while clearer documentation could have been provided, this would not have resolved inherent evidential difficulties, and that Accredited's pragmatic blended approach to settlement was fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Accredited could have provided clearer documentation and categorisation of contents, this would not necessarily have resolved all evidential difficulties. The ombudsman noted that items destroyed by fire could not have been categorised regardless, and questions about whether valuable items were present after the fire would have remained. The ombudsman concluded that Accredited adopted a pragmatic blended approach, paying in full for validated items and making substantial payments for unvalidated items, rather than rejecting them entirely. The ombudsman found no reliable alternative calculation that demonstrated the settlement should have been materially higher.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website