Not upheld: Home insurance claim disputes complaint against Assurant General Insurance Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr D claimed his iPad was stolen from his train bag and made a theft claim on his gadget insurance policy with Assurant. Assurant declined the claim after Mr D could not provide evidence that the iPad remained on his 'Find My' iCloud account, as it had disappeared following the reported theft. The Ombudsman upheld Assurant's decision, finding that manufacturer evidence showed only someone with Mr D's security credentials could have removed the device from 'Find My', and Mr D's inability to explain this disappearance meant his claim was not substantiated. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The Ombudsman found that Assurant's request for 'Find My' screenshots was reasonable. Based on independent evidence from the iPad manufacturer, only someone with Mr D's security credentials could have remotely removed the device from his iCloud account. Since Mr D stated he did not share his credentials and the device disappeared from 'Find My' after the theft was reported, the Ombudsman concluded on the balance of probabilities that Mr D removed the device himself, meaning either he still had it or he remotely disabled its location tracking. This meant the information provided did not substantiate his theft claim, allowing Assurant to reasonably decline it.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website