People usually face problems while claiming their insurance policy either be it general insurance, life insurance or health. Most of the times, the claims are delayed and payments unmade by the insurance company. Or even if the insurance company pays the claim, it’s incomplete. Sometimes you may need a lawyer to provide you legal aid to claim your policy because the company refuses to pay, and they do it lawfully. They tell you that the incident you are claiming for is not covered by your policy or you have failed to pay some of the installments of your premium. The insurance company is not wrong here, they just look bad because they are not solving your problems and helping you with your miseries. The cases go worst when you fail to notify your insurer of a change in your circumstances or by not following the claims procedure of your policy correctly. In short, you haven’t kept to the condition of your policy.
Solving Insurance Problems
If you want to resolve your problem with your insurance claim, you have to write to your insurer, giving details of your complaint, and how you would like it resolved. If you are not satisfied with your insurer’s reply, make a strict complaint, using their official complaints procedure. If you are still not satisfied with the outcome of the formal complaints procedure, consider taking the complaint further. It is necessary that all insurers must be covered by the rules of the financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). This means that if you have a complaint about an insurer, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This is a free service available to policyholders who have already followed their insurer’s complaints procedure. The Financial Ombudsman Service will try to resolve the complaint through mediation. If the dispute cannot be resolved this way, the Financial Ombudsman Service will begin a formal investigation. The final decision given at the end of this investigation is binding on your insurer, but if you do not agree with it, you are free to take your insurer to court.
If you have tried all the options for solving your complaint through the complaints procedures and the problem is not yet solved, you may wish to consider taking legal action. However, you should only consider going to court as a last resort. This is because the amount of compensation a court may award you could be reduced if you have not tried other ways of resolving the problem before taking legal action.
