Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited

Employers Liability Insurance is Compulsory

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

I was shocked to find out the other day about a new company that was just starting trading in the UK that was unaware that they needed employers liability insurance. Maybe they had just got their wires crossed or been misinformed, but they were under the impression that they only needed public liability cover and not employers liability.

Employers liability is compulsory by law whereas public liability insurance isn't even though with most companies you need to have public liability to get the employers liability cover. I believe that any company that deals with the public and has employees should have both.

The consequences of not having employers liability insurance in place when you employ people is anything from a fine or a ban on running a company up to something much more drastic like imprisonment.

Putting the whole compulsory thing to one side, why would you not have both these covers in place? If anything ever happened in terms of injury, or worse, then the blame normally ends up back at the business owner. A simple liability policy is likely to provide cover up to a seven figure sum - not bad when it probably only cost you a three figure price.

New Public Liability Occupations and Trades

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed a recent update to our public liability quotation system over the last few weeks. We have added many new trades which allows us to provide cover for more of you seeking public liability insurance. There has also been the odd rate tweak which could mean potential savings compared to last month.

Some of the occupations we now have include nail technicians, beauticians, hairdressers, even driving instructors.

Along with the new trades, we continue to cover all the better known businesses such as roofers, bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, etc.

We even quote for occupations not listed on our website such as liability insurance for metal workers. If you can't find what you are looking for, just call us for a quote as we can accommodate most trades, no matter what it is.

Your Insurance Is Your Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0000

Did you know that your insurance cover is your responsibility. It's probably not something you think of too much but perhaps you should. Far too many people don't take enough care over their policies.

Something as minor as a change of occupation could affect your car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, and the list goes on. But how many of you would contact all these different companies to tell them. I can guarantee they asked you your occupation before you took out the policy so it's something you need to tell them when you change. This is only an example but you must keep all your insurances up to date at all times otherwise you run the risk of being uninsured.

The big concern above this is renewing your insurance policies. An assumption that most people make is that your insurer will contact you just before your policies falls due for renewal. This is a bad assumption to make. An insurer, as far as I am aware, is not obligated to contact you before your policy runs out, it is purely a courteous service provided along with the fact that they would like to get your business for another year. I don't know of any insurer or broker that doesn't contact their customers prior to their renewal but you must know that if they don't, your policy will still expire and it will be your responsibility.

It may be something like the insurer somehow missing your letter by mistake and not sending it or the letter getting lost in the post. These things happen and you must be prepared. A note in the diary made when you took the policy out last year is normally all you have to do.

The reason I bring this subject up is due to the current postal strikes. If you don't receive your renewal letter in time and consequently miss your insurance renewal, you cannot blame your insurer or broker, you cannot even blame Royal Mail. The entire responsibility will always be with you.

If you haven't done it yet, dig out all your insurance policies and write their anniversaries on your calender. Quick, simple and could save you a lot of despair if the worst were to happen.

Non Disclosure Can Mean Non Payment

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:21:00 +0000

I stumbled across the BBC programme Inside Out last week and thought I'd discuss it here. It spoke about a woman called Michelle Barber who had encountered the worst of all problems when it came to making an insurance claim.

Her Barnsley home was subject to an arson attack which left the property needing to be completely rebuilt. Her insurer at the time was the home insurance giant Aviva (formally Norwich Union) who initially paid out the whopping £240,000 for her home to be rebuilt.

It later came to light that Ms. Barber had previously received a £100 fine for an over payment of benefits. Something that avoided the police but was a criminal offence none the less. She had not told Aviva of this and when they found out she was told that it voided her insurance policy. As they had already paid out in respect of her claim, they demanded the full £240,000 to be refunded to them.

I'm sure the letter through the door requesting this was not a welcome one and I am sympathetic towards the lady in the fact that it must be a horrible situation to go through. However, she would have been asked at the time of taking out the cover about criminal convictions and the like and obviously answered in the negative. The blame therefore entirely lays with her.

Many will argue that Aviva are being a little unfair as it was only a £100 fine but from there point of view they would not have covered her in the first place had they known so why should they cover her now. They would void the policy whether she has had a claim or not.

I think it is good that this story is spread as much as possible. It is vital that everything is disclosed to your insurer when taking out a policy as non disclosure can lead to being severely out of pocket. If you've gone to the trouble of taking out insurance cover in the first place, you should at least make sure you are telling them everything you know no matter how big or small a deal you think it is.

Tenant's Liability Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:03:00 +0000

Many landlords worry about what will happen when their property is damaged and it is their tenant's responsibility. In an ideal world, your tenant would just go and sort it out themselves with no fuss and simply inform you of what has happened. We all know that ideal world scenarios are pretty rare but here's something that may comfort you.

Some home contents insurance policies now include tenant's liability insurance. It is an extension of the policy which covers damage to the rented property that the tenant is liable for. The most obvious example is damage to windows.

Most lease agreements make windows the tenant's responsibility so if one gets smashed, the tenant has to sort it out. At the same time the landlord is worrying about the security of their property whilst not wanting to pay for damage which should be paid by the tenant. If the tenant has no cover and doesn't earn much money, this could be a difficult situation for both landlord and tenant.

I'm not sure if it's possible as our expertise is for the insurance side of things, but would it not be a good idea to insist that tenant's have a home contents insurance in place that has this cover within it? This would give piece of mind to the landlord and more importantly, your tenant would be financially covered for loss or damage to their contents and their liability toward you and your property.

Insurance Industry is Going Strong

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:37:00 +0000

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) released figures last week that suggest that the UK insurance industry "remains strong". The news release (found here) shows how the industry has increased premium income and provides more jobs than in 2007. These are great figures for UK insurance which shows how they are weathering the recession storm.

In 2008 there were around 313,000 people employed by the sector which translates as a 1.3% increase compared to 2007 when there was around 309,000. Net premium income from general insurance (home, car, etc.) in 2007 was £33 billion, but in 2008 it had increased by £1 billion.

The really interesting figures though are to do with how much is paid out in claims by insurers. On average, each and every day, £239 million is paid out in life and pensions insurance benefits and £57 million in motor, household and other general insurance claims. When you start talking about these sort of figures, it puts into perspective your £300 car insurance policy!

It is good to see steady improvement through these difficult times but it is important that the sector remains focused as insurance protection is an important part of economic growth. Protection needs to be affordable to the public whilst being profitable to the insurance industry. As long as it remains this way then it will be a win/win scenario and the insurance sector will continue its strength through the economic downturn.

Happy Birthday to Ashburnham Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:02:00 +0000

On the 26th September 1995, Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited was formed following a management takeover of the Southend-on-Sea branch of a well established nationwide insurance brokerage called Robert A Rushtons.

The new owners, who still remain the same today, had the first task of naming the company. After much deliberation (a cup of coffee while staring out the window) the road sign of the road running next to the office, namely Ashburnham Road, gave some much need inspiration and thus the name was decided.

So 14 years may not be a typical landmark in age but it is certainly worth noting the considerable growth and change in what is relatively a short amount of time. The number of staff has more than doubled and the office moved across Ashburnham Road to a much larger premises to cater for the growing needs.

The local broker, face to face approach is still a part of the business but online trading has seen the company branch out to the whole world now and can now boast customers as far away as Australia. If you would like to know more about who Ashburnham Insurance are then visit the website.

Insurers Unaffected By Economic Downturn

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:57:00 +0000

It seems that despite the economic problems, insurance companies have remain relatively unscathed. Well, this is true to an extent. Insurers are experiencing the same problems that you and I are, from worrying about what bank you keep your money with to difficulties obtaining credit - we are all in the same boat.

The thing that has kept insurers going seems to be the fact that we all still need insurance, and probably more now than ever before. We all still drive our cars, live in our homes and have mortgages and families to protect. In essence the income for insurance companies is relatively unchanged. The only area of concern is therefore the other side of the coin - i.e. the expenses of the company.

Outgoings generally increase over time even when there isn't economic downturn so many companies are now reviewing their outgoings in a bid to cut out any unnecessary costs. This could be as simple as freezing employee salaries or moving utilities to cheaper suppliers. Simple measures but necessary to keep the companies profits going and thus keep them in business in these difficult times.

Fortis Insurance Sign Deal with Supermarket Giant Tesco

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:18:00 +0000

Fortis Insurance have sealed a new deal with Tesco's financial arm. The agreement will mean that Fortis will now underwrite the car and home insurance that is provided by the supermarket giant. They will both be investing an amazing £100 million each towards the new partnership. No doubt a lot of this will go towards advertising and promotion so expect to see this plastered all over our television screens in the forthcoming months.

The insurer has been at the front of most of our operations here for several years and is one of the most popular companies when it comes to customers taking out Landlords Insurance and Liability Insurance policies with us. There are talks of around 1500 jobs being created by this new partnership which is great but I'm sure a fair few were lost when Tesco's deal with RBS came to an end a few months earlier.

The new deal will be run under the company of Tesco Insurance Ltd and runs until 2015 and will make Fortis the second largest motor insurer in the UK. We wish them and Tesco well with their new venture.

Music on Hold

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Okay, so this might not be worth the blog post but it has been the subject of the week in the office so I thought I'd throw it out there and see what you think. We have recently had our phone system upgraded and it has caused a stir with our customers and others that contact us.

It is all to do with the music played while the customer is on hold. First of all, we would like to clarify that the choice was not ours and it is merely the default music that came with the system. We agree that it is pretty awful and are looking at changing it in the very near future but wanted to get some feedback first.

Before the new system we had either a short burst of classical music that repeated every 20 seconds or so. This annoyed a few of you but due to the limitations of our system it was either this or an even more annoying beeping tone. Quite a few people just hung up on the beeping tone so we stuck with the lesser of the two evils.

The new system is a bit more flexible and will allow us to put anything we want on there. The current default music has already attracted several comments from customers ranging from it being awful to scary! A seemingly small thing seems to have quite a big impact on you so we thought we'd ask what you would like to hear.

We have contemplated up to date pop music, classical music or even a voice giving the latest news and views at Ashburnham Insurance. Tell us what you think by dropping us an email at web@ashburnham-insurance.co.uk. Whether it is a specific song, genre or information you want to hear, just let us know.

A Quick Reminder To Renew Your Insurance!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:33:00 +0000

Did you know that this is the time of year when most people forget to renew their insurance policies. We did a little research here at the office and it seems that year on year, this is when people tend to leave their renewals too late.

The reasons for this are pretty obvious. The kids are off school, the weather is at its best and it is when most people are likely to take a holiday away from home. The bottom line is, we all have better things to do than renew our insurance at this time of the year.

The thing is there are two big reasons why you should not forget to renew your insurance. The first is that you may have a renewal discount on your premium. Many insurers put a small reduction such as 5% or 10% discount off of the normal price. If you don't renew in time then you would have to take out another policy and pay the normal price. Not only would it be more expensive, you would more than likely have to get lots of new paperwork through the post again.

The most important reason though is the fact that you won't be insured. The minute that policy expires, you will have no cover on your car, home, business or whatever it may be. Even if you ring up the day after it was due for renewal, it will be too late.

The reason you took the insurance out in the first place was probably because you can't afford for something to go wrong. If this is the case then make sure you renew on time. Their is no harm in renewing a week or two early as your policy will still be dated from the renewal date for another 12 months assuming it is an annual policy that you have.

If you are planning a holiday away from home for a few weeks and your insurance is due while your away then remember to sort it out before you go.

100 Posts And Counting...

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:28:00 +0000

Hi blog readers and welcome to our 100th blog post. I know a few of you have been here since post number 1 and we thank you for all your continued interest in what we do but whether you are an old faithful or a newbie round here, we welcome you and hope you continue to share in our interests.

If you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the Ashburnham Insurance blog by clicking this link. This will mean that you can track all our updates via your RSS feed of choice. Alternatively, enter your email in the area provided at the side of the blog and you will be emailed details of any new blog posts that appear here.

Whilst our blogging is mainly about current insurance affairs and updates here at Ashburnham Insurance, we are open to suggestions for new topics. If there is a specific subject you would like covered like what landlord insurance is or should you get public liability insurance then let us know and we will try to help.

Many thanks for all your continued support.

High Risk Postcode Areas in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Recent research undertaken by moneysupermarket.com has found the top 20 postcode areas that have been subject to burglary or theft in the first 3 months of 2009. They conducted the research following what seems to be an increase in these types of claims since the financial recession.

A surprising leader was found in the town of Arnold which is on the outskirts of Nottingham which comes under the postcode area of NG5. In fact, Nottinghamshire had 4 entries in the top 12 making it the 'highest risk' area to experience a theft or burglary claim.

London had 5 post code entries in the top 20 but due to the higher density of population and that they were further down the top 20 list, this in my eyes puts it behind Nottinghamshire in terms of risk.

The word risk has to be used loosely though. These findings were for only the first 3 months of the year and they can quite often change as thieves move from area to area. There may have been a repeat offender in one area that has now been caught and obviously this would then reduce the number of claims.

If you live in one of these postal areas then I would not be worried. As long as you take all the necessary security precautions and obviously have contents insurance in place then you greatly reducing the chances of it happening to you. The only concern would be that insurance companies look at these such statistics and it could mean that you will pay more for your insurance premiums than people living in difference post code areas.

Why Do Women Get Cheaper Car Insurance?

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:44:00 +0000

"Why do women get cheaper car insurance?" has been a question that many men have asked themselves, and probably their insurance broker, at some stage. A recent survey says that new drivers aged 17 have the biggest premium divide between the genders. An average premium for a 17 year old female is £1,800 whereas a male is more likely to pay a staggering £3,500.

Whilst these premiums don't ring true for every 17 year old driver, due to the differing cars that they buy, the percentages will. The same car will often cost a male normally double what a female of this age would pay.

First of all there are more men on the road but these men would argue that the percentage of women that do drive tend to have more accidents. Whether this statistic is true or not I don't know but in reality women more commonly have little bumps and scrapes whereas men are more likely to have a major incident.

Regardless of how many claims men and women have, the bottom line is that men cost insurance companies more money than women so on that basis they are going to be charged more money. Thankfully as time goes on, this gap between the genders closes and at around the age of 30 there is normally only a few pounds different between a like for like policy.

Top 10 Insurance Scams

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

When I read this article from the Daily Mail, I had to have a little laugh. The things that some of these people were claiming for are truly unbelievable. This is definitely a top 10 of the most daft insurance claims I have ever heard.

This may have brought a smile to my face for a few minutes but then it dawned on me that these are just a few of the many people that try to rip off insurance companies every day. You may think that it isn't a big deal as it is the insurers who have to pay out. The thing is, the more claims that are made, the higher insurance premiums are going to be across the board.

At the end of the day, insurers need to make money as they are a business so these fraudulent claims are actually passed onto us in our insurance premiums. This has been calculated to be on average, an extra £44 on each and every house and motor policy sold in the UK. In truth, it could be much more but this is something that is impossible to measure.

With times being at their hardest for many years, we can expect more and more of these insurance scams and this can only be bad news for the rest of us as we have to pay ever increasing insurance premiums just because someone out there wants to earn a few dishonest pounds from their insurance company.

Is Swine Flu Covered on Travel Insurance?

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:33:00 +0000

First and foremost, the only way to be 100% about whether swine flu is covered on your travel insurance policy is to read the policy booklet or to contact the insurer in question. It may also be worth asking the insurer for confirmation in writing as to the terms on how swine flu is covered as most will only have general terms and conditions about medical conditions that were in place before the swine flu pandemic began.

This being said though, swine flu should be covered like any other medical condition. If any different, your insurer should have made you aware. On the assumption that your insurer is treating it like any other medical condition, as long as you did not contract the illness before the policy was taken out, you will be covered.

The cover will protect you against things such as not being able to travel due to being ill or being quarantined upon your arrival in other countries or having to receive medical treatment. All insurers are different though so, as mentioned earlier, check with your insurer to see what cover you do get but in most cases you will have something to compensate you if your holiday plans get ruined by this condition.

Free Insurance for New Parents

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:14:00 +0000

UK insurer, Aviva (formerly Norwich Union), have announced that they will be offering free life insurance for new parents. They will provide £10,000 cover for each parent until the new baby's 1st birthday.

It comes as an incentive to try and increase the awareness of this sort of protection. Amazingly, less than half of new parents don't take out this cover for one reason or another. If the unfortunate event of a parent dying happens then it could be financially difficult for the family that has been left behind making this cover very important.

Aviva have announced that they will not collect any bank details from new customers for this free insurance policy which stops the idea of them automatically renewing the policy next year. They will obviously hope that the policy is renewed at the end of the first year but I think this is a great way to spread the word about an insurance policy that is easily forgotten about in the excitement of a new child's birth.

Don't Cancel Your Insurance Policy!

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:36:00 +0000

Yes, that dreaded word "credit crunch" keeps coming up left, right and centre. We are all trying to save a few pounds. Maybe cut back on the takeaways or meals out. Stop using the dishwasher or tumble dryer. There are lots of ways to save money. The strangest thing I've heard though is people cancelling their insurance policies to save a few pounds.

First things first, some insurance policies are compulsory. If you drive a car, you must have car insurance and if you employ someone, you must have employers liability insurance. You cannot cancel these policies otherwise you will be breaking the law. Ignoring these obvious ones, people are cancelling things like their home insurance or travel insurance and taking a chance that nothing will go wrong.

I cannot stress more that this is ridiculous. If you cancel a policy, at best you are going to get back what premium is left for the remainder of the policy term. Most insurers though will impose some sort of cancellation fee which they are entitled to do as when you took out the policy, you were, in most cases, entering into an annual agreement.

Okay, but your still getting money back right? Well yes, but the biggest thing here is what if something goes wrong? You've just cancelled you policy and now you are considerably out of pocket as you have no insurance cover in place.

There is no solution here other than to find something else to save money on. Some people would say reduce your cover but this is almost as bad as cancelling your cover. Change your car insurance from comprehensive to third party, change your home insurance from accidental damage to standard cover, the list goes on. The thing is, you took out the cover for a reason which is in case you need to claim. If you need to save money then chances are you can't afford to fix one of the problems that this insurance is covering in the first place.

In these times, we should not be thinking how to save money by stopping our insurance policies but instead checking that we are adequately covered for things that we cannot afford to sort out ourselves if things go wrong. If this means taking out additional policies, then do it. Better safe than sorry!

Pay Per Mile Car Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:54:00 +0000

A new way of paying for your car insurance has hit the Internet in the form of Coverbox. The company have on board a panel of 4 insurers at present who will provide a quotation specific to how much you use your vehicle and when you use it. They will fit a tracker to your vehicle which will then track you and charge you based on your usage of the vehicle.

There are the obvious problems with this scheme which is that a vehicle must be fitted with a tracker. The website claims this is free but we all know that, at best, the cost of this has to be factored into the insurance policy. You have then got to have the tracker fitted. I assume it won't take long but this is still an inconvenience to our busy lifestyles. I'm sure that the little tracker needs some power so that is going to be a little extra on your annual fuel cost (although this is probably insignificant).

Okay, negatives over, what is so good about this scheme? Well, this is a company built on statistics so if you are statistically a lower risk driver in terms of when you drive then this could save you some money. Obvious "peak" times are rush hours for most of us, but if you are a younger driver there is a "super peak" time which is after 10pm at night. Driving at these times will cost a lot more but if you avoid them then the cost is significantly lower.

Personally I think that your everyday driver is not going to benefit. Rush hour is rush hour because it's when most people are driving. This is therefore aimed towards the minority. The people who work unusual hours (possibly shifts) or maybe retired people who you would assume try to avoid driving at these busier times.

The biggest problem of all is the quote. It is really a quote based on a specific amount of miles at a specific time of the day. Unless you have a fixed routine for 7 days of the week that is military timed then this quote will never be accurate. Even a traffic jam or breakdown could delay a journey, pushing you into a peak time and thus changing the price.

I think that most people will be reluctant to jump on board unless the saving is pretty much guaranteed. I certainly would rather know what I'm paying for rather than think I'm paying one figure then be told I've gone over my original estimate and owe them more money!

New 20p Error Could Make You Royal Minted

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:33:00 +0000

The Royal Mint has made a blunder in the issue of the new twenty pence. The new design was to move the date from the front of the coin ('tails' side) to the back of the coin ('heads' side). It seems that to save time, they merely created the new front without the date and used the old back without updating it.

The error was spotted early but it is believed that around 100,000 of these made it into circulation. Such is this rare event, coin collectors believe that the coin will be worth a lot of money in years to come. Early valuations of this undated 20p are around £50 but the online auction site ebay already has some lucky finders of this coin selling them at over £100, that's 500 times there original value which isn't bad if you got it as change from you daily pint of milk down the shops.

No doubt this will cause a huge amount of people sifting through their change to see if they can find one. You may be able to earn a quick buck by selling these straight away but as more and more of these end up in the hands of collectors, they will become harder to obtain by others and therefore much more valuable. Keep it safe for a few years or maybe until the new design is updated and then get a valuation.

The Difference Between Rent Guarantee and Loss of Rent Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:54:00 +0000

Rent guarantee cover is taken out by landlords to protect themselves from the default of rent payments from their tenant. This could be from the tenant vacating the property without notice and not paying the remainder of their contract, or the tenant being unable to keep up with rent payments due to being made redundant, something that is happening more and more in this economic crisis.

Because of this, more and more landlords are searching for this as an add-on to their landlord building and contents insurance. It is often required to have reference checks or guarantors in place for this sort of cover. This type of cover is sometimes referred to as loss of rent cover, which predominantly it is, but this is not actually the case.

Loss of rent cover is normally covered under a standard landlord building insurance policy and therefore not a separate add-on like rent guarantee normally is. The loss of rent cover under a buildings policy is for the rent that is lost from a claim for an insured peril.

For example, a flood could render the property uninhabitable and consequently the tenant would move out while the property is repaired. The loss of rent during this period is then paid as part of the claim (or in some cases the tenant would continue to pay rent and the insurance pays out for the alternative accommodation instead).

It is always therefore best to call the rent covering policies by their correct name. If contacting an insurance company, keep this in mind as if the wrong term is used, you may think you are covered for something that you later find out is not when it is probably too late.

Tips on How to Avoid Having Your Insurance Claim Refused

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:45:00 +0000

I recently read an article in the Daily Mail here where Halifax Insurance repudiated a claim for storm damage as the recorded wind speed was not strong enough. It is stories like this that give the insurance industry a bad name and the usual comments such as "it's not worth the paper it's written on" and "they do anything to get out of a claim" seem to come up.

I have worked in the insurance industry for several years and this scenario really annoys me. As a broker, we are caught in the middle of this argument. We are not the ones who pay out the claim, it is the insurer, and if the insurer pays out then the customer is happy so we are always on the customer's side in this battle but can often be the target of abuse if a claim is not paid out.

In the article mentioned earlier, the claim was for damage to the roof following strong winds. Each and every insurer has a threshold for what wind speed is needed to be considered strong enough to cause damage. The whole point here is that the wind did not reach that speed but damage was caused.

The roof was obviously poorly maintained otherwise you would have expected a large number of roofs in the area to be damaged also but I would guess his was the only one. Sure, you are sympathetic with the person who has suffered the damage but a line has to be drawn somewhere otherwise a tile could fall off in a 5mph breeze and that could be claimed for even though it is quite obviously a maintenance issue. The insurer even made extra effort by sending a surveyor to the property who confirmed that there was signs of faulty flashing from prior to the claim.

There are different rules for every insurer as, at the end of the day, they are a business and need to make a profit. Some are more lenient in paying claims in certain areas than others but this is normally reflected in the price you pay. If you want to avoid having your insurance claim refused, read the policy before you take out the cover.

Lie Detector Being Used on Insurance Claims

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:47:00 +0000

For the first time in the UK, a leading insurer is now using techniques to combat increasing fraudulent claims in the form of lie detection. The company that specialises in car insurance will be targeting claims for vehicle theft where the value is less than £5,000. This is due to the increasing number of these claims where it is believed that owners are simply "hiding" their car then reporting it stolen.

The company will use cognitive interviewing, a technique used by the police, in which variations in the tone of our voice are measured to detect minor changes that occur when we are under stress which could mean that the interviewee is not telling the truth.

If the interview detects a possible inaccuracy in what is being declared on the claim then the insurance company will look into it further. Hopefully they will reduce the number of fraudulent claims and, if proved successful, I'm sure this could be the norm with all types of insurance including public liability insurance and landlords insurance.

This is a win win situation for everyone as less fake claims means insurance companies are paying out less money which ultimately leads to lower insurance premiums for the rest of us. The owner loser here is the fraudster when they get reported to the police instead of their "stolen" car!

Norwich Union Changes to Aviva

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:52:00 +0000

Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurance company, has been around since 1797. Originally the [deep breath...] "Norwich Union Society for the Insurance of Houses, Stock and Merchandise from Fire", thankfully along the years it has become quite simply "Norwich Union".

If you utter these two words to almost any home or car owner in the UK, they will know who you are talking about, which begs the question, "why are you changing your name?". Despite several TV adverts telling people of this change, I think it is going to be one of those things where you say "Aviva, it's that company that used to be called Norwich Union" although I suppose it's still shorter than their original name all them years ago!

Aviva was an adopted name in 2002 by the merger of CGU plc and Norwich Union which took place two years earlier. The UK continued trading under the Norwich Union name but everywhere else it would be known as Aviva. Aviva's growth to the world's 5th largest insurer has meant that the decision to drop the UK trading name to become the same global brand was to take place today.

I'm sure that the name Norwich Union will still be unofficially used for many years to come but from now on we shall try our best to call you Aviva!

New Landlord Licence

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:53:00 +0000

A consultation is under way with regards to a licence required by anyone letting their property. This new scheme will require all landlords to sign up to a national register before they can rent out their property.

The idea is to keep track of "rogue" landlords for the protection tenants. Quite often tenants will move into a property and be subject to a minimum lease requirement. Upon entering the agreement, the landlord may not fulfil their end of the bargain (i.e. maintaining the property, etc).

The obvious downsides to this scheme is that existing landlords will cause an uproar on the fact that it will cost money (a figure which is yet to be determined) to be on this register. The thing is, it will hopefully make renting more lucrative to tenants who can be more sure that the landlord they are about to rent is reputable.

Landlords who fail to do what they should be doing will be blacklisted from the register and will then be unable to rent their property out. I think this is a good idea but they cannot make the costs to high, if anything at all, as it will do more harm than good with another extra cost to people who are probably renting their property and only just breaking even on their costs.