Meet the Loss Adjuster. She’s a normal person. Usually they work for specialist Loss Adjuster companies so you might meet the same fellow irrespective of who the insurer is.
Loss adjusters look and act like normal people. At InsuranceStall
we used to live next door to one. The only difference is
a loss adjuster always knows a place you could get that
Moorcroft vase replaced for £25.
She also knows a dealer on the Portobello Road who can replace your
chandalier for a fiver. She can basically always knock down the
cost of your goods, and if the Insurer wants to offer you a
cheque for the lot, her job is to keep that cheque down to a
minimum. 2. Who is managing the repair?
An innocent enough question, you may think. It’s the insurance
company, right?
Not always, sadly.
Many insurance companies offer a full service. You call them
up with your claim and they get someone over immediately who
organises all the workmen and everything gets moving.
Many other companies, however, will just send you a claim form
and leave the rest to you. Let me tell you if your ceiling has
caved in and you need a plumber, a builder and an electrician
in the next 24 hours, you may need to have crossed paths with
a dozen black cats to make this happen. You may also need a copy
of the Yellow Pages and a lot of 20 pence pieces…. Well, you
get the idea.
In short, it may be wiser to find out which type of company
you are dealing with before you hit “Buy Now” button.
3. “It’s not covered”
Often people find this
out when they want to make a House claim. Let’s say your
spectacles got damaged when the roof fell in. No problem
if you added spectacles cover but usually spectacles
are not covered in the base policy.
You only find out
when you claim. For Motor it can be even worse. Your car
is stolen with your camcorder in the boot but when you
claim for the cam they say “it’s not covered, you should
claim for that on your House policy” and then you go back
and, may find it’s not covered there either.
4. “That’s a high risk item!”
When you buy your House cover look really carefully to see what
they call a high risk item. Almost every company seems to differ.
At one company a high-risk item can be anything over £2,000,
at another it’s anything that is highly prices AND easy to steal,
so your piano doesn’t fall into that category.
5. Collections
This is a great one. So, you have a couple of hundred CD’s and
some kid comes along and steals the lot. Are they covered? Well,
at some companies they will only be covered if you declared
them as a collection when you bought your policy. Do you think
the sales agent points that out and asks how many CD’s have
you got? Not always.
