Fighting for your money

My elderly mother has been left high and dry by Hastings Direct over a £3k flooding claim

QI am writing in desperation on behalf of my 84-year- old mother who was widowed a few years ago. In July 2021 there was torrential rain, resulting in a flash flood in the main road close to her house (due to poorly maintained drains on the road).

As her house has a gentle sloping drive, water rapidly ran down and entered the garage and front door, causing damage to the downstairs hall carpet, wooden floor and the dishwasher in the utility room behind the garage.

Seven months later, despite numerous telephone calls to her insurer, Hastings Direct, and promises to sort things out, the carpet, floor and dishwasher have still not been replaced. This is an appalling way to treat a loyal customer, especially an elderly widow who lives alone.

Even worse is that Hastings Direct then wrote her a letter recently to inform that she would not be able to renew her insurance policy with the firm at expiry in a few weeks’ time and that she would have to go elsewhere for cover. My parents have never made a house insurance claim.

As she is hard of hearing, I have tried to reach Hastings Direct without success (no one ever seems to answer the phone) and have been telephoning around for new quotations. I have since been told that many insurance companies will not insure her because she has an open claim, so she is effectively left high and dry (no pun intended).

Having read several reviews of Hastings Direct on the internet, it seems they have poor customer satisfaction. I feel really upset for my mother and not sure what more to do. – PB, Portsmouth

AIt is really not on, leaving an elderly homeowner waiting seven months to get her house back into shape after a flood. I find it hard to fathom how the company’s claims people could have been so remiss in sorting out her claim, which you estimate will cost roughly £3,000 to put everything right. This seems a pretty low level sum for an insurer to be dragging its heels over.

Hastings Direct has an advertising slogan “Life’s complicated”, the implication being its insurance helps to reduce that complexity. Not so for your mother. And then, for good measure, it threw in the bombshell that it would not be renewing her cover. What can it be thinking of? Oh yes, its profit margins.

I decided to go into battle immediately with Hastings Direct and press it to address your mother’s case as soon as possible.

I am pleased to say the insurer quickly conceded that its claims handling had not been up to scratch. You told me a very pleasant senior customer services executive called you to discuss matters, did some grovelling and arranged to “expedite” the claim, as well as agreeing to renew the policy for the coming year.

You told me you felt more confident that things would get sorted in a timely manner, and relieved that your mother’s home insurance had been renewed for another year, although you were less impressed by the premium rising from £228 to £451 for her 1970s-built house.

The higher premium is not a surprise, as any claim made on insurance is likely to lead to a higher premium the following year.

A Hastings Direct spokesman said: “We are sorry for any distress experienced during the claims process and the delay in repairs following the flood damage, but we’re happy to confirm that the

Finding cover for floodprone homes is easier than it used to be due to the Flood Re initiative

claim is now progressing to the customer’s satisfaction and her policy is being renewed. We have discussed this with her son and are pleased he is happy with the outcome for his mother.”

You told me of your relief and said that when you updated your mother she enjoyed the first proper night’s sleep she’d had in months. Although your mother can relax in the knowledge her home will be covered for a further year, Hastings Direct told you that, come the next renewal, in early 2023, she will probably need to look elsewhere. When you mentioned in your original email to me that you had struggled to find an insurer prepared to step in when Hastings said it would not renew, I wondered whether this was normal practice with an open claim.

According to Ryan Fulthorpe, a home insurance expert at comparison service Gocompare, it should be possible to find a new insurer, even mid- claim. He said: “A comparison service has a wider audience that can quote on the same details, making it easier to compare quotes rather than just contacting one insurer at a time. There is a question on the application form about whether customers have made a claim within the last few years, which will be taken into account. If that doesn’t provide a suitable option then it is worth trying the British Insurance Brokers’ Association to find a broker that can put homeowners in touch with insurers that will be able to cover the risk.”

Insurers can be nervous covering a property that has been flooded before because claims can be costly and they fear that a flood might happen again in the future.

The good news is that finding cover for flood-prone homes is easier than it used to be, thanks to the introduction of the Flood Re initiative in 2016. Insurers pay into the scheme so that the cost of flood cover is spread across thousands of policies in order to reduce the cost for individuals and encourage providers to take on the risk. Insurers can choose whether they want to sign up to the scheme, cover flood claims themselves or not cover flooding at all.

Before Flood Re was introduced, just 9pc of policyholders with a previous flood claim could typically obtain flood insurance quotes from two or more insurers, while none could get quotes from five or more.

But now 96pc of customers can get five or more quotes and four-fifths find cheaper ones than in the past. A spokesman for Flood Re said: “It almost always pays to shop around. The decision to insure a property is a commercial decision made by the insurer. Individual * insurers take into account different factors in setting their premiums, including cover against flooding.”

Certain residential properties are excluded from Flood Re. These are mainly homes built since 2009, to discourage building on flood plains.

John Lewis refuses to honour £100 voucher offer with my TV purchase

Q In November, I purchased a television set from John Lewis for £1,499 and thereby qualified for a £100 gift card promotion, so long as I made an online claim between Dec 6- 20. I attempted this on Dec 6 but the form would not recognise my order number.

Customer services told me there was a technical fault and to call a different team, which I attempted over several days, only finally getting through to them on Dec 21, when the promotion had closed. I complained and was asked for copies of my phone bill to support my claim, but I said unanswered calls would not have appeared on my bill. Despite this I was told my claim could not be processed. Please can you help? – HBS, Wallingford A Sales promotions like the one that caught your eye are inevitably popular and do wonders for a company’s bottom line. But it seems this one was perhaps too popular and the technology and staff support behind it buckled just as you were trying to claim your voucher. I felt you had been hard done by, so asked John Lewis to reconsider your claim. The retailer this time agreed you had made efforts to comply in time and has now sent you a voucher for £150, including £50 to make up for the “lack of help and understanding” shown previously.