House Fire Don't Get Done Get Dom

I've been fighting your consumer battles for years,

but it seems some companies are still not getting the message.

It seems to be the biggest companies not looking after their customers.

Day in, day out, thousands of you are still being taken for a ride.

And it's always the same old things - shoddy products, bad customer service and the dreaded small print.

The customer service level is the most important thing to some people.

Some firms are driving you barmy, causing you sleepless nights

and can make you feel like you're the ones to blame.

But don't despair, because I'll take them on, to make sure you don't get done.

Home insurance - an essential way to make sure you and your family

are protected financially if a disaster should strike.

But just because you have a policy and an insurance company is taking your money each month,

it doesn't necessarily mean you're covered.

'And sadly that's exactly what happened to Tina Hunwick,

'and in the most devastating way.

'In 2012, her family home was gutted by fire

'and when she tried to make a claim for the damage, her insurers refused it.

'It all began in the early hours of a March morning.'

I was woken about ten past five in the morning, a smell of burning..

Erm, and the bedroom alight, bright orange,...

'I just screamed out to everybody, run down the stairs.'

'With everyone safely out of the house, now engulfed in flames,

'the fire brigade was called and the blaze was quickly brought under control.

'But for Tina, it was still heartbreaking.'

You just think your whole life has just gone up in smoke and flames.

'Tina and her family may have sadly lost most of their personal possessions,

'but she thought she could slowly rebuild her life

'with a quick call to her insurance company, Paymentshield.

'However, they told her that, even though she had paid her premiums,

'she wasn't covered, because she had had a previous policy voided.

'Nightmare!'

Having a fire in your own home is probably one of the scariest things that could ever happen.

Trust me, I know. It happened to me 20-odd years ago.

But to find out your insurance company won't pay out? Tell you what, comes a close second.

'I've come to see Tina at the temporary property she's had to rent ever since the disaster.

'From my experience, there's no smoke without fire.

'I want to get to the bottom of what happened and see if I can help.'

-Pleased to meet you. Horrible weather!

-Awful. Come in.

I hope you've got the heating on.

-If I said your life's in a pickle, that's an understatement.

-Definitely.

-So, back to basics. Did you have buildings AND contents insurance?

-Yeah.

Any reason why they're not paying out?

They said I never admitted to a previous voided insurance, which I did.

'Tina's problems go back to a previous policy,

'also through Paymentshield insurance company,

'and underwritten by Royal and Sun Alliance.

'When Tina took out this policy, she had accidentally forgotten to disclose a previous claim,

'and when this came to light, Royal and Sun Alliance told Tina they were cancelling her policy

'and wouldn't reinsure her.'

Because I hadn't disclosed two previous claims from my previous insurance company.

I hadn't disclosed because I'd completely forgot about it,

so I said, "Fair enough, I'm in the wrong."

'Being the responsible and caring parent she is,

'Tina wanted to make sure the family home stayed protected from disaster,

'and secure for herself and her three children, as it holds many happy memories.'

We moved in about 16 years ago,

so for Summer and Heaven, it's the only home they've ever known.

In fact, Heaven was actually born at home.

'So with her home insurance now void, Tina desperately needed cover

'and called an insurance broker, Lifestyle Protect,

'to see if they could find her a new policy.'

When I phoned the broker, the first thing I said to them is,

"I need new house insurance. I've just had my policy voided by an insurance company."

'Within a couple of days, the broker found Tina a new home insurance policy,

'also with Paymentshield - the same company she was insured with before.

'What Tina hadn't spotted was that her new policy was underwritten by Royal and Sun Alliance,

'the same company who had said they would never insure her again.

'Unaware, Tina just felt relieved that everything was covered.'

I would live in that house till the day I die,

and Heaven being born in the house makes it extra special.

So I just want to live there for ever.

-Did you not realise you were with the same company that had previously voided you?

-No.

-You just paid the broker, took the documents, didn't read them.

-Yeah.

-How do you feel about that?

-You just think, brokers, big companies like that...

They've got databases, they KNOW who they've got insurance with,

if they have voidance, if they paid out a claim...

They KNOW all that information. I told her that information.

So that insurance company probably wouldn't insure me.

She said, "There's plenty of other companies that will insure you." I didn't give it a thought.

-When you took out the insurance, did you go into a broker? Or on the phone?

-I done it on the phone.

So, presumably, they asked you a whole load of questions, you said yes, no, or maybe...

-Have you asked for a copy of that call?

-I have.

-Did you get one?

-No.

-They didn't send a transcript?

-They can't find it.

How much do they reckon it'll cost to put right?

Um, between 50,000 and 100,000.

Right. Fortune, isn't it?

So they've said, "We're not going to pay for that."

-What about your accommodation? Are they paying for that?

-No.

-So you're paying rent...

-And a mortgage.

-Ouch.

-How much is that a month?

-Between 1,600 and 2,000.

-That must be a hell of a struggle.

-Mm.

What have you done, since the insurance company said no,

to try and get this situation sorted out?

I've wrote to four of their top people, one being their chief executive.

I've spoken to a solicitor. I've wrote formal letters of complaint,

to try and follow their procedure.

And then I contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service.

'And her case continues to be investigated.

'But Tina isn't feeling that optimistic and has turned to me in desperation.'

-Can you afford to fix the house without the insurance?

-Definitely not.

If I can't sort this out, what will you end up doing?

No idea.

Crikey.

I don't know what to say.

-Could life be any worse at the moment?

-Not really, no.

Tina's situation couldn't be any worse. Her family's living in rented accommodation,

her house burnt down, insurance company aren't paying out.

She's tried everything to sort it out and she's failed.

Talk about pressure on me!

'I've got a feeling I've got my work cut out,

'as I've got three companies to talk to on this fact-finding mission.

'There's Lifestyle Protect, the broker Tina asked to find her a new buildings and contents policy.

'Paymentshield is the insurance company who is the middle man between broker Lifestyle Protect

'and the underwriter of the insurance policy, Royal and Sun Alliance.

'My challenge is to get to the bottom of who of those is at fault.

'I'm going to start with the broker, Lifestyle Protect,

'because that's the company Tina asked to find her a new insurance policy,

'after explaining that her last policy had been voided.

'Tina has been trying to get a copy of that initial call,

'but so far, no success, so I'll see if I can get any further.

'But before I make contact, I want to get my head around who they are.

'From my research into Lifestyle Protect,

'I found out it's a trade name of another company - All Debt Solutions Ltd.

'They handle PPI reclaims, money management and debt collection.

'It's time to get hold of someone at Lifestyle Protect.

'They told Tina they have no recording of her call.

'But do they even record calls?'

-RECORDING:

-'Please hold. Your call is important to us.

-'Please note that all calls are recorded for monitoring and training purposes.'

-Bingo!

'That's odd. They say all calls ARE recorded,

'but they told Tina they don't have a copy of her phone call.'

'..option one for customer services. This will enable us to access your account efficiently.

-'Our group currently process up to 3,500 claims per week...'

-Gordon Bennett!

'At this rate, I'll never get through to anyone to even ask the question!'

Two minutes this has been going on.

-RINGING TONE

-About time!

RINGING TONE

'Great. Sounds like I'm finally going to get to talk to someone.'

Three minutes!

-RECORDING:

-'Thank you for calling. All our operators are handling calls.

'Please leave a message with your reference number, name and telephone number,

'with a brief description of your enquiry,

'and we will endeavour to return the call within 24-48 working hours.'

-RECORDING:

-'Please leave your message after the tone.'

Hello. My name is Dominic Littlewood, calling for the BBC.

'I leave a message requesting that someone calls me back.'

Thanks very much. Bye-bye.

Four minutes 20 seconds to leave a voicemail.

This is a big company. They should have people answering the phone.

I don't like the way this is going already. I'm very rarely wrong.

I thought I was wrong once, but I made a mistake.

'I'm keen to talk to Lifestyle Protect,

'the brokers who organised Tina's insurance.

'I've yet to speak to anybody but I've had an email reply.

'So I'm going to try to talk to the person named in that email.'

-RECORDING:

-'Please note that in-depth...'

This is exactly the same. Load of palaver for three minutes

before they say, "All lines are busy, please leave a message."

That's not how companies should run.

'So I hit redial and try again.'

Good morning. I'm having problems with your phone system.

Keeps going to a voicemail message. Could you give me a direct dial number for him, please?

'She says all she has is the number she put me through to.'

I've got that number and you always end up leaving a message.

Do you have an email address?

'There is a generic email for the company,

'but she doesn't have any direct dial extensions on reception.'

Do you have a supervisor, manager, or anybody in charge there?

'She says she'll put me through to someone's mobile.'

Who would that be?

'There are several numbers to try, but she won't give them to me as they are personal mobiles.'

Who are you trying first?

'Again, she withholds the name.'

You can't get through to the manager, person in charge.

You can't get an email address. She'll try people's mobiles - won't give me their name or number.

'Finally, she says she has spoken to the Operations Manager

'and I have to send an email or letter to the directors.'

Why is everybody being so secretive and unhelpful? I just need to tell somebody about a programme.

'She just repeats that I need to send an email.'

It would be prudent for one of your directors to chat with me.

I only need to ask him a few questions.

'It's proving difficult to speak to anybody, but a few days later, I finally get some answers.

'A firm, who handles Lifestyle Protect's complaints, emails me

'to tell me Lifestyle Protect do not have a recording of Tina's call,

'as they only record outbound calls and Tina's was inbound.

'A shame, but at least we know and we can move on.'

Every day, insurance companies are paying out £9 million to homeowners in claims.

However, there is a flip side.

Thousands of people are left high and dry when insurance companies refuse to pay out.

'In 2011, the Financial Ombudsman dealt with well over 25,000 insurance complaints.

'About a quarter of those were surrounding non-disclosure.

'But what exactly is non-disclosure

'and how can we consumers ensure

'we tell the broker or insurance company all they need to know,

'so we don't get caught out?

'One man who knows a thing or two about this is David Cresswell, from the Financial Ombudsman Service.'

Non-disclosure means you haven't told the insurance company something

that THEY think is very important indeed.

It's often very difficult for consumers to know

what it is that the insurance might need to know.

That's why we say it's the responsibility of the insurance company

to ask questions and to ask really clear questions.

Then it's your responsibility, as the consumer,

to try your hardest to answer those questions as honestly as you can.

'OK, but what if you make an honest mistake and simply forget to mention a previous claim,

'as Tina did with the Royal and Sun Alliance,

'and the insurance company void your policy?'

If an insurance company tells you it's going to void your policy,

and you think this is completely unfair, because you believe you were as honest as you could be,

you can formally complain to the company.

If that doesn't solve the problem, that's exactly the kind of situation the Ombudsman is here to help.

'So what's the best way of protecting yourself?'

Whether you deal directly with the insurance company or go through someone else,

it's still important to keep copies

of anything you gave to the insurance company,

or gave FOR the insurance company.

Keep hold of that and have a record of it.

'I may well have shed a bit of light on the complicated and confusing world of insurance,

'but for Tina, she's going home to calculate the true cost

'of getting her life back together,

'if she ever can.'

I've come today because I need to go round each room,

and make a list of all the things lost and damaged in the fire,

that obviously need replacing.

'Knowing what you've got in your home will ensure you get the right amount of contents insurance

'and help you if you ever need to make a claim.

'Write a list by walking round your home, listing everything you own.

'Remember to include all rooms,

'and don't forget the cupboard under the stairs, or loft or garage,

'which could store valuable content.'

This room obviously was the children's room.

You can just see the damage in the roof.

Obviously, the whole ceiling's come down because this is where the water tank had burst.

Their bedroom was in a total mess.

Then all the insulation just ruined everything.

It affected the girls greatly. Summer gets upset a lot.

Heaven lashes out a lot.

Lately, they've both been lashing out and getting upset.

It's just devastating, all of it. Just turns your stomach.

Nasty.

'Sadly, Tina's inventory won't be much help unless we get a result on this case.

'My next call is to Tina's insurance company, Paymentshield.

'Given their underwriters Royal and Sun Alliance had previously cancelled one of Tina's policies,

'I want to know how Paymentshield ended up reinsuring her.'

'Hello. It's Claire from the PR team for Paymentshield.'

Hello, Claire.

I believe Lifestyle Money, according to Tina Hunwick,

was informed at the start of the phone call about the information you say was omitted -

that there was a policy voided.

She claims it was one of the first things she said.

-'OK.'

-We would like a copy of that phone conversation.

Their voicemail system does indicate that all calls are kept and recorded

Now, we have requested that,

but Lifestyle Money aren't even speaking to us on the phone past the reception.

We can't get to speak to any of the directors,

we get an automated response to emails, promising to resolve things.

Unfortunately, they're letting us down.

If you wouldn't mind, could you request a copy of that conversation,

-because if Tina's...

-'I can certainly try for you.'

-OK.

Claire, there's an another issue.

-Tina says her previous policy that was voided was with your company.

-'That's right.'

If it was voided, how on earth could you reinsure her?

'Um, my understanding is that it wasn't until the point that the claim was made,

'that it was then brought to their attention that she had had a previous policy.'

As far as she knew, she was insured with you guys for seven months

before the house burnt down.

Surely to God you guys should have realised that,

prior to seven months passing and a fire happening.

You had voided her previous policy, yet you reinsured her.

'It was brought to our attention at the point the claim had been made,

'which is when it was brought to our attention she had had a previous policy.'

So why didn't your system flag up the fact that this was somebody you didn't want to insure?

'I can't comment in terms of how the system actually works.'

'I'm not going to make any headway here.

'I'm still struggling to get any of the facts in Tina's case.'

'As I say, I'm going to get more information for you.'

-Thanks very much.

-'Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.'

I've got a feeling, when it goes back to Paymentshield, they'll say,

"He's got a damn good point.

"Why was she insured for months when she shouldn't have been?"

Their system has let them down

and that might be the kink in their armour I need to get this sorted.

'Lifestyle Protect say they don't have a recording of Tina's call,

'and Paymentshield, the insurers, say they only discovered the problem when Tina made a claim.

'I've also emailed Royal and Sun Alliance to see what they had to say

'and I've now received this email with a joint statement,

'from Royal and Sun Alliance and Paymentshield.

'They say...'

'The thing that really frustrates me

'is that, in the modern world of interconnected computer systems,

'Tina's situation shouldn't happen.

'Surely there is a way of cross-checking insurance histories,

'so a company doesn't cover someone they've previously refused.

'One system that could help is the Claims Underwriting Exchange, or CUE, for short.

'It's a database of everyone's previous claims.

'I'm meeting Malcolm Tarling, from the Association of British Insurers,

'to find out about CUE, and how it's used.'

I know you're familiar with the problems that the lady I'm trying to help has had.

Some areas need addressing, and one is the CUE system. Can you explain how it works?

CUE stands for Claims and Underwriting Exchange.

It's a central database storing information about

the previous claims history of policy holders.

Insurance companies can access this

to verify the information given on proposal forms, when somebody takes out insurance.

'Sounds perfect. If insurers checked you against that database when they took you on,

'surely non-disclosure would be a thing of the past.

'Trouble is, they don't always.'

The question is, why do insurance companies only look at CUE once a claim goes in?

Why not use it as soon as somebody tries to take out a policy,

therefore eradicating any chance of a mistake?

As I say, increasingly, companies are using CUE when a person takes out an insurance policy.

Insurers recognise it's important not just to disclose all information

but people need to be given help and understand what it is they need to disclose.

'Wouldn't it make sense, then, if the CUE system was legally required,

'to help both the insurer AND the consumer?'

Would you agree, if companies were duty-bound to check the CUE system,

it would probably alleviate these problems?

The CUE system would really struggle to cope with the demand.

When the Insurance Consumer Act comes into place,

it will lay down very specific requirements on the questions that insurers can ask,

and there'll be none of the "please disclose anything else you think is relevant" catch-all questions.

The onus is very much on insurance companies to make sure they ask the right questions.

'So there is a system that could stop cases like Tina's ever occurring.

'Hopefully, more insurers will be checking CUE when policies are taken out,

'to ensure there is nothing that will affect any future claims.

'But back to Tina, and just as it feels we're running out of options, there is a sudden development.

'The Financial Ombudsman have published their findings -

'that Royal and Sun Alliance are at fault

'for reinsuring Tina after voiding her previous policy.

'It's fantastic news. Royal and Sun Alliance have already contacted Tina.

'I'll find out more when I see her,

'but I'll make one last call to Royal and Sun Alliance to see if they can explain what went wrong.'

The thing I want to find out is where you're at at the moment

with this investigation and this claim.

'I end up speaking to a lady in Media Relations who says she'll need to double-check.'

At what point did you first believe that Tina withheld information on her claim?

'Again, the lady says she'll have to find out as she doesn't know.'

Is there any of these questions you can answer?

'Unbelievable! I don't think the word "yes" is in this woman's vocabulary.'

So we're talking a couple of days,

ideally before Thursday, if all goes well, yeah?

'I'm clearly not going to get any definite answers today

'and I'm more concerned with meeting Tina

'to find out what Royal and Sun Alliance have told her.'

How you doing? You all right? Crikey.

OK, so here we are. Bit of a mess, isn't it?

'This is the first time I've seen her burnt-out house.'

-This is where the fire started, Dom, as you can see.

-Shocking to look at.

-Makes you feel sick.

-That's obviously where it started.

-Could you see flames?

-Oh, yeah.

Soon as I opened that front room door, the smoke... was just bellowing in.

Listen, I've been on the phone to the insurance company.

There's a couple of issues. I don't know if you're aware, but a lot of people fall into this trap.

You know the reason they won't pay out is because you didn't disclose that your policy was voided.

-And you dispute that.

-Yeah.

-I've been disputing it as well.

Here's the crucial factor.

The fact that you took out insurance with the same company that had previously voided you,

and that company didn't pick up on it,

means, technically, the fault is theirs, not yours.

Obviously, the insurers have been dealing with me, as have the brokers and everybody else.

I know they've contacted you and they've told you the news.

-Yeah.

-So you tell me. I want to hear it from you. You're smiling!

They're going to pay out! We're coming home!

I'm getting my house done!

There's a light in the tunnel and it's approaching very fast.

-Never ever thought it would be happening.

-Yeah.

-Nine months. It's been the longest nine months of my life.

-Yeah.

The girls have got a home to come back to, instead of that house, temporary accommodation.

We're all coming home.

In addition, the insurance company are also going to pay you

all the rent you've paid out of your own hard earnings for the last few months,

which is in the thousands.

They'll give you your removal costs

and put you up in the house you're in now for the next six months, all rent paid.

So you can stop worrying about the money. You're slightly more relieved.

-The pressure is easing.

-Yeah.

'Royal and Sun Alliance has also offered Tina either a year's free insurance or £550 in cash.

'It's a fantastic result all round.

'It's the Financial Ombudsman's ruling that has made the difference,

'but I like to think some added pressure from me helped it along.'

-I'll love you and leave you.

-Thank you.

-Give my love to the girls.

-Thank you. Will do.

-Cheerio!

-Bye!

'We spoke to the firm that deals with Lifestyle Protect's compliance,

'and they said...'

'Paymentshield had nothing to add to their earlier statement,

'but Royal and Sun Alliance said...'

I think it's absolutely amazing that Dom's done what he's done and helped me and my family.

That extra help, putting pressure on the insurance...

I just dread to think what the outcome would've been.

'For us all to come home, it's fantastic news.'

I tell you what. That is one very lucky and very relieved lady.

But there is a lesson there for all of us, me included.

When you're doing insurance,

make sure you disclose absolutely everything.