Home Insurance help

Hi All,

I'm looking for a bit of help and advice if possible please. Having problems with a claim I have in for our TV. Basically we've never had a claim on our home insurance (had for about 7 years now) but our TV went on the blink just at the New Year so we put in a claim. Our TV was a Thomson 28" widescreen TV that cost £450 circa October '01.

We have a new for old policy but basically they have offered me one choice of TV which is a JVC 28" flatscreen but it has the same bulky fat arse our old one has. I checked online and can get it for £199. When I complained they told me I can have a cash settlement of £150 (to cover our £50 excess).

Now maybe I'm naive with things like this but I was expecting to be offered a TV or vouchers for somewhere for around the same price as my old set cost. Their argument is that they are offering a like for like replacement. Now this big bulky thing obviously won't be HD ready or anything like that which I would've looked for when I was getting a new one.

I've threatened to go to the Ombudsman but they will not budge and it's all I can do not to scream down the phone to the b**tards.

tough one , insurance company will always win, best think is talk to citizens advice they will have dealt with things like this all the time and will know what to do.

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm

hope this helps

any bit of advice will help so thanks!

Its probably to do with depreciation. the TV you bought 6 years ago for €450 is no longer worth €450, so a duce is probably all they value it at.

a duce, bain et douche del boy

I had abreak in and in fairness they where quite good the assesor came out looked around got the gaurd report said just give us either receipts or if you dont have receipts ask for a estimate of how much a new one will cost and they gave me all the cash.

You wont get £450 as it wont cost that to replace the best you could do is push them for the very same TV or the value of the same TV rather than the JVC and put the money towards a flat screen.

Personally the JVC TV is quite a good tv and if you dont have a HD imput ( sky HD ) a HD ready tv is no use . The old big tv's are far better than the flat screens. you might just have to take the TV and change company.

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Originally Posted by centre mid

Its probably to do with depreciation. the TV you bought 6 years ago for €450 is no longer worth €450, so a duce is probably all they value it at.

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I can appreciate that but my point was that at the time £450 was a lot of money for a TV and it was at the top end of that range. If I have new for old cover then I should be entitled to get something that is at the top end of todays range surely.

I'm not looking for something massive but you can get 32" LCD widescreen's now for around the £400 mark so at the very least I was expecting something like that.

Temping in home insurance at the moment so here's your definitive answer. You're not entitled to a top of the range TV, even if your old model was top of the range back then. Home insurance is there to put you back in the same position you were in before your accident/break in/whatever. So they looked at your decent brand, 28inch widescreen (tube tvs never get replaced anymore, you always get a flatscreen), went on Dixons, Argos, whoever, and sourced what replacement they could offer that would put you reasonably back where you were.

Honestly with some of the ballbusters I work with you got a good deal, one of the girls working here would have given you a 26inch flatscreen at best, after 7 years your TV value in the insurance world is about the same as a packet of crisps. You won't win any disagreement against whoever you are with to be honest

very fair argument, jebus our new foot.ie citizens advice:D

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

We have a new for old policy but basically they have offered me one choice of TV

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You are getting new version of your old TV which seems perfectly fair to me. The fact the price when you bought is higher means nothing. The broken TV was not worth £450 when it expired? In fact you are getting better version of TV as getting a JVC.

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

Now maybe I'm naive with things like this but I was expecting to be offered a TV or vouchers for somewhere for around the same price as my old set cost. Their argument is that they are offering a like for like replacement.

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To be honest that sounds pretty standard. You've got home contents insurance, not home-what-ive-spent-on-it insurance. You're being put back in the position before the damage was caused, rather than rolling back depreciation. Otherwise there'd be lots of sneaky cups spilled down backs of TVs

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Now this big bulky thing obviously won't be HD ready or anything like that which I would've looked for when I was getting a new one.

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Again, you're being put back to where you were before the damage; indeed, you have a better chance of selling on teh JVC to finance a HDtv

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Originally Posted by jebus

Temping in home insurance at the moment so here's your definitive answer. You're not entitled to a top of the range TV, even if your old model was top of the range back then. Home insurance is there to put you back in the same position you were in before your accident/break in/whatever. So they looked at your decent brand, 28inch widescreen (tube tvs never get replaced anymore, you always get a flatscreen), went on Dixons, Argos, whoever, and sourced what replacement they could offer that would put you reasonably back where you were.

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Are you the person I spoke with? :eek::D Nah seriously, thanks for the advice lads. I can of course see where they are coming from but not having claimed before I didn't really know what to expect.

TheIr argument of only having to supply a new one with the same spec grated on me a little. My argument was that my current type of TV is probably not manufactured anymore although you can still get some on the shelves. If my TV was 15 years old then you would no longer get a TV with that spec so in that situation they would have to get me a new TV which would not be cheap but in my situation they are exploiting a grey area IMO by offering me a new "older model".

In the cold light of day I know that technically they are right and it's just my luck that you can still get these old type TV's.

Insurance crowds are all robbing b**tards anyway so I'll no doubt have to swallow my pride and accept it.

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

Insurance crowds are all robbing b**tards anyway so I'll no doubt have to swallow my pride and accept it.

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Sorry about the delay in replying, I was counting the money I took out of a grannie's handbag this morning :)

:D Actually Jebus, you will probably know. Does a full month seem excessive to deal with a simple TV claim or is it about normal? I had to chase them this week to try and get an answer out of them.

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

:D Actually Jebus, you will probably know. Does a full month seem excessive to deal with a simple TV claim or is it about normal? I had to chase them this week to try and get an answer out of them.

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At this time of year it's fairly normal. The amount of storm damage claims at the moment is ridiculous, and if your company work off a queue system then it can take up to a month to get everything sorted. Kick up a bit of fuss in a polite manner and you'll get your cheque quicker, make sure it stays polite though, or that month can easily turn into two months

Will do, thanks. Just going to accept the TV on offer and pay the excess, seems the lesser of two evils :)

Does your home insurance cover tv's going on the blink? 7 year-old tellys go on the blink, that happens.

Just curious, as i have an interest in these things - did you try to get it fixed? My 28in went on the blink about 6 years after I got it, €50 to Duffy's in Blanchardstown and I've gotten another 3 years out of it and it's still going strong.

Yeah, I'm kinda surprised with that too. I would've thought that an old tele breaking down wouldn't have been covered, only if it was accidental damage or it'd been nicked rather than wear and tear. Must check my policy when I get home.