When making a claim, we ask you to follow these steps:
Check this policy booklet and your policy schedule to see whether you are covered for the event which has happened.
When deciding whether to make a claim, please note that the claim may affect your no claims discount at your next renewal.You may want to think about whether it is worth making a claim after we have deducted the excess from the amount claimed.
If you think that you are covered under your policy, ring one of the following claim numbers:
To report a home emergency claim and receive emergency assistance, ring the 24 hour emergency helpline 0845 603 6490.
To report a legal expenses claim, ring the Eurolaw legal helpline on 0845 602 2785.
To report any other type of claim, ring 0845 602 3722.
Your name and home postcode
Your policy number (this can be found on your policy schedule)
An indication as to the nature of the claim
The claim handler will register the claim from the details you provide and tell you what to do next.
If asked, you must provide an explanation of the cause of the loss or damage, proof of ownership and value for any item and any written estimates and quotations that you have received. Examples of proof of ownership are original receipt, operating manual or remote control and valuation.
DO NOT admit fault if you are accused of causing injury or damage. Send all documents unanswered and without delay to Birmingham Midshires Home Insurance, PO Box 318, Leeds, LS1 9FQ unless we tell you otherwise.
If you are a victim of theft, attempted theft, malicious damage, arson or riot, or something is lost or damaged away from your home, tell the police immediately and ask for a crime number.
If you discover that a credit card or mobile phone is missing, you must tell the credit card company or airtime supplier (as appropriate) immediately.
You cannot leave the responsibility for any property to us.
If we need to get into your buildings, you must help us to do so.
You must not dispose of any damaged items because this could affect your claim.
You must not settle, reject or negotiate any claim without our written permission.
We may at our expense and in your name take any steps necessary to enforce your rights against any other person either before or after we pay a claim.
If there is any other insurance covering the same loss or damage, we will only pay our share of any claim..
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This section details how we settle claims under your policy.
We will only pay for loss or damage caused by the insured events listed under ‘we will cover you for’ within your policy booklet.
The most we will pay for any one event or series of events is the amount shown in your policy schedule or policy summary document. For example, the most that we will pay for a claim for loss of or damage to high risk items is the limit specified in your policy schedule no matter how much they are worth.
We will deduct all relevant excesses from the figure agreed between you and us to settle your claim.
We will apply the relevant excess to each separate event even if we deal with more than one event under a claim.
We will apply all relevant excesses to a claim that is made under two or more different types of cover for loss or damage even if it results from the same cause at the same time.
For example, if a thief gained access to your buildings by breaking down your door and stole your television set, and you had buildings cover and contents cover, your total claim for damage to your door and loss of your television set would be reduced by the excess for your buildings cover and the excess for your contents cover.
In settling your claim, we will not pay for the cost of replacing or changing undamaged parts which belong to a pair, set or suite when insured damage happens to another part or area of a pair, set or suite and replacements cannot be matched and repair cannot be carried out satisfactorily unless you have matching of items cover.
If there is any disagreement about a claim, please see the complaints procedure.
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When we settle a claim under buildings cover, we will NOT:
Repair will be made using a suitable modern equivalent material, wherever possible.
If the repair or replacement cannot be economically carried out we will pay the decrease in market value of your buildings due to the damage. We will not pay for more than it would have cost to repair the damage to your buildings if the repair work had been done without delay, subject to the consent of the mortgage lender where there is a mortgage on the home.
Where you have a mortgage on your buildings, your mortgage lender may have the right to take over your claim and to ask us to pay any claim monies directly to them rather than you. If we are satisfied that the lender has the right to ask us to do this, we will negotiate with the lender and pay the claim amount to the lender.
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When we settle a claim under contents cover, personal belongings cover or specified items cover:
If you want to upgrade the quality of an item for which you are making a claim, our suppliers will try to accommodate this. The additional cost will be your responsibility but you will benefit from any discounts arranged by us.
Please note that, if you are underinsured, any claim under contents cover may be reduced. This is explained within ‘underinsurance’ .
We will only pay a claim for loss of or damage to personal belongings or specified items whilst in the custody of an airline or other carrier if you report it immediately on discovery to the carrier and provide us with their written report (for an airline, you will need to provide us with a Property Irregularity Report (PIR)).
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We will pay for the cost of repairing or replacing undamaged parts which belong to a pair, set or suite when insured damage happens to another part or area of that pair, set or suite.
You must prove that replacements cannot be matched and that repairs cannot be carried out.
On settlement of your claim, if we ask, you must give us any undamaged parts which belong to a pair, set or suite for salvage.
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If any mobile phone has been damaged and it can be repaired economically, we will pay the cost of the repair. If an item cannot be economically repaired or has been lost or stolen, we will replace it with a phone which has similar functions and we will arrange for you to get a line rental from your original supplier.
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If you or your family have suffered a loss following any unauthorised use of any of your or your family's credit cards then we will pay for such loss but you must prove that the losses incurred are unrecoverable from anywhere else.
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If you have a home emergency, you claim under home emergency cover and if you have buildings insurance, we can ask your buildings insurer to pay back to us any money we have paid. This does not include any excess that may apply to the buildings insurance.
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We will:
Certain words on this page have a special meaning and appear in bold type. These special meanings are explained on the Words We Use page.
