Home insurance claimants left waiting for months – or years

With a 10th of buildings insurance claims resulting in a complaint, widespread delays are worsening circumstances for many vulnerable customers.

Home insurance claims can be complicated – with fire, flood or subsidence damage often difficult and costly to rectify.

However, significant spikes in complaints suggest the home insurance industry is struggling to keep pace. From April 2022 to March 2023, complaints about buildings insurance claims delays to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) rose by 50%. 

Delays and unresponsiveness from an insurer or its representatives is more than inconvenient as it can cause anxiety, and potentially financial difficulty, in an already traumatic time.

This is the second in a series of three articles about deep-rooted problems in home insurance, examining how insurers are declining too many claims and claimants getting meagre payouts. Here, we look at the issue of claims being delayed.

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Nine months stuck in claims limbo

Last March, dust, debris and smoke made much of Marie Hooley's (pictured) home uninhabitable. Today, the soot marks on her books and shrunken curtains in her study are the only obvious remnants of the fire that damaged her house in Storrington, West Sussex. But it's still very present in her life.

The cause of the fire was a magnifying make-up mirror on her study desk, which caught and reflected the sun's rays on to her curtains, setting them alight, before spreading. After the fire was put out, Marie and her husband, Bill, called their insurer Homeprotect, whose representatives GHG Solutions, were appointed to help with temporary accommodation and to oversee the handling of the claim.

Marie spent much of last year sorting through her smoke-damaged possessions, getting salvageable items cleaned or repaired and disposing of the rest. To make that stressful time unfathomably worse, Bill passed away from illness in June.

In January, Marie submitted invoices for paid-for repair work to the house. But from here, the claims process seemed to disintegrate. 

Over the following nine months, Marie received vague assurances and promises about the request being 'reviewed' after chasing for updates, followed by months of silence

When we spoke with her in September, the payment had apparently been approved – but had yet to materialise – and she'd received contradictory messages as to whether the money was even on its way.

Marie felt frustrated and powerless, as she was unable to understand what was holding up her claim or what she could do to get it back on track. She told us: 'You've had a fire, your home is ruined, and they turn up and make things worse.' 

She'd explained multiple times in emails that GHG's lack of communication around its delays was adding to her upset following her terrible experiences last year. But this didn't seem to have an effect. Not only was she £6,300 out of pocket, the hold-up was also preventing her from moving on to subsequent portions of her claim.

When we contacted Homeprotect in September, it apologised (speaking both for itself and GHG Solutions), saying it's 'truly sorry' for the delays and stress Marie experienced. It said most of the claim was paid in good time and payment of this remaining part would be made 'straight away'. It added that procedures and processes are being reviewed to identify how and why the delay occurred.

Customers having to chase insurers

In a Which? survey of home insurance claimants conducted last September, 30% said that they'd had to chase their provider at least once in order to progress their claim. 

Late last year, a Which? member contacted us about a subsidence claim on several flats owned and rented out by leaseholders in a small block. The claim had been put in in 2016, and six years later, significant remedial work remained to be done, with damage affecting the habitability of some of the flats. The member had been finding it nearly impossible to get updates on the claim's progress – even after having complained to the FOS and having his complaint upheld.

When discussing her experience, Marie told us she feels fortunate that she's been able to cope financially with the delay in payments. Other customers facing similar hold-ups were in trickier positions. One we spoke with had to borrow money to pay a VAT invoice of £2,600 during the four months it took Axa to process her request. 

When we spoke to Axa about this, it told us it had conducted a detailed review and acknowledges that 'on this occasion our claims service did not meet the high standard expected. To reflect this we have offered additional compensation in recognition of her recent experience'.

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More than one in 10 buildings insurance claims leads to a complaint

Few people want to have to complain, but substantial numbers of home insurance claimants are driven to do so. 

According to data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), roughly one in 10 home insurance claims leads to the customer complaining to the insurer. Specifically, 11.09% of those making claims on buildings-only policies complain, while the figure is 8.72% among customers claiming on combined home insurance. 

To put this into some perspective, the FCA's data compares 34 kinds of insurance. And with 23 of these, less than 5% of claimants are driven to complain.

• Find out more: how to make a complaint about poor service from your insurer.

Worst offenders for delayed claims 

When complaints aren't successfully resolved by the company, you can escalate the matter the FOS, an independent arbitrator body. 

In July, we made a Freedom of Information Request to the FOS to find out which buildings insurance firms most commonly had complaints upheld against them when it came to different kinds of dispute. 

Between the seven firms receiving 30 or more complaints about delays in the year 2022-2023, the average uphold rate was 49%. However, four firms had higher rates (see below).

Ageas, which was criticised by the FOS in a shocking 71% of cases about claims delays, pointed out that its customers are less likely to complain in the first place than those of most other insurers. This is true, but it doesn't explain why those who do complain are so often found to be right.

Despite its caveat, the insurer acknowledged: 'We recognise the fact that we don't get it right all the time and there is room for continuous improvement. We have therefore carried out detailed analysis of areas where we can improve and expect to see the impact of this reflected in future results.' 

Fairmead and UK Insurance noted that volatile weather and 'macroeconomic' issues, such as supply chain costs, had created 'exceptional strain'. Ageas, RSA and UK Insurance also added that they monitor FOS cases to improve their service.

• Find out more: how to complain to the FOS.

A decade of decline?

We spoke to nine claims experts, most of whom felt claims service had worsened in recent years. 

The majority are loss assessors – claims professionals that you can appoint to advocate on your behalf in a claim. Some, such as Grant Williams, have worn both hats, having started out as loss adjusters (specialists contracted by insurers to evaluate claims).

Grant started working as a loss assessor at Oakleafe Claims in 2020. He says during the past three years, Oakleafe has seen customer enquiries go up by more than 200%. 

Insurers we spoke with attributed rising complaints to extreme weather and rising costs and issues in the building industry supply chain, which make buildings insurance claims more costly and time consuming.

However, the claims experts we spoke with also pointed the finger at longer-term problems with capacity and expertise among the staff who deal directly with customers. According to Williams: 'There has been significant underinvestment in staff and training by insurers and their agents for at least a decade now, probably to cut costs, and greater emphasis on IT-driven platforms to fill the gaps. Policyholders are people and they need looking after.'

Hayley McSherry, director of loss assessor firm Aspray, agreed. In her view, it's become increasingly rare to deal directly with specialist loss adjusters, describing the loss adjuster role as a 'dying trade'.

We asked the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters for its view on why there's so much evidence of poor service. But it didn't respond to our repeated requests for comment.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) told us that insurers appreciate how stressful claims can be for the customer when disaster strikes and want to process claims quickly and efficiently, saying: 'Certain challenges beyond their control can impact timings – such as repair delays, access to skilled tradespeople and, in some cases, short supply of alternative accommodation.

'Clear and timely communication is vital to support customers throughout any claim and we're working with our members to understand where any improvements can be made.'

How to overcome a claims delay

Sometimes, claims can progress slowly and for reasons that are outside of anyone's control. But this fact doesn't excuse an insurer from keeping you up to date, responding to your queries and providing support.

Unfortunately, in too many cases, this isn't happening. If you feel that your insurer has left you in the lurch, there are steps you can take to help get things back on track. Check our guide on making a home insurance claim for some helpful tips on what these are.

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