When you instruct an insurance broker to source the most appropriate insurance policy for you, whether that is home insurance, motor insurance, medical insurance, critical illness cover, business insurance or public liability insurance, the insurance broker has a duty of care when recommending and selling insurance products.
Insurance brokers are regulated by the Financial Services and Markets Act, which in addition to the Insurance Conduct of Business regulations, set out the “reasonable competence” expected of an insurance broker. If your broker has been negligent in failing to ensure you are covered for an anticipated risk, you may be entitled to seek compensation from the broker.
Unfortunately for those affected, it is often the case that an individual or business discovers their insurance is defective when they are in the process of making a claim against their policy, which can often leave the individual or business facing serious financial and/or legal implications.
How Ison Harrison establish if you have a claim
Our Professional Negligence team will initially consider what you instructed your insurance broker to do, and consider any agreement between you and insurance broker, to establish what duty of care was owed to you.
Once we have established that your insurance broker has breached their duty to you, we will assess the loss you have incurred and we will advise you on the most appropriate course of action, to place you back in the position had your insurance broker not breached their duty to you, and seek to obtain the compensation or redress you are owed.
The first course of action would be to make a complaint directly to the insurance broker via the insurance broker’s own complaints handling procedure. Should the insurance broker not uphold your complaint, it may be possible to raise a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service for compensation, or alternatively legal proceedings can be commenced to seek compensation and to remedy any loss.
If the insurance broker or insurance firm is no longer in existence or trading, it may be possible to raise a complaint with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, albeit both the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme have limits to the amount of compensation they can award.
Choosing the most appropriate route to recovering compensation can be complicated, and it is always sensible to seek professional advice in such circumstances, especially when considering the amount of loss and any time limits which apply to pursuing such claims.
Below are just a few examples of insurance broker negligence we can help with:
- Failing to secure adequate insurance that meets your requirements;
- Recommending an insurance policy that leaves you under-insured;
- Failing to ensure the insurance covers all risks;
- Failing to report on an issue, which renders your insurance as invalid;
- Failing to notify new claims correctly;
- Failing to comply with instructions to renew an insurance policy within a required time frame.
Our specialist Professional Negligence team has over 20 years’ experience in the field and are renowned for our strong and sensible approach to dispute resolution and litigation.
Contact the Professional Negligence Team
Please contact Chris Thomson at chris.thomson@isonharrison.co.uk or Jonathan Robson at jonathan.robson@isonharrison.co.uk
