Jenny got in touch when she noticed her premium had increased each year on her home insurance policy after renewing it ten years ago.
What happened
Jenny received renewal invitations for a home insurance policy she took out ten years ago. She made a complaint to her insurer about the price increase in each year.
Jenny’s insurer responded to her complaint. They said they didn’t think this issue had been referred to them in time – as Jenny first received a renewal invitation nine years ago and only kept the policy for three years.
Jenny’s insurer said this complaint had been referred to them more than six years after Jenny started to receive renewal invitations. And each renewal invitation said customers could do their own research with other providers which could be cheaper – so Jenny knew, or ought to have known, she had cause to make this complaint more than three years ago if she was unhappy with the premium increases.
Unhappy with the outcome, Jenny got in touch with us about her complaint.
What we said
We said this issue had been referred to the insurer more than six years after the “event complained of” – this being the first and subsequent renewal invitations.
On the three-year part of the rules, we said that Jenny should have been aware of cause to complain when she received the renewal invitations. This is because they set out the new premium and let Jenny know that she had the option of checking the cost of insurance with other providers. So, she should have been aware at this point she didn’t have to renew her policy with that insurer.
Because Jenny didn’t complain until more than three years after this, we agreed that Jenny had complained outside both parts of the time limits – so, in this case, Jenny’s complaint had been referred out of time.
Jenny said that there weren’t any exceptional circumstances that caused the delay in her making her complaint. So, we didn’t think we could investigate Jenny’s complaint.