Money - personal finance from The Times and Sunday Times

Money - personal finance from The Times and Sunday Times: "Don't count your chickens
Antonia Senior on how insurance payout delays left a farmer out of pocket



WHEN Richard Ellis, a farmer from Nottinghamshire, found that 13,000 of his chickens had died overnight, he assumed that his insurance would cover the loss.
He was wrong. After 18 months of wrangling, lawyers� fees, complaints and stress, Mr Ellis is still out of pocket. He found out the hard way that it is impossible to tell how effective an insurance policy is until you are forced to make a claim.


In June last year a lightning strike on the power supply caused a surge that knocked out the ventilation on Mr Ellis�s poultry shed, causing the death of 13,000 chickens. Mr Ellis pays about �10,000 a year in insurance premiums, so when he submitted a claim for �16,000 with NIG, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, he did not expect to be turned away.
NIG said that there was no evidence of a lightning strike and refused to pay out, but Mr Ellis would not give up without a fight. NIG�s failure to pay forced Mr Ellis to approach his bank for temporary funding, but he was refused.
Eventually, Mr Ellis was forced to remortgage the family farm. This tortuous process led to legal bills, fees for financial advice and the costs of refinancing the farm and taking out a mortgage.
NIG turned down Mr Ellis�s claim twice, disputing the evidence. On the advice of his solicitors, Michael Vine & Co, which specialises in insurance cases, he turned to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). But before investigators were sent the documents, NIG settled the claim.
Mr Ellis says: �If NIG had met the claim within a reasonable time frame, such as a month, it would have met its obligations and conducted itself proper"