Ghost brokers, how to spot fake car insurance before you pay
Cheap car cover sold through social media can turn out to be no cover at all. The warning signs are simple, and they show up before any money changes hands.
The weekly update
The week in UK general insurance.
Every week we review the events of the week and give some data driven perspectives that we hope will add to your thinking.
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Robots in the home, and the question your home insurer will ask
A UK home insurance add-on for domestic humanoid robots has arrived before the robots have. It is a useful prompt to check how your policy treats any expensive, connected device.
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Building work at home, why your insurer needs to know first
Renovations rarely line up with renewal dates, and silence can cost you the whole policy. Here is what to tell your home insurer, and when, before the builders arrive.
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Pet insurance, per condition limit or one annual pot
A bigger vet fee number on a pet policy is not always more cover. How the limit is shared between conditions decides what is left when a second illness arrives.
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Holiday home or empty house, when home insurance stops paying
A new supermarket holiday home policy is a reminder that ordinary home cover has limits. The unoccupancy clause decides more winter claims than most owners realise.
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Pothole damage, claim from the council or your car insurer
Pothole damage is heading into its worst season. Before you claim, know who is liable, what the latest numbers really measure and what a claim can cost your no-claims discount.
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Is flood damage covered by home insurance after Storm Boelo
Flooding in Largs after Storm Boelo has put an old question back on the table. Most homes are covered for flood, but newer builds, renters and surface water catch people out.
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Using AI to write your ombudsman complaint, and why it can backfire
The Financial Ombudsman Service is phoning more people because AI-written complaints are full of errors. What a chatbot is good for, and what to leave out, if your insurance claim ends in a dispute.
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A false insurance claim, and what the insurer can take back
An insurer's tip-off stopped a third sheep theft claim in Devon before it was paid. The law lets insurers refuse a fraudulent claim, recover what was paid and end the policy.
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Storm Austen then Storm Boelo, one home insurance excess or two
Two named storms a day apart can leave one roof with two causes of damage. How insurers and the ombudsman split the claim, and what to record now so the split is fair.
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Car stolen with no sign of a break-in, and the claim turned down
Keyless thieves rarely leave damage behind, and some insurers then assume the keys were left in the car. What the ombudsman expects an insurer to check before it says no.
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Storm Austen power cut, what you can claim and from whom
If the storm cut your electricity, your network operator may owe you a fixed payment, but not for the food in your freezer. Your home insurance may cover that instead.
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When the broker fails, the premium may never have bought cover
The compensation scheme opened to claims against a collapsed Kent broker on 20 October. Some customers paid a premium for a policy that was never placed with an insurer.
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Storm Austen and your car, what insurance pays for a fallen tree
The first named storm of the season arrives on Friday with trees still in full leaf. What comprehensive and third party cover each do when a branch lands on the car, and when the tree's owner pays.
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Travel insurance claim rejected, what the ombudsman looks at
Rejected claims make up more than half of the travel insurance complaints reaching the Financial Ombudsman Service. Why a fair decision can still lose the complaint, and how to put your case together.
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If a computer turns down your insurance claim, ask for a person
The regulator says it has seen firms shut vulnerable customers out of AI journeys by default. When a claim decision looks automated, three questions are worth asking before you accept it.
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Car insurance complaints to the ombudsman are up by almost half
More drivers are taking motor insurance disputes to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and its rules changed on 1 October. What a complaint needs to show now, and why the evidence matters more than the anger.
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Small firms are cutting cover to afford it, and paying at claim time
Most small firms now borrow to pay for their insurance, and some are trimming cover and raising excesses to keep up. The saving tends to come back, as a smaller settlement, on the day of the claim.
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A chatbot's answer comes with no redress, and most do not know
The Financial Conduct Authority says only 40 per cent of consumers know there is no recourse after acting on a general-purpose AI tool's advice. The route that does exist took 4,100 motor complaints in a quarter.
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Young drivers in Northern Ireland now pay the most in the UK
Northern Ireland has overtaken London as the dearest place in the UK to insure a young driver. The pressure to cut corners is real, and fronting is the corner that costs the most when a claim is made.
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Leaseholders, buildings insurance and the commission nobody explains
Commission-sharing on block insurance is being replaced by a transparent fee. What leaseholders can ask for now, and why the claim matters.
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Storm damage claims, and the three questions that decide them
The first named storm of the autumn may arrive this week. A storm claim turns on three questions, and on evidence gathered in the first few days.
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Homes get a flood rating, and the claim decides what it is worth
Flood Performance Certificates go into pilot this year, rating a home's exposure, characteristics and resistance. The rating will be easy to publish, and the resilient repair behind it will not.
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FCA confirms car finance tribunal dates, warns on CMC fees
The FCA confirmed the motor finance redress tribunal will sit in February 2027, not December as first planned. It warned claims firms may charge over a third of any payout for work lenders must do free.
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Which? wants the 'poverty premium' on car cover banned
Which? wants ministers to ban insurers charging extra APR for paying car insurance monthly, after finding rates as high as 53 per cent. It says broker margins on the credit can dwarf the margin on the policy itself.
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A broker spotted the fraud, then lost the thread
Weightmans fraud specialists say brokers raise the first alarm on insurance fraud but are rarely told what their reports led to. The reporting channels exist; the feedback loop back to the broker does not.
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A declined quote is not a verdict on your house
A broker survey finds most non-standard customers turned away by a comparison site or chatbot never reach a specialist who could help. Prestige Underwriting says a computer's no is not the market's final answer.
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Saga fixes the pet insurance number most insurers leave to drift
Saga will sell pet insurance from November, built with Allianz UK, for a customer base where nearly half already own a pet. Its difference: a customer contribution fixed for life, not a price that can move later.
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What plug-in solar means for your home insurance cover
Admiral says freestanding plug-in solar panels need not be reported to insurers, unlike wired systems. But its own guidance attaches conditions that still decide whether a claim involving one gets paid.
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The trust gap behind the push for mandatory telematics
Aviva wants black boxes compulsory for young drivers, and most drivers agree. But insurance ranks ninth of thirteen sectors on trust, and those asked to accept the most monitoring trust the industry least.
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The vet fee reform pet owners were promised takes a year to land
The CMA ordered vet pricing reforms in September 2026. Full itemised billing will not reach every practice until next September, leaving insurers pricing fee inflation on incomplete data for another year.
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Electric car boom masks a shift in what motor claims cost
Motor claims costs rose 4 per cent this quarter as electrified cars hit a record sales share, yet the average premium barely moved. Fair value depends on the customer in front, not the average one in the back book.
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Insurance fraud hits £1.34bn as claims fall but payouts grow
Insurers detected £1.34bn of fraudulent claims in 2025, 14 per cent more than the year before, even as the number of cases fell. Fewer frauds are getting through, but the ones that do are costing more than ever to catch.
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Ghost plates are outrunning the cameras built to catch them
Parliament estimates one in fifteen UK vehicles may carry a plate designed to defeat ANPR cameras, yet prosecutions remain rare. That gap matters to claims teams who increasingly treat plate-read data as fact.
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Insurers check every claim for fraud, not the ad that sold it
Insurers have built fraud checks into underwriting and claims but not into the adverts that sell fake policies on social media. Nearly half of young drivers buy cover this way, FCA research shows.
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Two redress letters, no reason given
A lender's automation knew which rule put one complaint outside the redress scheme. It printed the outcome and dropped the reason.
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Degree apprenticeships and the claims talent supply
Applications per degree apprenticeship place have quadrupled in three years while the number of places has almost halved. Nobody in claims appears to publish how many of those places are ours.
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Aggregate numbers and the Boots ruling
The ASA looked past a company's total stock and asked whether each customer got a fair chance on the day. Being sufficient in aggregate is not the same as being fair to individuals.
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