case study 7

Elusive client

Our client, the owner of several properties insured through ourselves, is in the habit of taking extended trips abroad to visit family and for holidays.
Renewal of the property policy came...and went, letter of renewal, 2 written reminders and 4 telephone calls, on the numbers we had, with messages left, failed to obtain any response or any premium.
However, we felt that we must speak to or in some other way, communicate with our client before we allowed the policy cover to lapse.
We had knowledge of the clients’ relative, who worked for a local estate agent, and undertook to contact him to ask the whereabouts of our client.
The relative was able to tell us that the client was indeed out of the country, for an extended period and had obtained the clients’ “new” mobile phone number, which we rang.
The client confirmed that he did wish to renew and made arrangements to pay the then, 6 weeks overdue, premium.
Lucky for him that we did, because when he finally returned, he found that one of his tenants had vacated, but not before causing substantial damage to a property, including ripping out the central heating system and vandalising the building, to a cost of over £6,000.
The claim was met by the policy we arranged and kept in force, despite a lack of instructions, because we try to really know our clients and “always go the extra mile” for them.