Resolved Question

Is it legal to claim on two building insurance companies for the same thing ?

We have building and contents insurance with two different providers, neither have ever been claimed on. Both are paid up to date. We need to claim for an emergency door lock repair. We've paid for both so can we claim from both ? (We are in UK, England).

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

If you claim from two different companies for the same thing then you are guilty of fraud. They all work together on claims so you can rest assured that you'll get found out, and when you do, you'll not only get your claims refused but you'll be done for even attempting it !

63% 5 Votes

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Other Answers (6)

• No. You should never insure the same risk with two companies because this will give them the opportunity to argue between themselves about which company should make good the loss.
  
  The central condition of any insurance policy is that the claimant (customer) should not make a profit out of a loss. Many policies state that they will not pay out if a risk is covered by another policy or that they will only pay a proportion of the claim.

  13% 1 Vote
• Gambits answer is correct.
  
  I think you are saying that you have contents insurance with one company and building contents with another. There is nothing wrong with doing that if it saves you money (or you live in a leashold, where buidlings cover is arranged by the freeholder), though I'm surprised that it would as most firms give a discount to people who have both.
  
  As the G man says you can claim from both, but you must tell each of them about the other. You will only receive one lot of money, they may split the payment but frankly for the sum of money we're talking about I bet one of them (probably the buildings insurer) will probably agree to pay.
  
  On a practical note I'd avoid claiming from two co's simply because you have double the paperwork... pick one and claim just from them.

  25% 2 Votes
• Being insured twice for the same risk is called dual insurance. You are only legally entitled to be paid out once for any incident and on a reasonable sized claim you will probably be asked whether there is any other cover in force. Dual insurance causes a lot of problems in the event of a major claim. And you have absolutely nothing to gain by having dual insurance - in fact it can cause many problems. You are throwing money away by insuring the same risk twice.

  0% 0 Votes
• No, it would be fraud to claim from both policies for the same thing. You're actually over-insured, and you should sort that out before you have to make a really big claim, as you could end up stuck in an argument between the two companies as to which of them should pay out. It'll be one or the other, but not both, and each will want the other insurer to pay.

  0% 0 Votes
• As long as you inform BOTH insurers that there are two policies in existence then each company will pay half of the claim assuming both policies cover the same things. In this case it is NOT considered fraud. Of course it begs the question why do you have two policies. Is one an excess coverage?

  0% 0 Votes
• No, that is fraudulent. How can you claim twice for one job? One claim will be to pocket the money.
  The fact that you are paying twice to insure the same property/items is your choice. Seems daft to me.

  0% 0 Votes