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Review of the Hastings Direct, Car insurance:

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Rejected claim approved by FOS - AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Hi Everyone, hope this helps someone being scammed by Hastings. I wanted to share a rather unhappy exchange with Hastings Insurance (Advantage Insurance Company Limited) for a recent and valid insurance claim, which they rejected and I had to go through FOS to get approved (it was). My neighbor was sadly scammed by a roofer and during the garage roof installation they purposely damaged my roof beyond repair resulting in a large hole in the roof and needing replacement. I am a single parent and luckily have insurance to cover such eventualities. I also could not afford to replace the roof due to my situation (its also why we have insurance) The day it happened, I spoke with Hastings, had a call with the claims assessor and straight away they rejected my claim. The reason given was they said it fell outside of the boundaries of the property, which was a very obvious error on their part. During the initial exchange, I sought some legal advice and reviewed the policy booklet and fine print and could not find any language in the policy that defined borders in they way they were presenting to me. what was very funny was the specific definition for Garage(s) mentioned within the boundaries of the property (indicating they acknowledge multiple boundaries on a property. Several other terms made a similar reference to boundaries. Hasting rejected the claim again and stuck to their guns and said if I don't like the outcome I can submit a complaint through their complaints team. I submitted a complaint straight away and Hastings again rejected the complaint stating it does not fall within the boundaries of my property. Yet again I provided them a copy of my land registry plot proving the garage was very much within my property boundaries. after multiple requests for Hastings to highlight where in their policy booklet is defines the boundaries or in the exclusions they could not. Their response again was if I don't like the outcome I can complain the to financial ombudsman. I submitted a claim against Hasting with the financial ombudsman service waited the appropriate time, and essentially as soon as the case was picked up it was awarded in my favor because the claim was so very clearly valid. In the FOS investigation it was noted they agrees with a comment that corrective actions and training should be implemented by Advantage to ensure cases like these are avoided in future, and I would ask that they prioritise doing so. Unfortunately FOS are not a regulatory they are a mediation service so cannot force them to do anything other that pay a claim. The claim was settled in full and I was offered £400 compensation. This was honestly not enough but I have no other recourse. because the claim was Reviewed on: 31st October 2025

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