I've never submitted an insurance claim in my life, and was apprehensive to do so after hearing all my life that insurers are con-artists who try get out of compensating fairly. After being broken into, with all of the evidence caught on CCTV camera, our shed went from a safe place to keep all the usual garden bits / bikes etc, to a waste of space and a cooked mess. The doors were ripped from their hinges and smashed to bits, the whole frame had sunk and even if we replaced the doors, they wouldn't shut because of the now wonky overall structure. A like-for-like replacement of our shed would likely cost us £1200 - £1800, dependant on quality and supplier. The insurance company valued our claim at less than our £200 excess because the shed was not pristine condition (what shed is?). If insurance does not offer good honest people a like-for-like replacement when they are subject to break-ins / vandalism - you have to ask what is the point in having insurance? We pay them all this money year on year, then when we need them for a legitimate claim, they don't pay out. The hard-fact is, we had a perfectly suitable shed before this ordeal, and now we have nothing. If they are happy with that and think they've done a good job and earnt their insurance renewal fee - there's a definite problem with their way of thinking.
Reviewed on: 21st January 2022
