Making an insurance claim can be stressful, time consuming and disruptive to your business.
When the worst happens you need a partner you can rely on to take the stress out of the situation and expertly manage your claim through to conclusion.
To email our claims team please click the links below
Our pro-active and knowledgeable in-house claims team are dedicated to advising, guiding and supporting our clients every step of the way. Working closely with insurers, but firmly on our clients’ behalf, we use over 100 years of collective experience to negotiate the best outcome.
As part of our commitment to you we will:
- Assign a qualified claims professional to manage your claim throughout its lifespan.
- Acknowledge all new claims and notify insurers within a timely manner, with particular attention given to urgent claims, and immediately begin co-ordinating the response in partnership with insurers.
- In the event of a large loss, and where deemed appropriate, we will attend appointments with loss adjusters or investigators with you.
- Advise, guide and support you throughout the claim process.
- Keep you regularly updated with progress and any developments, and clearly explain the final settlement position to you.
- Use our technical knowledge, experience and determination to challenge decisions made by insurers to achieve the right outcome for you as quickly as possible.
- Provide you with claims reporting, helping you to understand and interpret your claims activity.
- Advise and guide you on how to minimise the impact of your claims profile on your insurance programme and costs.
Claims Guidelines
- Advise Pound Gates – unless you have specific arrangements in place to notify a loss adjuster.
- Take immediate steps to minimise loss – but take pictures before taking these steps as these help explain your actions to insurers afterwards.
- All insurance policies require that claims are notified to insurers within a specified time. It may prejudice recovery if you do not notify us promptly of occurrences which may give rise to a claim.
- Fatalities and major injuries should be advised immediately by telephone or email and followed up with full details.
- Other accidents to employees (resulting in over three consecutive days' absence) should be advised on an Accident Report Form, as soon as possible.
- Please also obtain reports from witnesses.
- You should not admit liability and all correspondence should be forwarded unanswered.
- Where there is a possibility of prosecution for a breach of Health and Safety or other regulations, please advise details immediately.
- Please advise Pound Gates immediately of any incident where a third party is killed or injured or damage occurs to third party property, providing full details of the incident, together with any witness statements available.
- Whilst insurers fully appreciate the need to maintain good customer relations, they must have control of a claim, from the outset.
- In any circumstance, should a customer or consumer instruct a solicitor to act, or take legal proceedings, then all correspondence must be sent immediately to Pound Gates unanswered.
- In all cases, insurers will wish to investigate the possibility of recovery against a negligent supplier, so full details should be forwarded as soon as possible.
- A Product Liability claim is one which involves injury, illness or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, by a product sold or supplied by your company. Such claims can also embrace compensation for loss of earnings, shock, etc.
- Whilst insurers fully appreciate the need to maintain good customer relations, they must have control of a claim, from the outset; it is, however, recognised that minor incidents are often best settled as quickly as possible, without involving insurers.
- In any circumstance, should a customer or consumer instruct a solicitor to act, or take legal proceedings, then all correspondence must be sent immediately to Pound Gates unanswered.
- In all cases, insurers will wish to investigate the possibility of recovery against a negligent supplier, so full details should be forwarded as soon as possible.
- Any incident likely to lead to a claim should be reported promptly to Pound Gates.
- Any incident likely to lead to a claim in excess of £5,000 should be reported immediately to Pound Gates by telephone. Loss adjusters may be appointed by insurers to investigate the claim on their behalf.
- All theft/attempted theft incidents should be reported to the Police immediately.
- You should do everything possible to minimise the eventual loss, and damaged parts/debris etc, should not be disposed of until authority is given.
- For claims like impact damage, break-in damage, etc, it can be helpful if pictures are taken of the damage before the temporary repairs are completed. This helps to put the invoice for the temporary repair into context. Obviously, only where possible and if it does not pose a danger (i.e. roof damage).
- To substantiate your claim, insurers will require the following information to be submitted to them, as soon as possible after the incident:
- Fully completed, signed and dated claim form, together with any further, more detailed information available as to the events surrounding the loss.
- Formal repair/replacement estimates to substantiate the loss value claimed. Where possible, two alternative estimates should be submitted to allow insurers to give their full consideration and approval to the final repair/replacement work undertaken.
- For losses involving theft, details of the police station to which the incident was notified, together with the crime reference number allocated, must be forwarded.
- Original purchase receipts of items damaged or stolen to substantiate the claim and proof of ownership.
It should be noted that insurers may well request further information to increase their understanding of the loss following initial notification and that the above details form only the most basic data requirements.