NFU INSURANCE DISGUSTING !

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lamehorse

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a lady at the yard has had her horse insured with nfu for a good few years , its been going up and up and she never had a claim , until now. she had quite a small claim of under a thousand and they took ages over it and then she got a letter saying that it wouldnt be paid because she had got 3 points on her license and she failed to tell them !!! WTF . this is one of several nfu stories i have heard of them wriggling out of paying claims . has anyone heard of anything like this ? apparantly your supposed to tell them everything ??!!!! i have my horse with nfu and i have points !!!! think im gonna go with someone else :o
 
sounds very dodgy to me, I have never ever been asked about driving points when i insure my horses. And it is totally irrelevant to my horse insurance and they would not be in the slightest bit interested. My house in insured with NFU, they would not be in the slightest bit interested in any points on my licence. However if it is her lorry insurance or another vehicle insurance then of course they need to know that. And so many people do not bother to tell their vehicle insurance when they get points, and then wonder why they won't pay out. Rather than a knee jerk reaction i would actually ask this woman for a more truthful story, find out what she was claiming for.
 
Sounds a tall story to me!

However on a slightly different tack, when opening a policy with Petplan last year I was asked explicit medical questions to determine my ability to deal with my horse safely. Needless to say they got a flea in their ear, but it goes to show how much information underwriters want now.
 
Am guessing it would be a travel related injury to horse that she has claimed for. To be fair I think any insurance either for horse transport or drivers requires you to disclose points on your licence I think you might find any insurance company would have used this as a get out clause. I may be wrong as I never read small print but I have a feeling that's the case
 
I have a friend who had a car accident and was insured by the NFU and they are trying all the tricks in the book to wriggle out of paying up. They are NOT a good company to deal with!
 
Such a shame, I have heard such good things about them in the past. One of many reasons I now self insure! Economies of scale, we had 6 between us.
 
must say for horse a few years ago they settled direct with the vet and paid me the cost for transport which I had hired. Very swiftly.

However all of the insurance companies seem to be trying it on lately....household, car you have to negotiate and ask for money off which is really annoying when I think they should quote their lowest offer in the first place. I had to haggle with NFU last year over tractor insurance...I got £30 off and it annoys the hell out of me.

Something isnt right here...is it road, vehicle related rather than horse vet bill??
 
Doesn't sound right to me either, points on your licence has nothing to do with insuring your horse.

I've been with NFU for years and they were great when I had a claim, came through within days.
 
I think, if you deal with your local branch you might get better service. The branches are franchised out so rather than being customer number 12,890 you are Mrs Smith from the next town.

Does that make sense?
 
You are suppose to inform your insurance if you get points on your licence if your car is insured with them. But how that's got anything to do with your horse I'll never know. I've had lots of claims with the NFU in the very recent past, car horse and dog and had no problems at all with them paying out. I'm not with them anymore with the exception of my dog still being insured with them. My car is a lot cheaper elsewhere and my horse is with Petplan, thought I'd claimed enough off the NFU.
 
In defence of the NFU. I have claimed with my horses my car and my dog. I have always had no problem, they have paid up quickly and with no quarms UNTIL now.

Not in claiming but with the cost of my of the insurance. All of mine has gone up, in fact my dog insurance has gone up 200% (Not due until march) I will be speaking to them as I think they are taking the micky.

The only one I could not change is the dogs as he is now 10 yrs old and has a number of problems.
 
I've always been with NFU - and made a claim with points on my license which I didn't inform them about (because I wasn't aware that I had too - or even sure that you have to) and there was absolutely no issue with them paying out.

If your friends story is indeed correct she needs to read her T&C's to double check what they say about points on a license. And if there is no mention of it she needs to go to the insurance ombudsmen to find out what her rights are.
 
the horse was injured in the horsebox. but her insurance for the lorry isnt with them , so why would she tell them ? . and the horse insurance should still pay up as its a seperate insurance. but the nfu said that they should have known as they may not have insured her any more ! everyone has told her to go to the fsa . its a joke ! it just goes to show that you have to tell them your life history or anything you dont tell them could mean you dont get paid when a plane falls on your house ! ( you didnt say you had planes flying over your house !) lol.
 
She should not give up, if her horsebox insurance is valid with some one else then they had no right to know. Insurance is a nightmare, do you know your house insurance can be invalid if any one living with you has a past criminal conviction (its in the very small print):mad:
 
lamehorse said:
the horse was injured in the horsebox. but her insurance for the lorry isnt with them , so why would she tell them ? . and the horse insurance should still pay up as its a seperate insurance. but the nfu said that they should have known as they may not have insured her any more ! everyone has told her to go to the fsa . its a joke ! it just goes to show that you have to tell them your life history or anything you dont tell them could mean you dont get paid when a plane falls on your house ! ( you didnt say you had planes flying over your house !) lol.
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Correct! NFU have no legal reason to pay out at all! The horse in their reasoning was injured in a horse box driven by herself with points on the licence and not declared.

Just like all the illegal horse transport that goes on between 'friends' for sharing lorries/trailers etc and paying 'diesel money'. You are not covered!

You are also not covered if our horse box is towed with your horse on board (very topical at the moment with another thread!)

Been saying this for years!
 
majors said:
She should not give up, if her horsebox insurance is valid with some one else then they had no right to know. Insurance is a nightmare, do you know your house insurance can be invalid if any one living with you has a past criminal conviction (its in the very small print):mad:
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Actually it's not a nightmare, providing you play within the rules. We all know that insurance companies share information - and so NFU could argue that they had a right to know.

It's certainly an interesting one - and I'll be really interested to know the outcome of this once your friend has done the relevant checks and sought advice etc.
 
foraday said:
Correct! NFU have no legal reason to pay out at all! The horse in their reasoning was injured in a horse box driven by herself with points on the licence and not declared.

!
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I do not understand why NFU would have no legal reason to pay?
If you have a vets fees policy, especially if you have competition cover, then it would be reasonable to expect a horse to travel in a lorry .. no?!

I have a horse policy with NFU and a lorry policy with Shearwater. If I got 3 points I'd think to tell Shearwater but I'd never think to tell NFU ... off to check NFU small print.

OP - I assume the person who owns the injured horse also owns the lorry and was driving?
 
i can see what you mean but the horse was injured in the horsebox by another horse , nothing to do with driving , and the points on her license were for something in her car. the horse insurance is a seperate insurance . i think that they are nitpicking to not pay . if this is the case then when you insure your horse they should ask the question *** are you going to transport your own horse and if so do you have any points on your license ? ****
 
lamehorse said:
i can see what you mean but the horse was injured in the horsebox by another horse , nothing to do with driving , and the points on her license were for something in her car. the horse insurance is a seperate insurance . i think that they are nitpicking to not pay . if this is the case then when you insure your horse they should ask the question *** are you going to transport your own horse and if so do you have any points on your license ? ****
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Well it's all semantics. Until she reads her T&C's and get's some legal advice, we can debate this until the cows come home.

Let us know what the outcome is.
 
just to say that both horses belong to her she wasnt transporting anyone elses horses . ..... and she has had a lovely response from kbis insurance i think she said , so that will cost nfu 2 lots of premiums. they would have made there money back in no time !!!
 
lamehorse said:
i can see what you mean but the horse was injured in the horsebox by another horse , nothing to do with driving , and the points on her license were for something in her car. the horse insurance is a seperate insurance . i think that they are nitpicking to not pay . if this is the case then when you insure your horse they should ask the question *** are you going to transport your own horse and if so do you have any points on your license ? ****
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I'd be straight to the insurance ombudsman - can you give us an update on the outcome?
 
Certainly a read of the Ts & Cs would be my first port of call. However, perhaps it might be a good idea not to complicate the details of a claim in future.

Not sure how one horse could inflict injury to another though. I'm pretty sure I have never seen a partition that does not go right down to the floor and heads should be tied up short enough to prevent biting??
 
Its pretty shabby treatment by NFU, but I keep hearing more and more stories like this that used to mainly come from those insured with E&L.

If more people responsibly self insured for vets fees, we might see a drop in vet prices as owners would be more discriminatory about diagnostic procedures and treatments that aren't always in the horses' best interests.

As it is at the moment, owners have a year to cram in as much treatment/investigations before their insurers apply exclusions. Then they are still left with a horse that is only partially covered while continuing to pay high premiums.
 
horserider said:
Its pretty shabby treatment by NFU, but I keep hearing more and more stories like this that used to mainly come from those insured with E&L.

If more people responsibly self insured for vets fees, we might see a drop in vet prices as owners would be more discriminatory about diagnostic procedures and treatments that aren't always in the horses' best interests.

As it is at the moment, owners have a year to cram in as much treatment/investigations before their insurers apply exclusions. Then they are still left with a horse that is only partially covered while continuing to pay high premiums.
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I disagree. I think the responsible thing to do is to insure.
However I do think we need an overhaul of veterinary insurance policies.

With small animals you can buy policies whereby you have £X per claim for the lifetime of the pet, so instead of trying to cram £1000's in diagnostics into a year, owners would then feel comfortable choosing rest/cheap options first knowing they always had the backup of insurance down the line
 
I'm not a fan of NFU, so I'm not defending them, but I'm just trying to understand what their argument is.

Did she tell the horsebox insurance about the points? If not then I can only see that NFU are claiming that she was driving without valid insurance, hence them now not paying up. Even still this is pretty dodgy on their part.

If however they are claiming she should have told them about the points (and the insurance company that covers the horsebox was fully aware) then I think they are talking c**p.

Either way, I'd first contact NFU again to get them to explain fully their decision (ask them to state which parts of the T&C's they are relying on to not pay out). If that didn't work I'd be calling the financial ombudsman service to discuss!
 
We are only getting one side of the story, third hand! I wonder what the points were for? I also wonder whether the horsebox insurers had been told about the points.
 
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I work in insurance and I would definitely be going to the ombudsman if it were me. In my opinion the NFU are trying it on as whilst they could be considered to have a valid reason for wanting the information to be disclosed, it is such a common occurance (owners transporting their horses) that if they genuinely feel that your driving record is material to the policy then they should request this information at the outset.
 
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