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Betterment and other insurance jargon

Published November 15, 2013

I read recently about an insurance claim which had been rejected by the insurer because the couple involved asked for repairs which could be classed as improvements.

According to an article in the Basildon Echo, the work was needed after a flash flood hit the house earlier this year. The problem arose because the builder’s quote was far higher than the insurer’s offer to cover what it regarded as the damage caused by the flood.

Insurance terms explained

This rejection comes under the banner of ‘betterment’, which is one of many bits of jargon you might come across if you need to make an insurance claim. We explain these elsewhere on our website in our section Insurance Terms Explained.

We define betterment as “When a policyholder decides to replace a lost or damaged item with something that is ‘better’. The policyholder is responsible for the difference between the original item’s value and the cost of the new item”. This can also be applied to improvements to your home, which is why the Essex couple are facing problems.

This is one of the areas we deal with all the time on behalf of our clients. I hope that this particular case is settled to everyone’s satisfaction.

 

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