The Financial Conduct Authority published a letter yesterday from their CEO to insurance sector CEOs specifically about conduct in relation to business disruption insurance. They have set up a new small business unit to respond to issues whereby insurers aren't paying out where businesses think they should be, amongst other things. This relates to smaller companies, classed as firms with turnover of less than £6.5m and fewer than 50 employees. They can now take complaints directly to the financial ombudsman. You can read the letter here. If you have concerns with your insurer's approach (eg poor claims outcome, how the claim was dealt with, length of time) and your business annual turnover is below £6.5m, and has fewer than 50 employees or an annual balance sheet below £5m, it is likely to fall within the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service, where you can refer your complaint to. This can offer the prospect of faster decisions (on claims of up to £355,000) than a Court Process and, where appropriate, more timely payments that help firms recover from the impact of coronavirus, if the outcome is successful.
There are 2 routes businesses can take:
In the first instance to get advice call the Financial Conduct Authority Supervision Hub on 0300 500 0597 or email them firm.queries@fca.org.uk
If you want to make a complaint about your insurer and providing the insurer is authorised by the FCA (click here to find out if they are registered with the FCA https://register.fca.org.uk/) you can go straight to the Financial Ombudsman Service and check out the Business Interruption Insurance advice here; https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/coronavirus
The FCA are encouraging businesses who have issues to contact the Supervision Hub in the first instance to get advice but also so that they are aware of the various problems people are having.