Events of this week have made me wonder about insurance companies in Spain and what they are playing at. Suffice to say that the antics of the Spanish insurance companies is absolutely doing my head in and has been for quite a few months now.
I personally am still in an argument with an insurance company about a collapsed wall last year which they refused to pay out for despite it being explicitly stated that it was covered in the deeds.
What's is my point here? Make sure you have good references for the insurance company you want to use. Don't just accept the lowest price and don't accept the bank imposed insurance after the first year if you can get a better deal from a company that is better known for responding quickly to incidents. The example of take it or leave it above is from a bank's insurance company where my client has a mortgage with them.
The Problem With Insurance Companies in Spain.
Why? Well, the fact is that insurance companies are refusing virtually all claims on houses in Spain and giving the most spurious of reasons. And the worst thing is that they are impossible to pin down and they hide behind the call centre employees who are not allowed to put you in touch with a supervisor or manager. A couple of examples. Well a client in a flat had a leak into the the flat below. The standard procedure is that the insurance company of my client sends an assessor round to make a damage estimate for the affected party. When this came back it was estimated at 445 Euros. The damage has been costed independently by two builders at 1400-1500 Euros and I have seen it and that is about right. After months of phone calls and visits to offices etc in which the poor guy downstairs has asked the insurance company to actually come around and fix the damage as he doesn't actually want money, they have said take it or leave it. Now he has had to go to the consumer protection society who have said he has to sue my client above. He doesn't want to do this but is forced to because he needs the damage fixed. My client in turn will have to sue his insurance company because he has paid for third party insurance which should cover all eventualities. Secondly, a family member of a client phoned me because his wall had blown down in the high winds on Thursday last week, all 65 metres of it and he wanted m to talk with the insurance company in Spanish. The insurance company has said they will send someone to look at it next week. Meanwhile he has no front wall and it is a bit of a security risk I suppose.
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