Direct Line Home Insurance Review

Overall Rating

Direct Line Home Insurance has cheap prices! Cheap Service! Try and claim.................you're wasting your time! Direct line will take your money and insure you, but claiming......forget it! My flat roof extension ceiling collapsed. A local builder looked at it and found a slate had come off the roof and punctured the felt, not a big hole but enough to start a slow progressive leak which let to the collapse. Straight forward claim? Yes with most insurers but enter UK Assistance. UK Assistance? Yes, you insure with Directline but your claim is at the mercy of UK Assistance. Directline had in the meantime sent an 'emergenct repair team' to nail aplastic sheet over the roof. They said it was not guaranteed and it wasn't as it leaked straight away. Shortly afterwards an adviser turns up. First words were of how she is trained to spot people who are likely to scam. This includes anyone who does not live in a mansion. Then she gave the claim date as 30.10.08 which was in the future. Then she said there had been no high winds and she would be checkin. How she knew when the slate fell defeated me and the builder. Next weeks later - rememebr this roof is leaking! - a local roofer turns up. He doesn't remove the emergency sheet but measures up for a new roof. Weekes later adviser rings up. she says the roofer's report states that it is 'wear and tear' not covered by the policy. I ask why UK Assistance are dealing with this as I was not told that when I insured with Directllinbe. Adviser says they are Directline. I asked her how the roofer could give a reprot without taking the cover off? She says she is looking at photos he took. i tell her I was wtaching him and he did not take the cover off or take photos. Silence. I ask her to send me copies off the photos. she says she has not got any photos. I tell her she did says she had them sevral sceonds ago and she says they she cannot give them out as they are the property of Directline and she does not work for them..........what?? The she says that there has been no high wind anyway. I told her that I have the Met Office reports for the area for eight months and there has been plenty of high wind. Adviser goes quiet and then says it is nothing to do with high wind. Having been made a fool of, although hse did a beter job of ridiculing herself and Directline she goes off muttering that Directline don't like paying out and that everything is 'wear and tear'. Moral is don't insure with Directline. I repeated this to Morethan who laughed and laughed and laughed.........

Members' Comments ontigertiger1953's Review

• kate Waldron on 27th Feb 2009

  I found this review helpful because I'm having a problem with UK Assistance/Direct Line Home Insurance. Although they haven't turned down the claim (water leak through ceiling), they seem to be trying to avoid doing a full repair job and cutting corners by refusing to seal the new plaster. If they don't, the paint will start to flake off within months.
  I'm taking the matter to the Financial Ombudsman which deals with insurance complaints. - lesson learned. Very sorry to hear tigertiger's story- absolutely outrageous.