Holiday insurance not paying out

I recently had to cancel a holiday.  I arrived at the airport and received a phone call saying my father had been taken to hospital and was in intensive care so obviously we came straight home.  I tried to claim back on my insurance but they have said that my father being hospitalised was due to a pre existing illness and will not payout.  My father had cancer and had part of his intestine removed about 18 months previously.  He had recovered from this and was told the cancer was gone.  Can I dispute there decision?  He was fit and well when I booked the holiday and as he was not travelling with us it was not something I would have declared when I took out the insurance.  Unfortunately he pasted away a few months ago so I just accepted there decision at first but having time to thing about it I feel that they are being unfair.

What are the timings here, how long ago was the holiday and subsequent claim? You can appeal  and there is no harm in doing so but lapsed time may be an issue

Sorry about your dad

Other than an intense distrust of the whole insurance industry I don’t have any direct advise, but being ‘fobbed off’ at the start of a claim seems standard  practise. Did they ask any questions about your relatives when you booked the policy? Can you see any ‘exclusions’ in the T&C’s (the excclusions always seem easier to check first rathe than trying to read the whole policy).

CAB advise that you complain to the travel Insurance company first and then escalate to the FOS. – This is the stage I am at 🙁

The holiday was booked for February this year.  I am unsure of how to go about appealing if anyone can help? 

This is from the CAB site I posted above;

Top tips

• before complaining to your insurer, check your policy to make sure you have a right to complain
• you must first complain to your insurer using their internal complaints process
• keep copies of all correspondence in case you need to take your complaint further
• keep all receipts and send copies unless you’re asked to provide the originals.

Can you type up the clause that you’re claiming under?

travel insurance normally has a general clause about covering things “known about at time of booking”. What was the actual cause of being taken to hospital and intensive care – seems unlikely to be cancer (which is a horrible thing, but rarely progresses that quickly)?

if you had been given the all clear, and the cancer caused the hospitalisation, its fair to state that you didn’t know about the condition at time of booking. Follow the insurance ombudsmans processes (which normally starts with a formal complaint to the insurance provider) to see what can happen. Be careful wtih timing though, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a 6 month period to kick of the complaint

Can I dispute there decision? He was fit and well when I booked the holiday and as he was not travelling with us it was not something I would have declared when I took out the insurance.

Disclaimer here is I don’t deal with travel insurance. But your understanding is the same as mine.

Complain to the insurance company now. Make sure it’s recorded as a complaint. They have 8 weeks to respond (final response) and then FOS is the next step. FOS is free for you. You usually have 6 months from whenever they rejected your claim to making the complaint.

I’ve just read a random policy book and it works like you have said. “You” is the travelling party. The policy I’ve read covers “You” for cancelling the trip due to death of “your” parent.

But, there is an exclusion under the cancellation cover talking about “Ill health of close relatives” which is where I think this complaint will go.

So, as your parent isn’t on the policy, so there’s normally no need to disclose their pre-existing medical conditions. But it’ll come down to <b> </b>your dad’s health when you booked the holiday. FOS will look at this and decide whether his relapse left him in good health. They’ll look at whether the insurance company has been fair and reasonable.

I would say that’s after a very quick scan of a policy wording! But please do share the company name and I can have a further rummage if you like.

Sorry for your loss. I’m currently on holiday booked the day before my dad died so I’m a little bit raw about it all.

travel insurance normally has a general clause about covering things “known about at time of booking”

Also worth noting that being known is enough, i.e. doesn’t require that the claimant knew.

My claim got rejected on that anyway. Terminal prognosis had been officially given years earlier when I was a child.