Plum Underwriting Reviews 6

I purchased a specialist landlords (non standard) house insurance policy in Oct 2024. The premium was over £1200 for the year. On 16 Jan 25 I lodged an escape of water claim for damage caused by a burst frozen pipe. Plum sent a surveyor around to assess the damage and I also secured an independent builders quotation (as suggested). The two estimates differed by over £10k. On closer interrogation, it was apparent that amongst other shortcuts, Plums contractors were proposing to simply redecorate waterlogged plasterboard ceilings to keep the cost down. The independent builder refused to quote for this citing the British Gypsum guidance that waterlogged plasterboard needs to be replaced before finishing and decorating. The delays caused by my questions and Plums long winded response process has meant that I am yet to receive an offer of settlement. It is now mid Apr 25 and my tenant has endured a water damaged house since this date. I will update once a settlement is received but I have been informed the Plum estimate is only Likely to be increased minimally. While the people I have dealt with have been professional and courteous, the acceptance of substandard work estimates, as well as the unacceptable delay in settling should be considered by potential customers.

The premium that I paid for my home insurance was £130 for the first year, via a broker. The offer for year two was apparently about four times higher. I emailed Plum for an explanation but didn't receive a reply. A bit stressful.

Paid the premium
Leak happened
Call the helpline
Submitted photos and estimates
Estimate approved
Work carried out and paid by me
Invoice submitted per estimate and photos, then Plum refused to pay
Even when they confirm verbally and in writing, you can’t trust what they say
NEVER USING THEM AGAIN -SCUM

I took Plum insurance under selection by Protect My Let broker. From the get go, this insurance has been a real pain. It asks for documents which other insurers do not require and make a world of pain to ensure you protect THEIR benefits. It is then requires you to document your inspection to your rental property every 2 weeks (yes, you read it right!).

Pretty sure if anything goes wrong (which was the reason for an insurance), you wont get your money out as they will ensure you are defeated on every claim with them.

I will not go back to them anymore!

Poor customer service . Bad insurer . Avoid

Terrible insurer, terrible customer service. Do not insure your property with them. Avoid like the plague!

I mistakenly took out a buildings insurance policy with them in 2017. I had previously been insured by Hiscox, but unfortunately they no longer provided share of freehold insurance so had to change. The broker I sued were recommended, so I assumed they had found me a reputable insurer.

When I was informed by the person who I had agreed the sale of my property to that their survey had showed up a potential subsidence issue, I informed them straight away , via my broker. They came back after a week with a very brief email saying they were excluding subsidence cover from my policy, because we had not informed them of the issue (which is exactly what I had done). They offered no more information except they may reconsider if I had a structural engineers report done.

Confused I went back to them to get a few more details and they claimed that the cracks in the building were old and had been there prior to me taking out the policy. (I have no idea how they could possibly know this as they are underwriters and not surveyors or structural engineers).

I then got hold of a survey, which had been done on the building a year prior to us first purchasing the policy, which categorically stated that "there is no evidence of subsidence" on this building. This clearly rebuffs their initial assertion that there was problem with subsidence prior to taking out the policy. At this point they completely changed their story and used a paragraph in this survey which was general disclaimer (ie that the building was of a certain age and therefore movement could occur at some point in the future-something you could say about most buildings in London) and claimed that because the survey contained the word "movement" in it we should have disclosed this to them and because we hadn't they were excluding subsidence from my policy.

In addition to this, the correspondence I received was incredibly rude and arrogant, with phrases like "there is nothing more we are prepared to do" ie shut up and go away. They consistently did not respond to my questions when I asked for further clarification.

This decision has had a massive impact on myself as it means the sale of my flat is likely to fall through and we are likely to miss out on buying the home we have been planning for, also resulting in me wasting thousands on fees. .Given the significance of this to us, I feel they could ahve at least been prepared to explain their decision properly.Their replies have been rude, arrogant and flippant. It is among the worst customer service I've ever experienced.

At this stage we are not making any claims and are not aware that any work actually needs doing, but they are clearly trying to absolve themselves of paying out any money for future claims on cover that they should be providing.

I am now going through the complaints process to get their decision overturned, but this will no doubt take months and the impact it will have will not be reversable.

PLEASE DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE I MADE. BUILDINGS INSURANCE IS TOO IMPORTANT, GO WITH A REPUTABLE INSURER WHO WILL NOT TRY TO WRIGGLE OUT OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES.

Plum are not even cheap, I took the price of the policy as an indication of quality, but that was so wrong. I will have to live with the consequences of this unfortunately.

I have given one star because I am unable to give zero (actually I'd give minus 10 if I could)