Rental Property Decision Reference 2023-0257

• Case Outcome: Rejected
• Year: 2023
• Date: 21 November 2023
• Reference: 2023-0257
• Subject Matter: Rental Property
• Finantial Sector: Insurance
• Conducts Complained Of: Rejection of claim

Decision Ref:

2023-0257

Sector:

Insurance

Product / Service:

Rental Property

Conduct(s) complained of:

Rejection of claim

Outcome:

Rejected

LEGALLY BINDING DECISION OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PENSIONS OMBUDSMAN

The Complainant, a landlord, held a Property Owners Insurance Policy with the Provider.

The complaint concerns the Provider’s declinature of the Complainant’s claim for loss of

rental income.

The Complainant’s Case

The Complainant submitted a claim to the Provider on 24 March 2021 for the loss of rent

receivable because her tenant, which trades as a hair salon and beautician, had been

directed to close its businesses from March 2020 for a period(s), as a result of measures

imposed by the Government to help curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Complainant notes that following its assessment, the Provider wrote to her on 15 April

2021 to advise that it was declining her claim because the claim circumstances did not

trigger the policy cover, a position it stood over in its Final Response on 29 June 2021.

The Complainant’s Representative sets out the Complainant’s complaint in the FSPO

Complaint Form it completed to this Office on her behalf, as follows:

“[The Complainant] owns a property which is let to a hairdresser/beauticians.

When business closed in March 2020 due to public health authority instructions and

an outbreak of COVID-19 in the locality [the Complainant] stopped receiving rental

monies due.