From time to time, a motor insurance company may refuse to meet a claim or scale down any payments relating to it.

This may be for one or more of the following reasons:

* If it was a theft of or from a vehicle, the insurer may believe that you were largely or wholly at fault.
* The car insurance policy has some clause negating part or all of the claim, or it is best dealt with under another policy (for example household insurance for some thefts).
* You may have given inaccurate, incomplete or untruthful information in relation to the claim or the policy itself.
* You may not have receipts to support some aspects of the claim, for example the theft of a laptop or expensive iPod from your car.
* The claim may be significantly reduced because, although the car was a historic vehicle and has to be written off, its value is classed as being only a few hundred pounds instead of the thousands it cost to restore.

As with any policy, insurers expect the policyholder - that's you - to operate on the basis of “utmost good faith”. This means you are obliged to disclose any detail which may be of importance to the insurers, whether or not it is requested.
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However, in situations like this, it pays to remember the following:

* The small print of your car insurance policy counts for a lot - but what matters as much is the interpretation of that small print, more on which later.
* All records of conversations held, receipts and copies of all correspondence kept can make an enormous difference to the success of a claim.
* You can haggle: just because an insurer thinks a car is worth £500 or an insured item is only worth paying £200 on, this does not mean you have to accept its verdict.
* If all else fails, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is there to help.

How The Financial Ombudsman Can Help

The FOS arbitrates in disputes between policyholders and insurance companies on issues such as claims that are turned down. Each year it deals with thousands of motor insurance complaints.

Before you complain to the FOS, you must ensure that the claim is fully dealt with by the insurer.

Once the firm has sent you a letter with its final response to your complaint, but you`re still unhappy or the business has had eight weeks already but has still not sent you its final response, you may take your complaint to the FOS.

You can either call the FOS on 0845 080 1800 or write to:
The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall

Or visit the website at: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/