Can I appeal if my car insurance claim is rejected?

If you feel that your car insurance claim has been rejected on unfair grounds, then you're within your rights to appeal it. However, you should run a few checks to see if you've got a case before you do:

First, check whether you supplied your insurer any incorrect information, both when you took out your policy and when you put in your claim. If you have, it’s considered to be non-disclosure of information and the car insurance company is within its rights to reject your claim – even if it’s a mistake. Alternatively, you may have had a claim rejected because your policy doesn’t actually cover what you’re claiming for. So, before you make an appeal, carefully check your policy documents. Check out our guide on different types of car insurance policy to get an overview of what's typically covered.

Once you’ve reviewed your documents, if you still feel the outcome was unfair you can appeal the decision by making a formal complaint to your insurance company using their official process. Contact them by phone or email to get started. Be prepared for this process to involve quite a bit of back-and-forth communication.

After making an official complaint, if your claim remains rejected and you’d like to appeal the decision, then you can contact the Financial Ombudsman. This is a free-to-use, independent body that will review your case, but you’ll need to contact them within six months of the last outcome of the claim. If the appeal can’t be resolved through them, they’ll issue an investigation; the results of this are binding for the insurer, but not for you, the claimant. In this case, if you still want to appeal the decision made you can take your insurance company to court. However, that’s a very costly process you probably want to avoid.