A Northern Ireland dairy farmer has received an apology from one of the UK’s leading rural insurers, NFU Mutual, who have also agreed to pay his claim for storm damage in full.
Buildings on Gary McConnell’s farm outside Glenarm in Co. Antrim were severely damaged by Storm Éowyn on January 24 but he thought he was covered by his NFU Mutual insurance policy.
Those damages amounted to around £55,000, as documented by the specialist assessor the NFU Mutual sent to McConnell’s farm.
However, when the insurance payment arrived in his account it only amounted to £18,000.
McConnell said: “We have insured our farm and vehicles with the NFU for years and trust them to have our backs if anything happens.
“Storm Éowyn did a lot of damage to my farm buildings, ripping some of the roof off on the cubicle house and on the dairy building.
“I called my local NFU Mutual agent after the storm and they sent out their representative to assess the damage. The cost of fixing everything back to normal was adjudicated to be £55,000.”
NFU Mutual
McConnell said he was disgusted by the amount he received from NFU Mutual because he knew it “wouldn’t go very far in fixing the damage.”
He tried to call his agent, several times, to try and understand what was going on.
“They were quite adamant that was all they were paying me, and started claiming that my farm was underinsured, therefore only was qualified for partial payment.
“I argued that the policy I had renewed with NFU Mutual just a few months before the storm was based on what they had assessed my farm to be worth. I didn’t value the farm,” McConnell said.
However, after McConnell then contacted media organisations and local MP, Jim Allister, the NFU Mutual apologised to him, and paid his claim in full.
But the Northern Ireland dairy farmer remains annoyed with how the NFU Mutual initially dealt with his case.
“They were not very accommodating at all with me, trying to blame me for being underinsured. I do not set my farm values, and neither do I set the premiums I have to pay each year,” McConnell said.
He said he is also aware of other farmers who are in similar situations and plan to fight their cases.
Apology
A spokesman for NFU Mutual said: “Following the claim, and as is standard procedure, NFU Mutual engaged independent loss adjusters to assess the damage and the level of cover available on the policy.
“In this case, the loss adjuster indicated that the farm was significantly underinsured and so the claim could not be paid in full.”
NFU Mutual offers a Waiver of Underinsurance endorsement which enables farming union members who are underinsured to receive a full payout for their claim.
However, in order to qualify for the Waiver of Underinsurance, customers must inform NFU Mutual of any changes to their property that may affect the value of their sums insured, such as the construction or redevelopment of a farm building.
The spokesperson said: “Our loss adjusters therefore conducted additional investigations to determine whether we were able to pay the claim in full under the Waiver of Endorsement condition.
“The loss adjuster noted that a new farm building may have affected the value of the farm and that this was completed during the course of 2024.
“Given our understanding from the loss adjuster, we believed this building should have been declared to NFU Mutual to meet the Waiver of Underinsurance Special Condition endorsement.”
The spokesperson also said that as the company “could find no evidence of our local agency having been notified of this building work, we believed this condition had not been met, and given the underinsurance, the claim was settled at a reduced amount”.
“We believe this was the correct decision given our understanding of the situation at the time,” they added.
According to NFU Mutual, it thoroughly reviewed the claim again, and noted that there was inconsistent information regarding the completion of the building works, and sought to clarify this with Mr. McConnell.
The spokesman added: “We understood from Mr. McConnell that the building was practically completed in January 2024, suggesting that the agency could have been aware of the additional building upon the inception of the farm’s insurance policy.
“Once Mr. McConnell had confirmed the building was practically completed before the policy was taken out, we were pleased to be able to provide the benefit of the Waiver of Underinsurance endorsement and pay the claim in full.
“We have waived the underinsurance on the farm policy and paid Mr. McConnell’s claim in full, and have apologised for the delay in doing so.”
The spokesperson said that this “was due to an oversight on behalf of NFU Mutual which restricted our understanding of the situation, but falls short of the high levels of service to which we hold ourselves, and our customers rightly expect”.
“We should have interrogated this more thoroughly in the first instance and sincerely apologise to Mr. McConnell for the delay in paying the claim.
“By way of apology, we have provided compensation of £500 above the payment of the claim,” they added.
