Making an insurance claim

If you wish to make a claim for compensation for any loss, damage, negligence, or hurt you believe is somehow our responsibility, then this matter will be handled by our insurance team.

The basis of your claim is that there has been fault on our part and it is necessary for you to prove that we have been negligent in civil law.

There is no automatic entitlement to compensation; just because an unfortunate incident has occurred does not necessarily mean we can be held responsible.

If you wish to claim for an incident which has caused loss or damage to property, and/or personal injury, you should complete and return the details of accident form.

• Download the Details of Accident Form (please contact us if you require an easy read version of the document)

We are legally required to acknowledge any claim within 21 days and make a decision on liability within 90 days. Certain types of claims are handled in-house but some will be forwarded to our appointed claims handlers, or our insurer, to handle on our behalf.

Claims are always investigated as quickly as possible.

The procedures relating to civil law, however, allow a period (most commonly three months) to investigate and advise a decision as to whether there has been any fault on our part (i.e. to accept or repudiate the claim).

You should, therefore, receive a letter within three months accepting or rejecting your claim.

In the meantime, if you have any information / photographs which you feel may assist when considering your case, please forward such information as soon as possible to us.

This may include photographs of the defect or damaged property as appropriate. All originals will be returned once copies are taken. Please ensure that the claim number is quoted whenever contact is made.

If we or the insurer requests further information from you to clarify the circumstances of the incident, the three month investigation period may not start until the receipt of this additional information.

Pending any decision on legal liability and in order to speed up the process, we or the insurer may start collecting information to assess the value of your claim.

As well as specific information relating to the claim and circumstances, we will ask you to provide your full name, date of birth and national insurance number and it would assist us if this information was provided with your initial claim documentation.

If the claim is for damage to your property, we or the insurer will require you to supply the original receipts (if available) and/or replacement estimates and confirmation of the age of the items.

Please be aware that any offer of settlement will not be on a new for old basis and as such will be adjusted for wear and tear etc.

If your claim is for an injury, medical evidence will need to be gathered. The insurers will forward a release of information form for completion to allow them to approach your GP or hospital for a report.

Please be aware we share information on claims and claimants with our insurers, the Association of British Insurers and the other local authorities for the purposes of detection and prevention of fraud.

If the incident appears to involve another party, for instance the accident occurred on private land, involved another company such as a utility company or a contractor; your claim may be passed to that party.

National Fraud Initiative

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is an exercise that matches electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies.

The council carries out checks to prevent and detect fraud. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance or employment. The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with fraud prevention agencies. Further details of how your information will be used by us, fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found: www.brent.gov.uk/fraud; www.cifas.org.uk/fpn  and www.brent.gov.uk/privacy