Hiscox: high value home insurance and how to complain

Hiscox is a UK insurer best known to consumers for high value home insurance: a single policy that covers both the building and its contents, aimed at homes with contents valuable enough to need specialist cover. The policy includes items such as jewellery, watches and artwork, and Hiscox states that it can offer bespoke cover for fine art with a claims service it describes as fast and discreet¹.

Hiscox is a UK insurer known for home, contents, motor, travel and business cover, including specialist policies for listed buildings, fine art, antiques and second homes. Its website is www.hiscox.co.uk, and it trades under the name Hiscox². The firm behind the brand appears on the FCA Register with firm reference number 113849, authorised since 1 December 2001, and also on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance².

If you are trying to reach Hiscox, the high value home insurance enquiry line is 0800 247 1902, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays, and free to call from a landline¹. If you are complaining, the process runs through Hiscox first, then the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are unhappy with the outcome or wait more than eight weeks⁴.

What Hiscox is and who it insures

Hiscox sells insurance rather than banking or investment products, and its consumer-facing business in the UK centres on high value home insurance. The policy is described by the firm as one all encompassing policy to cover your home and contents, which means buildings and contents sit under a single arrangement rather than two separate policies¹.

The cover is aimed at homes where the contents are valuable enough that a standard policy would be a poor fit. Hiscox states that the cover includes items such as jewellery, watches and artwork, and that it can offer truly bespoke cover for fine art, with a claims service it describes as fast and discreet¹. For anyone with a collection, that specialist handling is the main reason to look at this type of policy rather than a standard home policy.

Two features stand out for a reader deciding whether this is the right shape of cover. First, a dedicated claims handler is assigned to all home insurance claims as standard, so you deal with a named person rather than a call centre queue¹. Second, Hiscox states that it offers all of its buildings insurance customers a free LeakBot and one engineer visit per year, a leak detection device intended to catch water damage early¹.

The policy also includes worldwide cover for up 90 days as standard, which matters if you take valuable items abroad¹. Claims are handled by UK-based claims handlers, which Hiscox says act swiftly and in your best interests¹.

If you are comparing this with ordinary home cover, the insurance guide sets out how buildings and contents policies work generally, and the insurers directory lists the firms operating in the UK market.

Getting a Hiscox quote or policy

Quotes for high value home insurance are taken by telephone rather than through an instant online form, because the cover is priced around what is actually in the home. Hiscox publishes the number 0800 247 1902 for enquiries, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding bank holidays, with calls free from a landline¹.

Before you call, it helps to have the details that drive the price and the terms: the rebuild value of the building, the total sum insured for contents, and a list of any individual high value items such as jewellery, watches or artwork. Because the policy is built around bespoke cover for fine art and similar items, the firm will want to know what you hold and where it is kept¹.

If you would rather not deal with the insurer directly, an insurance broker can arrange cover on your behalf. MoneyHelper explains when using a broker is worth considering, including where your circumstances are unusual or the cover you need is not sold directly to consumers⁶. Brokers are paid by commission or fee, and the insurance guide explains how that affects what you pay.

One practical point applies to any insurance purchase: checking the firm is authorised before paying. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme advises checking that your provider is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and that check can be made on the FCA Register⁷. Hiscox appears there under reference 113849².

How to complain to Hiscox

Complaints about insurance follow a set route, and the first step is always the insurer. Which? advises appealing to your insurer first, explaining clearly what went wrong from your perspective and how you would like it resolved, and heading a written complaint 'Complaint'⁴. Including dates and the names of people you spoke to makes the complaint easier to investigate⁴.

The Consumer Council adds two practical steps that apply to any firm: ask the company for a copy of their complaints procedure so you can be sure your complaint is being handled correctly, and have the necessary documents ready, such as bills and letters, which may carry a reference number you need⁹. If you complain by letter, explain the problem fully, what action you have taken so far, who you dealt with and what happened as a result⁹.

You can also complain by phone or in writing, and someone else can complain on your behalf if you would prefer that⁹. Keep a copy of everything you send and note when you sent it, because the eight-week clock runs from when the firm receives your complaint.

If a complaint is about how Hiscox handled personal information rather than the insurance itself, a different route applies. The Information Commissioner's Office asks people to use its complaint form, because the form prompts you to provide the information the ICO needs, and its guidance is to complain to the organisation first before going to the ICO¹⁰. The ICO also publishes guidance on what to do if you have been affected by a data breach¹⁰.

Eight weeks for a final response

Most complaints about financial firms have to be answered within a fixed period. The Financial Ombudsman Service states that firms have to give you their final response within eight weeks for most types of complaint⁵. Citizens Advice puts the same rule plainly: the company must give you a final response to your complaint within 8 weeks¹¹.

That eight-week limit is the point at which your options widen. If the firm cannot provide a final response within the period, or if you are unhappy with the response it has provided, you then have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹². The same rule appears across other financial products: for hire purchase complaints, if the lender does not deal with the complaint to your satisfaction, after eight weeks you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹³.

The deadline runs from receipt of your complaint, not from when you first thought about complaining, so it is worth keeping a note of the date you sent it. If eight weeks pass without a final response, you do not have to wait any longer before escalating.

When you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service is the free, independent scheme that looks at complaints about financial firms, including insurers. Before bringing a complaint to it, the step is to complain to the company involved; if the firm does not send a final response within eight weeks, or the response is not satisfactory, the complaint can go to the ombudsman using its complaint form¹⁴.

The same two triggers apply across insurance products. For health insurance, Which? advises that if you are unhappy with the insurer's final response, or it does not respond within eight weeks, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service¹². For building warranties, the ombudsman sets out how it handles complaints where an insurer carried out building control or building regulations inspections, and in those cases the policy carries extra cover for health and safety issues and contaminated land⁵.

The ombudsman can look at how a firm has behaved in dealing with your account, not just the outcome of a claim. National Debtline notes that you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service about how a lender or debt collection agency has behaved when dealing with your account, for events from April 2007 onwards and after the lender's own complaints procedure¹³.

The service is free to consumers, and using it does not stop you taking a case to court. If you are unsure whether your complaint is one the ombudsman can take, the consumer protection guide explains how the scheme fits alongside the courts.

Hiscox's service and complaints record

There is no single number that tells you whether an insurer is good to deal with, but there is published data you can look at. Financial firms that receive over 500 complaints in a six-month period are required to publish complaints data, and the Financial Conduct Authority publishes it¹⁵. That threshold means a firm's absence from the published tables can simply reflect its size rather than its service.

The Financial Ombudsman Service publishes its own annual complaints data, and it reports complaints about claims management companies separately from the main figures¹⁶. The ombudsman's published data is the most direct way to see how many complaints about a firm or a product type reached the ombudsman in a given period.

For context on how complaints data is used across sectors, Consumer Scotland has compared published customer complaint data across communications, energy, financial services and water, and notes that different bodies measure complaints in different ways. Ofcom publishes complaints per 100,000 customers across broadband, landline, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV, while Ofgem publishes complaints per 100,000 customer accounts along with the percentage resolved within eight weeks¹⁵. Financial services data is not measured on the same basis, so figures are not directly comparable between sectors.

If you want to see how a firm handles complaints, ask it for a copy of its complaints procedure and look for its published complaints data⁹. Reviews and ratings are a weaker signal than the published figures, because they are not collected on a consistent basis.

How Hiscox is regulated and how your cover is protected

Hiscox appears on the FCA Register with firm reference number 113849, with authorisation effective from 1 December 2001². It also appears on the Bank of England's list of insurers incorporated in the UK authorised to carry out contracts of insurance³. The register lists Hiscox as its current trading name and Economic Insurance Company Limited as a previous name².

Any provider's status can be checked directly. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme advises checking that your provider is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and the FCA Register lets you check whether a provider or adviser is authorised by the PRA or FCA⁷. For investment protection, the provider must be authorised by the FCA or the PRA¹⁸.

Insurance protection works differently from deposit protection, and the boundary is worth being clear about. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers deposits and investments up to set limits, and it also provides targeted support for certain claims¹⁹. If you use a regulated broker to arrange cover, you are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in relation to that broker's services⁶. The scheme also sets out how to complain about its own service, by phone or in writing or using its contact form¹⁹.

Where protection stops is at the terms of the policy itself. The ombudsman's guidance on underinsurance complaints shows that disputes often turn on what was declared at renewal, and it notes that a copy of the proposal form and any evidence provided prior to the policy renewal in the relevant policy year is central to those cases²⁰. That is a reminder to keep your sums insured up to date and to keep the paperwork.