Insurance Claim Letters Editing and Proofreading Services

A homeowner writes to their insurer after a burst pipe, describing the damage, the disruption, and how long the claim has taken. The adjuster replies citing a policy exclusion for gradual deterioration and closes the file. The homeowner had evidence that the failure was sudden — a plumber's note, a photograph of the split, a neighbour who heard it go — but the letter never quoted the exclusion, never said which words in it the insurer had got wrong, and never put the evidence against them. The claim was arguable and the letter never made the argument.

We edit what people write when claiming on an insurance policy — initial claim notifications and statements of loss, letters responding to a declined or underpaid claim, schedules of damaged items and valuations, responses to reservation-of-rights and exclusion letters, complaints to insurers' internal review teams, escalation letters to ombudsman and dispute resolution schemes, and the supporting chronologies and evidence lists that accompany them. Our editors work on the letter that has to argue against a specific clause.

The letter answering a declined claim is where a dispute is either joined properly or talked past, and its failure is a description of the loss offered against a decision made on the wording of a clause. We work through these so the exact wording the insurer relied on is quoted from the policy and answered directly, since an insurer who declined under a specific exclusion will not revisit the decision because you have restated how serious the damage was; so the facts are separated into what the policy actually turns on — when the damage occurred, how quickly, what caused it — rather than presented as a general account, given that most of what matters to you is irrelevant to the clause and the part that matters is easily lost inside it; so each piece of evidence is tied to the specific element it goes to, because a plumber's note attached without explanation does not obviously answer a gradual-deterioration exclusion unless you say that it does; so the policy terms, dates and reference numbers are stated exactly as the insurer uses them, since a letter the file handler cannot match to their own record slows everything down before anyone reads the argument; and so the letter states what you want to happen next and by when — reconsider the decision, appoint a loss adjuster, provide the clause relied on in writing — given that a letter which is only aggrieved invites a reply that is only sympathetic. Letters written this way engage the reason the claim was actually refused.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including policy details, claim information and personal circumstances. We are editors rather than insurance brokers, loss assessors or lawyers, and we offer no view on your policy, your coverage or the merits of your claim. What we can do is make sure the letter answers the point the insurer actually made.