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In the world of insurance, there are a whole host of terms that many of us don’t understand, but when it comes to Home Legal Expenses, it’s worth knowing what’s what. So, let’s take a look…
- LV= Home Legal Expense cover starts from £25
- We cover up to £100,000 for legal costs, with no excess to pay
- A claim must have more than a 50% chance of success to be considered
What is Home Legal Expenses cover and how can it help you?
Home Legal Expenses (sometimes called Family Legal Protection) is an optional extra on LV= home insurance which covers the cost of pursuing legal disputes in a range of scenarios and the aim will be to help you recover compensation, damages or other legal remedy. You can get cover for £25 per year, or less.
The types of claims we cover include:- Personal injury/clinical negligence e.g. trips, slips or an operation that went wrong
- Employment contract e.g. being unfairly selected for redundancy or a claim for discrimination
- Property protection e.g. a boundary dispute with your neighbour or if a neighbouring tree has damaged your property (if not covered by your buildings insurance)
- Consumer contract e.g. a dispute with a retailer over faulty goods and services
- Identity fraud e.g. if an organisation was careless with your data and you lose out financially
What are the benefits of Home Legal Expenses cover?
- You’ll get up to £100,000 of cover towards legal expenses
- There’s no excess to pay
- Making a claim won’t affect your home insurance
- You and any family members living with you are covered
- If you’re awarded any compensation, we won’t take a cut
- There’s no need to find your own legal representative – our panel legal firm are on hand to help you
What are the exclusions or restrictions of Home Legal Expenses cover?
You’ll need to check out our terms and conditions for full details, but here’s a brief summary:
- You must use our panel legal firm unless you need to take your claim to court, or a conflict of interest arises
- We won’t cover legal claims that don’t have a greater than 50% chance of success, or our panel legal firm don’t believe they can achieve a positive outcome for you
- We won’t cover legal claims where the costs are likely to exceed the benefit of claiming e.g. £2,000 of legal fees for £500 damages
Other types of claims are not covered such as:
- Divorce, separation and family law, wills, probate or trust(s)
- Claims relating to any business activity
- Landlord disputes with their tenant (this is covered under Landlord Legal Expenses, which is an optional extra with LV= Landlord insurance)
- A dispute with a local authority about Council Tax
How do I access legal advice or make a claim?
- If you have a legal issue or need to make a claim, you can call our legal helpline on 0800 028 5411, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our confidential legal advice helpline is provided by one of our approved suppliers who are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority
- One of our helpline’s legal experts will discuss the matter with you and check whether your claim is covered by the policy terms and conditions
- Our panel firm will want to determine the prospects of your claim succeeding and the likely costs to pursue the claim
- If your claim can progress, our legal panel will represent you to pursue the third party to try and achieve a positive outcome for you
Real-life examples of how Home Legal Expenses can help
Here are some examples of how Home Legal Expenses cover has benefited our customers:
- A customer had been treated badly in her workplace which caused her to resign. Our legal experts advised her that an unfair dismissal claim would be successful, which led to her claim being settled for £13,000. This would have costed the customer £9000 if she didn’t have legal insurance.
- A customer contracted building work in their home worth £60,000, the builder didn’t complete the construction and what was done was of a very poor standard. Our customer sought advice from the Legal Helpline before submitting a claim through their Legal Expenses insurance. Case handlers were able to take over the discussions with the builder and the customer was able to make a claim against the builder. The settlement was able to fund the necessary remedial works to finish the project.
- A customer had purchased a property with adjoining paddocks, their neighbours had removed the water meter and connections despite the customer having a right to the passage and running of water under their neighbours’ property. The customer made a claim through their legal expenses cover and the solicitors notified the neighbour that the water supply should be reinstated. The neighbour did not comply and court proceedings were issued for an injunction. After several court hearings, the customer’s solicitors obtained an injunction and reinstatement of the water connection.
So, there you have it! Solicitor and barrister fees can be very expensive. Home Legal Expenses can assist you in resolving a range of legal disputes and may protect you from these costs.
Want to add Home Legal Expenses cover?
If you already have a policy with us, you can add legal expenses cover at any time. For more information about optional extras, simply visit: www.lv.com/home-insurance/optional-extras
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