Avoid !
I thought I would be brave and go with a smaller company because they were cheaper. Unfortunately I realized why they were cheaper when I had to make a claim. A neighbour’s burst pipe flooded my entire ground floor, causing mass damage. They refused to pay because it came from a neighbour’s burst pipe. Cue lots of distress and financial stress for me. Of course the documentation didn’t make this clear at all so I complained to the ombudsman (took loads of time and effort). The ombudsman agreed with me that Frontier had absolutely no case to deny me a payout. Unfortunately this experience has made me think insurers really are as bad as people say - just want to take your money and wheedle out of payments if at all possible. I have to say, once the ombudsman made a decision in my favour, frontier paid up and I eventually got a reasonable guy at acumen who stayed in touch fairly regularly. However they insisted on hiring some absolute cowboys to do the work (1 star reviews on Google, lots of people saying ‘they ruined my house’ etc). In the end acumen/frontier agreed to just give a payout, as I refused the cowboy builders … but overall a stressful and really negative experience
Reply from Frontier Home Insurance
Dear David G,
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback.
We are sorry to hear that the situation caused you stress and that the overall experience felt negative for you.
The claim was originally declined in line with the policy terms, which is standard practice across the insurance industry when assessing whether a loss falls within the insured perils covered by the policy. The Financial Ombudsman Service later reviewed the matter and overturned the decision and provided further guidance on how the claim should be handled. Once this was received, the claim was accepted and settled accordingly.
We would also like to clarify that we do not use “cowboy builders.” We are a reputable company and work with insured and reputable contracting firms, and all contractors provide a warranty on the work carried out following completion. In this case, as you requested a cash settlement, our contractors were not appointed to carry out the works.
Your feedback is valuable to us, and we're always striving to improve our services. We understand that this was a difficult situation for you and we are sorry that the experience was not a positive one.
Kind regards,
Cover Team