Ownership of Recovered Goods - Return to Home Insurance Company?

[Jenny C]

Some items were stolen during a burglary and then replaced by the home insurance company. Not long afterwards, the police recovered a couple of the stolen items.

Am I right in assuming that under insurance law the insurance company owns the recovered items as they have replaced them?

I informed them promptly about the recovery and they asked me to send the old items (or the replacement ones if I liked!) to them. The trouble is that I haven't been reimbursed some other costs related to this claim and I'm reluctant to ship some heavy-ish items (old laptops, etc) interstate if I am not going to be reimbursed.

 

[John R]

Hi @Jenny C,
It varies by insurance company and your policy but as a general rule, the insurance company owns recovered stolen property that they've previously replaced with cash/replacement property.

In relation to reimbursement, your policy should contain a "dispute resolution procedure" that sets out how you can make a complaint in relation to the processing of your claim.

Hope this helps. Please keep us updated with your progress.