Disagree with your insurer?
Here's the actual process

Published 28 September 2026  ·  A RISE guide  ·  7–9 minute read  ·  Updated 1 October 2026

If you believe your insurer has applied the wrong excess, undervalued your claim, misapplied a policy exclusion, or handled your flood claim unfairly in some other way, there is a real, no-cost route to challenge it: the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). It is independent of insurers, and it can order a business to put things right.

The step almost everyone skips

The Ombudsman cannot simply be approached first. Its own guidance is explicit: you must lodge a formal complaint with your insurer before the Ombudsman will consider your case, and it will typically only step in once your insurer has had eight weeks to respond, or has already given you a final response you're unhappy with. This is the single most common reason genuinely valid disputes never get resolved — people give up after an unsatisfying phone call, without ever converting that dissatisfaction into a formal, written complaint that starts the clock. Once you have your insurer's final response, you usually have six months to refer the complaint to the Ombudsman or it may not be able to look at it. Diarise that date the day the letter arrives.

The actual process

• Step 1 — Formal complaint to your insurer. Put your complaint in writing, explicitly asking for it to be treated as a formal complaint, not a query. State exactly what you're disputing — the excess amount, the valuation, a declined element of the claim — and why, with dates and evidence attached.
• Step 2 — Wait for their final response, or eight weeks, whichever comes first. Insurers are required to issue a final response, or you become entitled to escalate once eight weeks have passed without one.
• Step 3 — Refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Submit a complaint through their online form. A case handler is assigned and will contact you to begin investigating, and you may be asked for further evidence to help them understand what happened. Remember the deadline: you usually have six months from the date of your insurer's final response.
• Step 4 — The Ombudsman's decision. The Ombudsman examines whether you were treated fairly against your policy's actual terms, definitions and exclusions. If they find you were treated unfairly or a mistake was made, they can order the insurer to repair the damage properly, pay cash compensation, cover reasonable additional costs such as alternative accommodation, and in some cases pay extra for distress and inconvenience caused.

None of this requires a solicitor to start — the Financial Ombudsman Service is free to use and designed to be accessible without legal representation. Where it can help is when you already have a documented, specific dispute and simply need to know the formal route exists and how to use it properly, rather than accepting a first answer that doesn't sit right.

If the dispute is really about your council's handling of the flooding itself, rather than your insurer, that's a different and often more consequential process — the RISE Section 19 Case Assessment looks specifically at your Lead Local Flood Authority's obligations.

Sources: Financial Ombudsman Service, "Flood damage" guidance (financial-ombudsman.org.uk, 2026).