House and contents insurance claims

You can make a claim by completing the online claim form, by telephone or by post. For more information please click here.

If you also have a house policy with us, we will appoint a tradesperson to secure your home until full repairs can take place. If there are further repairs that need to be made we will appoint an assessor or tradesperson who will see those repairs through to completion. If this has not been done and is required, please contact your claims handler who will arrange for this to take place. If your house insurance is with another insurer you will need to contact them about these repairs.

Yes. When you reported your burglary to the police you would have been given a police file number. You will need to supply this with your claim form. If you don’t have this you can call your local police station to obtain it. If you haven’t reported your burglary to the police you should do this now.

We recommend that you evaluate the security around your house and consider any reasonable enhancements. These could include:

• Fitting deadlocks to all external doors
• Fitting security catches or stays to windows
• Installing an infra red alarm system.

If you choose not to upgrade the level of your security (if the above items are not already in place), it is possible that we could alter the terms on your policy for future burglaries.

The first people you are likely to meet after making a burglary claim is an assessor or an investigator, or both.

The assessor will generally report on the damage caused as a result of the 'break in' whereas the investigator, when required, will gather information to help establish how the loss came about, including establishing proof of ownership.

In some instances such as where large amounts of items have been stolen or where neighbours have witnessed suspicious activity in the neighbourhood, the investigator may take recorded or written statements from you and other witnesses. This can be used to help reconstruct what has happened and identify possible suspects.

You will need to complete a claim form or contact us on 0800 379 3720800 379 372 and provide proof of ownership for the stolen items. Once we have received this the person handling your claim will be in touch to work through your claim.

If you haven't already, you need to either complete a claim form online here, or download a form to complete, or contact us on 0800 379 3720800 379 372. You will also need to provide proof of ownership for the stolen items.

The best form of proof of ownership is the original purchase receipt, or if not retained, bank or credit card statements which record transactions relating to purchased goods. Most retailers today are able to retrieve details of previous purchases from their computer records, so where an original might have been lost, the retailer should be able to produce a copy of these for you.

Additionally, many items can be purchased online via websites, auction sites etc. In these instances you can provide a copy of the online purchase record, email receipt or auction confirmation in conjunction with a bank statement that includes the payment.

Any warranty or guarantee documents are another source for establishing ownership, as are pre-loss valuations for jewellery items and family heirlooms.

Photographs, operating manuals, empty boxes or containers are not considered reliable proof, nor are photocopies when original documents are reasonably available.

If a stolen item is eligible for replacement, we will arrange for it to be replaced through our network of preferred suppliers.

Due to our buying power with these providers we can access better rates for many of these items, which helps save you money and keeps your premiums down.

In instances where it is not possible to replace an item through our supplier network we will either make a payment to you equivalent to the replacement cost or replace it through an alternative source.

Furniture, furnishings, home appliances and clothing
Domestic furniture, furnishings and home appliances that were over ten years old at the time of loss are generally covered for present day value only. Clothing is also settled on its present day value. This means that if a home appliance over ten years old or an item of clothing is stolen, you would be paid the cost of replacing the item less an allowance for depreciation.

Computers and accessories
The replacement of computers and their accessories generally have different criteria to domestic furniture, furnishings and home appliances. Computers and their accessories are generally replaced if under five years old. If they are over five years old, we will pay you the present day value.

Jewellery
Jewellery is settled differently depending on the policy you have. The replacement of an item may be limited to a specified amount, or if you choose not to replace the piece, you will be paid the present day value up to a maximum of 50% of the items replacement value.

You can make a claim by completing the online claim form, by telephone or by post. For more information please click here.

The Tower Claim4Car app can be downloaded from the iTunes store for iPhone or Google Play for android devices.

Claim4Car is our free smartphone app that walks you through the information you need to collect in the event of an accident. Tower car insurance customers can then submit an accident report and start their claim right from the app.

With Claim4Car you can preload details about your vehicle and any drivers, and in an accident, you can add the location, areas of damage to your car and relevant photos. You can then send the report to an email address of your choice, or straight to us to start your claim.

No. Apps are designed exclusively for use on smartphone and tablet devices.

Very easy. Enter your customer and contents policy number in the 'sign on' area. Next choose and enter your unique 8 digit password. Now you can either commence entering details or print off a form which you can take with you around the house to list items before returning to the Tower Vault to record the information you have listed.

You will find the Tower Vault Forms clearly laid out by category (whiteware, browngoods etc) as well as location (house, bach etc). Click here for an example.

Provided you do not give your password to anyone else you are the only person who can access your site. Not even Tower employees can have access. IT IS THEREFORE IMPERATIVE THAT YOU REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD. However, because no one can guarantee that computer hackers will not be able to access the site we recommend you do not put any information which will identify you such as name, address, or phone numbers into the Tower Vault.

No, for your security, we do not allow our staff to have access to your Vault file.

No, we do not allow storage of attachments or other files to avoid the risk of identification or storing illegal material on the site.

The Tower Vault is an exclusive benefit to Tower Contents Insurance Policy holders. If you are not a Tower customer or do not have a contents policy you can gain access to the Tower Vault by purchasing a contents policy from Tower.

Rather than having to list every single item in your collection individually, which will be very time consuming, you can make a single entry such as "CD collection" and use the notes field to list all the individual items in your collection. An example of this can be seen on the sample page.

Once you've entered all your assets you can get a hard copy by going to the "Display" page and selecting the Print option from the File menu on your browser. Note that if you wish to print all your entered items at once then you must select the "All Locations" and "All Categories" from the Location and Category selection boxes respectively (on the Display page).

Please note that you must have cookies enabled on your Web Browser to be able to use the TOWER Vault. This is normally the default setting after installation, however if cookies are not enabled you can turn them on as follows:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5

1. Click on View in the top line of your browser
2. Click on Internet Options
3. Click on the Advanced tab
4. Scroll down the the Security section
5. Under Cookies click on Always accept cookies
6. Click on OK

Netscape 4.0 and above

1. Click on Edit in the top line of your browser
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on the word Advanced (not on the + sign)
4. In the Cookies section click on Accept all cookies
5. Click on OK