British Gas Insurance Limited · DRN-6254089

The complaint Mr C is unhappy that British Gas Insurance Limited has cancelled his home appliance insurance policy and refunded his premiums after refusing to repair his fridge freezer’s cold- water dispenser under the policy. What happened Mr C moved home in January 2024. He has told us that he contacted British Gas shortly afterwards to inform it of his new address. The fridge’s cold-water dispenser broke in June 2025. He contacted British Gas to arrange a repair but was told his policy was still active at his old address, so it wouldn’t come out to fix it. British Gas said that he’d not told it of his move and that he’d therefore have to cancel his old policy and set up a new one for the new address, whilst paying for the repair. Mr C has said that he had a heat pump installed by British Gas at his new home in January 2024 and took out five years’ cover for that at the time. He says that British Gas were clearly aware of his home move and he’d been discussing this with it since late 2023. British Gas’ records for Mr C’s correspondence and billing address were updated to his new address on his home appliance cover record in February 2024, although British Gas has also referenced this taking place in October 2023. Mr C says this was as a result of his call to it when he asked to move the policy over to his new address. British Gas says it has no record of such a call. The renewal documentation for the policy was sent to Mr C’s new address in or around November 2024, although he didn’t notice that it still contained his old address as the place at which cover was being provided for the appliances. British Gas says that it was Mr C’s responsibility to update it on any move and that because it doesn’t think he did, it has cancelled his old policy and refunded the premiums for the period since he moved. Our investigator thought that Mr C’s complaint should be upheld. He found that Mr C had more likely than not called up to notify British Gas of his change of address. He also thought that British Gas’ terms requiring a cancellation of the old cover and a new policy to be put in place weren’t standard in policies of this type and that Mr C should have been told upfront he’d need to do this in order to move his cover to the new property. So, he said that British Gas should either honour a repair to the fridge or reimburse Mr C for any cost that he’d incurred in getting this done himself since. British Gas didn’t agree and said that it thought that Mr C had moved to the new property earlier than he’d said. It thought that it’s renewal notice was clear that the appliances were insured at his old address and that it doesn’t think that Mr C had called up to change the address for his cover. So, the matter came to me for a decision. In advance of this final decision, I issued a provisional decision to the parties in which I indicated that I intended to uphold the complaint. I was satisfied that Mr C had more likely than not informed British Gas of his change of address and that the policy should therefore have been in place at his new address for the fridge freezer. Mr C accepted my decision, but British Gas didn’t. It sent me some call recordings from 2023 and 2024 when Mr C called up about reducing the price of his cover, the direct debits for his

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utilities and his heat pump. It thinks that these demonstrate that there was no call about changing the address for the fridge freezer cover. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. Mr C has accepted my provisional decision, but British Gas hasn’t. I’ve listened to the calls I’ve been sent and have considered what British Gas has said. But the new evidence hasn’t changed my mind about what the fair and reasonable outcome of this complaint should be. I’ve set out below my findings from the provisional decision, which I’m adopting as my findings in this final decision. But I’ll first address the additional evidence. British Gas has said that the calls indicate that there was no discussion about a change of address for the fridge freezer policy. That’s correct for these calls. On each occasion, Mr C was either calling up to discuss the price of his policy, his gas and electricity direct debits or a problem with the heat pump. British Gas says that on one call Mr C was asked about what cover he had at his new address and he didn’t say he had any. That was a call where he was phoning about a problem with the newly fitted heat pump. It was nothing to do with cover for that or any other appliance. So, I don’t think it’s surprising that he didn’t say anything about any cover – that wasn’t the purpose of his call. The other calls were all administrative and again weren’t in relation to changing the address on cover, although some of them do generally refer to his move to his new address. On the heat pump breakdown call, it’s also quite clear that he’s in the process of moving into his new house that day – he’s giving instructions to movers at the time - but no offer to update details for his cover is made by British Gas during that call, even though the opportunity to do so was there. So, whilst I appreciate that British Gas thinks that these calls demonstrate that no call was ever made to change his address on the fridge freezer policy, which I agree the calls don’t evidence, that doesn’t mean that a call never took place – which I found in my provisional decision that it more likely than not did. The correspondence records were updated in February 2024 and that must have happened for a reason. They may also have been changed in October 2023, but Mr C says he’d called up to make this change after moving into his home in January 2024. I have no reason to disbelieve him, and the evidence indicates that this did more likely than not happen, even if British Gas cannot now find a copy of that call. So, I shall be upholding this complaint and will be awarding the redress that I provided for in my provisional decision. In my provisional decision I said: ‘I’ll start by saying I can appreciate why Mr C is so upset about this. Having reviewed all the evidence, it’s clear to me that British Gas should have been, and probably was, aware that he’d moved home – and this is not least because I’ve found that he more likely than not called up in January or February 2024 to amend his cover address. British Gas has a record of a billing address change in February 2024, but it says it has no record of any call in that regard. Whilst that may be the case, the address must have been changed then for a reason. I appreciate that some customers do like to have a different correspondence address to that for which cover is provided. But here Mr C had also had a heat pump installed by a British Gas group company at his new home in January 2024. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to have thought that the two sides of the business might have cross-referenced his information, given the British Gas group was aware of his home move.

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Nonetheless, he says he called up to change his address and the fact that this is noted on British Gas’ system for the home appliance cover in February 2024 is persuasive evidence that some contact must have taken place then. British Gas has said in its submission to us that Mr C had owned the property before January 2024, as he also took electricity from its group company from September 2023. But I don’t think that’s in dispute here, as Mr C has been clear that he’s been in touch with British Gas about his move since late 2023. There’s no evidence that he was living there before he says he was, and given the new heat pump was only installed in January 2024, and his electricity usage before then was quite minimal from the bill that I’ve seen, I think it’s more than apparent that Mr C more likely than not moved into his new home in January 2024 when he said he did. That’s also more likely than not when the appliances were moved there too. And that’s why he called up in January or February 2024 to inform British Gas of his change of address. After we started investigating this complaint, British Gas said that the correspondence address on his home appliance policy was also changed in October 2023. But it had originally said this was done in February 2024 – and that’s what it told Mr C when it responded to his complaint. The screenshot that we were initially sent didn’t show an October 2023 date, but a February 2024 one. And the other screenshot, purporting to be from October 2023, doesn’t appear to have a date on our copy of it. But this isn’t really material here in any event. Mr C may well have bought his new house before he moved in, and he may have wanted correspondence sent there before he moved. So, there could well have been two contacts anyway. But it’s my finding that he did call up in or around February 2024. Mr C will have unlikely been aware that his old contract would need to have been cancelled and a new one put in place for the new address. That’s what British Gas’ terms provide but when a customer calls up to change their address, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that British Gas would tell them this and then re-quote for the new address. That doesn’t appear to have happened here and, as a result, most probably gave rise to the chain of events that followed. So, I consider it to have been more likely than not British Gas’ error that meant the policy cover address wasn’t updated then too. Mr C received renewal documents for his policy in November 2024. These came to his new address, so it’s not unreasonable for him to have assumed that the address had clearly been properly updated. The only mention of the old insured address is in the top right-hand corner, that not being an area that you’d naturally look at when reading a letter, particularly when it mostly contained the agreement number, letter reference and some dates. So, I don’t consider Mr C to have been remiss in failing to spot this and inform British Gas at the time. I’ve therefore concluded that British Gas haven’t acted fairly and reasonably in declining to cover the breakdown of Mr C’s fridge and cancelling his policy. Mr C has told us how upsetting this has all been for him. He’s said that he’s been put to a significant effort to prove his claim and that the lack of cold drinking water, which was used daily, particularly given that this happened in the summer, was quite an inconvenience.’ Putting things right So, to put matters right, I consider that British Gas should do the following: • If Mr C’s fridge’s cold-water dispenser remains broken, subject to Mr C repaying any refunded premiums (which may be deducted from the amounts I’ve awarded), the policy should be considered reinstated for the relevant period, and it should settle the claim in accordance with the terms of the policy; • If Mr C has had the fridge fixed himself, then subject to him providing details of that repair and any reasonable cost incurred, again subject to a repayment of the premiums refunded as above, the policy should be considered reinstated for the

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relevant period and it should repay him the cost that he incurred, together with simple interest on that amount at 8% a year from the date that he paid the costs to the date that he’s refunded; • For the distress and inconvenience caused to Mr C, it should pay him £150 compensation; and • It should also arrange for the removal of any internal and external record of the policy’s cancellation by the insurer so that this doesn’t affect Mr C’s ability to get insurance elsewhere. For any interest paid, HMRC may require that British Gas deduct tax from it. If that’s the case, then if Mr C requests it, British Gas should provide him with a statement as to the amount of tax taken off so he can reclaim it from HMRC if appropriate. My final decision It’s my final decision that I uphold Mr C’s complaint. I require that British Gas Insurance Limited take the actions and make the payment(s) that I’ve set out above. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr C to accept or reject my decision before 23 April 2026. James Kennard Ombudsman

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