How to Chase an Insurer on a Stalled Property Claim (and How to Automate It)

A property claim stalls for boring reasons. The adjuster is on leave, the file is with a different team, the insurer is waiting for a document nobody told you about, or the claim has simply slid down a queue. None of that is personal, and none of it moves without a nudge. This is the chasing routine that works for loss assessors, from the first polite note to the formal complaint, and how to make most of it happen without you.

First, know what you are chasing

A chaser with no reference and no ask gets filed. Every message to an insurer or loss adjuster should carry four things: the claim reference, the policyholder’s name and postcode, the date of the document you are chasing a response to, and the specific thing you want back (acknowledgement, a decision, an offer, a date). “Any update?” is not a chaser. “Please confirm when the scope submitted on 14 October will be reviewed, and by whom” is.

The sequence

Day 3: the gentle one

Three working days after a submission, a short note confirming receipt and asking for a timescale. The tone is helpful: you are making their job easier by keeping the file warm. Most claims that are going to move will move here.

Day 7: the direct one

A week on, repeat the ask and add a deadline of your own: “I would be grateful for a response by Friday 24th so that the policyholder can arrange temporary repairs.” Copy in the policyholder if your retainer allows it; insurers respond differently when the customer can see the silence.

Day 14: the escalation

Two weeks is the point to go up a level. Ask for the team leader or the insurer’s complaints contact by name, and say that you are doing so. Refer to the insurer’s own service standards where it publishes them, and to the regulator’s expectation that claims are handled promptly and fairly. Still polite, now on the record.

Beyond: the complaint

If a reasonable escalation gets nothing, raise a formal complaint on the policyholder’s behalf. The insurer has eight weeks to give a final response, after which the policyholder can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Mention that timetable in the complaint. You rarely need to use it; the mention does the work.

Keep every chaser on the file

The chaser you cannot prove is the one that did not happen. Every message, with its date and its recipient, belongs on the claim’s timeline, not in a sent folder. When the complaint stage comes, the timeline is the complaint.

Now automate it

The sequence above is the same for every claim: the dates move, the reference changes, the wording stays. That makes it the easiest thing in your practice to hand to software.

1. Write the three chasers once, in your wording, with placeholders for the reference, the names and the dates.
2. Attach the sequence to the event that starts the clock: a stage change, or “scope submitted” logged on the claim.
3. Have the sequence stop automatically when a reply is logged, so a claim that moved on day 4 never gets the day 7 letter.
4. Have the day 14 escalation create a task for you rather than send on its own, so the escalation is still a decision.
5. Get an alert on any claim with no movement for ten days, independent of the chasers, for the file that fell through the net.

Run this way, chasing stops being a job and becomes a setting. ClaimFlow ships with this sequence built in, on every plan from Professional upwards; the features page shows it alongside the policyholder updates that go out at the same time.

Three mistakes to avoid

• Chasing by phone only. Calls move claims, but they leave no record. Follow every call with a two-line email that says what was agreed.
• Escalating on day 3. An angry first chaser costs you goodwill you will need on the next claim with the same adjuster.
• Chasing the wrong party. Once a loss adjuster is appointed, the adjuster is the person to chase, with the insurer copied in. Chasing the insurer alone adds a week.

Further reading

• Day 3, 7, 14: the follow-up sequence in detail
• The six-stage claims pipeline every practice should run