Insurance

Claims against the Council must be made in writing, either by yourself or your legal representatives. Please submit your claim using a claim form, or by letter or email to:

East Lothian Council Insurance Services
John Muir House, Brewery Park
Haddington
East Lothian, EH41 3HA
insurance@eastlothian.gov.uk

Ensure your claim includes:
•    The date of the incident
•    The location of the incident
•    A description of what happened
•    Why you feel the council are responsible

You can also include any receipts, invoices or other information you feel supports your claim.
 

Your claim will be passed to the relevant Council department (e.g. Roads, Housing, Waste Services) for them to prepare the necessary reports and information required. They will make every effort to prepare these as quickly as possible, however this can sometimes take a bit of time depending on the complexity of the case. Once completed they send this to the Council’s Insurance Team to log.

Our Insurance Team then send your claim and the Council’s department reports to our Public Liability Insurer’s claims handlers for assessment, who will write to you to confirm they have received your claim.
 

Zurich Municipal are the Council’s Public Liability Insurers instructed to investigate claims against East Lothian Council.

They will decide whether they feel the Council are legally liable to meet the claim. Their decision is based on the information provided by both you, and the council’s department reports. The decision made is based on how they feel a Court would decide the case if they were presented with the same information.

The council do not have any input into The Insurer’s decision-making process. This ensures that claims are handled fairly and independently.
 

The length of time it takes to process depends on the circumstances of the claim and the information required.

The Insurer claims handlers will make every effort to reach their decision as quickly as possible. Occasionally additional information may be requested from you or the council in order to reach a decision.

Once they are satisfied that a decision can be made, they will write to you to inform you.
 

The Insurer will contact you to discuss the settlement of your claim and come to an agreement on the figure.

They may need further information from you, such as estimates or invoices, medical records if you have suffered an injury or wages details if you have lost income.

The Insurer will advise you in writing if your claim was unsuccessful and provide details on how they reached that decision. If you are still unclear how the decision was reached you can request a more detailed explanation.

The Insurer will reconsider a claim decision if you can provide further information relevant to the incident which they have not previously been made aware of.

If you are still not satisfied you have the right to seek independent legal advice or contact:

Citizens Advice Scotland
Broadside
2 Powderhall Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4GB

East Lothian Council cannot comment on or reverse any decision on liability made by The Insurer, they can only provide them with information in order to reach a decision.

If you are unhappy with the service provide by the Claims Handler who dealt with your claim, you can submit a complaint to:

Zurich Municipal
Glasgow Casualty Claims
POB 3318
Interface Business Park
Swindon
SN4 8XR
glasgowcasualtyclaims@uk.zurich.com

If you are not satisfied with the way your claim has been dealt with by East Lothian Council, you can submit a complaint to their Insurance Services Team (this service is provided under a Shared Services agreement by The City of Edinburgh Council).

East Lothian Council Insurance Services
John Muir House
Brewery Park
Haddington
East Lothian
EH41 3HA
insurance@eastlothian.gov.uk

If your complaint is about maladministration, you should contact the Public Services Ombudsmen.

It should be noted that a complaint about the service provided is a separate matter from the decision on liability and will not result in a claim decision being reversed.