Aviva helping customers facing Administration and Liquidation

Authored by Aviva

Due to recessionary impacts from the pandemic, we anticipate that many commercial customers may be facing Administration or Liquidation and that subsequent challenges in respect of Employers Liability and Public Liability claims may arise as a result.

We understand this will be a worrying time for these affected customers and the last thing we want to do is add to the stress by talking about potential claims against them.  However, we have seen examples of claims being made by ex-employees and customers following the closure of a company and whilst many can be genuine, this can also be an area of focus for potential fraudulent claims.

It can be challenging to conduct robust investigations when a company is already in one of these stages; typically we have lost the chance to speak to the right person within the business who has knowledge of the incident or even obtain basic information and documents such as the accident book entry.

Administration firms don’t prioritise our requests for documentation and therefore the investigations can be prolonged. At times this results in an admission of liability where we may have had a chance of defending had we had access to the right contacts and documents early.

How can you help?

• Advise us as soon as possible when you know a company is going into Administration or Liquidation
• Obtain the accident book and allow us to triage this for any potential claims
• Provide us with contact details of anyone who could assist us within the business and who can access documentation that we may ask for once the business has closed
• Stress the importance of keeping documentation such as training records or risk assessments on file for 3 years (longer if the incident involves a minor)
• Keep CCTV records for potential incidents recorded in the accident book. This is not a breach of GDPR if the information held could potentially be used in insurance investigations

Allowing us to use our expertise to manage the risk of potential claims will enable us to ease the burden of worry from our customers who are facing losing their business.

Keeping us informed of their situation as soon as possible and giving us access to the people and information we need means we can continue to identify and defend against fraudulent or spurious claims.

For more information please speak to your Claims Service Manager.