The petition of Mr Michael Osman and Mrs Katrina Osman of Woking, Surrey,
Declares that DAS now ARAG Legal Expenses Insurance Company should be investigated/reviewed due to their mishandling of our claim and that the scope of an investigation review should include but not limited to:
Their mishandling of our claim and our unfair treatment by DAS;
Their use of their associated law firm and solicitors and their denial of our right to choose our own solicitor;
How they dealt with and undermined the evidence in relation to the extent of the encroachment over our property;
The instructions given to the expert surveyors and structural engineers engaged in the claims;
Their use of the Financial Ombudsman Service to dismiss our claim.
We made a claim in September 2019 with DAS legal expenses our policy allowed for an amount of £75,000 allocated per claim. Our legitimate claim was in the hands of DAS for over 5 years which caused a huge amount of work and stress and greatly affected our lives.
In 2020 DAS undermined the evidence and tried to force us to settle the claim cheaply for £4,000 which would not cover our losses or any court fees due to the extent of the damage/encroachment. We made a complaint about the handling of our claim by DAS and their associated firm of solicitors and sent the cheque back. DAS then prematurely closed our claim referring us to the FOS with full knowledge that the FOS had a huge backlog of complaints and would not be able to handle our claim as it involved too many different parties including solicitors and surveyors.
We obtained a land surveyor's advisory report and plan and a CPR at our own expense and sent this to DAS and finally after 2 years of requesting them to look at the evidence they eventually responded and advised us to get an opinion from a barrister again at our own cost which we did and this gave us 75% prospects of success. However again they engaged an associated solicitor and undermined the evidence in an attempt to lose the claim eventually closing our claim again despite the amount of evidence in our favour and citing our unreasonable behalf.
DAS now ARAG Legal Expenses Insurance did not meet their obligations and at every turn attempted to lose our claim the cheapest way possible. This is unacceptable and has left us still dealing with the ongoing issues with costs still outstanding which DAS now ARAG Legal Expenses need to settle.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to take into account the concerns of the petitioners and take immediate action to ensure that DAS now ARAG Legal Expenses Insurance Company number 00103274 is investigated/reviewed and to take any necessary action which it has the power to do. If any legal expenses insurance company is found not to have met their obligation they should have their licence revoked regardless as to whether they have changed their name or not.