Park Road Couple Facing Legal Battle over Insurance Claim
Judge criticises Zurich over its approach to the case
The fire in full force on Park Road. Picture: John Snowdon
July 2, 2025
A Chiswick couple are in an ongoing legal battle with their insurer after the company refused to pay their claim following a house fire.
Charles and Biborka Bellhouse’s four-bedroom home on Park Road was badly damaged by a fire on 29 December 2022. Luckily, the couple and their children were not at home at the time.
Initially, everything appeared to proceed as normal with Zurich Insurance paying for remediation work to secure the property after the fire and alternative accommodation and furniture for the Bellhouses.
However, 46-year-old Charles, who works in property investment, and 42-year-old Biborka, who is a wedding makeup artist, were later informed that the insurer was not willing to pay their claim for £600,000 rebuilding costs and up to £475,000 contents cover including for a £300,000 collection of watches.
The couple owned five watches that were individually insured including four Rolexes and a Patek which was valued at £187,000. Although only one of the watches was destroyed in the fire, the documents of authenticity for the others were believed to have been burnt, significantly reducing their value according to the claim. The family have been unable to gain access to the house to confirm if any documents have survived because it remains unsafe.
Zurich’s given reason for not paying out on the claim was that building work was taking place at the property and this had not been declared when the policy was taken out making it invalid. When the case found its way to court, the Bellhouses presented evidence that they purchased the policy, designed for high net worth individuals, through a broker and gave details of the work planned, including the proposed designs for the alterations.
Zurich is counter claiming against the Bellhouses to not only get out of paying out on their policy for rebuilding and contents but also to get back the money paid over to them so far. It says the Statement of Insurance specifically excludes major building work.
Charles and Biborka Bellhouse. Picture: Facebook
His Honour Judge David Hodge has been critical of the insurer at the preliminary hearings about the case saying that its submissions to the court have had ‘significant deficiencies’. He blamed the company for the length of the proceedings saying they had been slow to respond to requests for documents and indemnified the Bellhouses for their legal costs so far in the case of £87,000. The judge implied that Zurich’s costs claims had been much less conservative than the Bellhouse’s.
The judge did not prevent Zurich from pursuing its counterclaim, but it was told it needs to provide more documentary evidence relating to its allegation of misrepresentation.
In a judgement published on 24 June he said, “There was never a clear explanation of how or when Zurich received the alleged Statement of Insurance, nor how it was relied upon.” The judge noted that the insurer had an opportunity to clarify these matters through pleadings or correspondence but refused.
Zurich’s attempt to recover its own costs was rejected, with the judge describing its litigation stance as “intransigent” and out of keeping with proper standards expected of an insurer in consumer-facing claims.
Should it not be possible to settle the case out of court, a date for a full trial has been set for some time after October.
We have contacted Zurich Insurance and the Bellhouses for comment.
Value Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |