The day when lightning really struck home

I bought a house in June 2009 and thought I had arranged with the lender, HSBC, to organise building and contents insurance. In December, my house was struck by lightning, causing considerable damage to electrical goods. I spent approx £1,500 replacing them. I thought I would be able to claim but, it was at this point, I found out I didn't have any cover. HSBC said that, although I advised it that I would like building and contents insurance, I did not respond to written communication and an alleged telephone call asking me to arrange insurance. I don't remember either . I don't understand why HSBC let me complete on the purchase of a property without evidence of adequate insurance in place. Neither the lender or my solicitor is offering to take any responsibility. Can you help? HW, Southampton This one took a long time to resolve as there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the different departments at HSBC. It eventually came back, however, saying that is was your solicitor's responsibility to check that you had adequate cover when you bought your house. It said that, although it offers this product, because it hadn't heard back from you it assumed you had taken out insurance with a different provider. It said it would contact your solicitor to investigate the matter further, but, in fact, it didn't need to do this. It went back over its own records again, which showed at the time you bought your house you had a home insurance policy with Halifax, but this was due to expire in July. Because you thought you had taken out cover with HSBC you didn't bother to renew this, so unfortunately you could not claim for the lightning damage. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at [email protected] or write to Bachelor & Brignall, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number