Home Contents Insurance Claim - burst pipes

geri1965_2

FlameCloud wrote: »

The policy holder pays them. They say they will off set this by getting an increased claim cost, but I wouldnt always believe them!

I can see how that would work in an injury claim, but most property damage claims are settled either by direct replacement/reinstatement or on the basis of invoices submitted, surely? Although I guess you might get cash to replace small items.

Personally I am of the view that I wouldn't pay someone to deal with my claim for me when it's the job of loss adjusters appointed by the insurance company.

If the OP isn't happy with the progress of the claim they should take it up with the insurer or the loss adjuster themselves.

Wol2

Hi Lindy Loo

Sorry to hear of your plight -I am still "project managing" my insurance claim after having been flooded in July 2007 when the downstairs of my home was totally written off. I do not want to put too much down publicly (PM me if you want any help or info) as I am still waiting for my claim to be settled and now have a complaint in with the insurance company prior to going to the Ombudsman if it is not satisfactorily dealt with. A word of warning - I had the same loss adjusters as you.......hopefully you may get a different office BUT...be prepared...... in my experience the claim progressed extremely slowly and, depending upon the amount of reinstatement works that is required, you may be out of your home for as long as i was (13 months), although I sincerely hope not.

I am however a little confused about how your claim is being progressed and who is doing what..it does seem like you are being asked to handle not just contents but buildings/re-instatement as well?

Normally the tenancy agreement with your landlord should contain a clause/clauses in there which state the landlord is obligated to provide you with alternative accommodation if yours is uninhabitable (which clearly it is). They should also have responsibility for buildings insurance which is meant to cover events such as burst pipes etc while your responsibility as a tenant is to cover your personal possessions with contents insurance only.

Therefore it is the landlord who should be claiming the costs of re-housing you on their buildings insurance and also the cost of re-instatment works and it should be them and their insurance company that organise all this. (Trust me, in view of who your loss adjusters are, you do NOT need the hassle of project managing a re-furbishment contract, especially if plaster is having to be taken off walls etc etc) I therefore do not know why your insurance company (and therefore yourselves) are dealing with the re-instatement works unless they are hoping to recover the costs from the landlords insurers or you have a different type of cover/insurance arrangement with your landlord as part of the tenancy agreement.


The landlord has in fact offered alternative unfurnished accommodation - you should therefore be claiming from your insurers (and therefore Crawco as loss adjusters) for the moving in costs (including packing and removal men to move your entire contents into the new property) (edit: although Crawco might reasonably insist moving costs are paid for by the landlord's insurers) and definitely from Crawco the cost of providing furniture, white goods etc. until you can move back to your original home. Any appliances or furniture required etc can either be
a) rented (the insurers nominated lettings agents handling my relocation offered me a "furniture pack" to rent) –
b) bought to replace items written off
(ask for an interim payment against your contents claim from the insurers to cover the cost)

The fact that both you and your daughter have respiratory problems should be stressed immediately (in writing recorded delivery) to both Crawfords and your insurers and state that the option to live with friends is/was a very temporary short term (one week) solution while the boiler was repaired and therefore Crawfords suggestion you stay there until the property is reinstated after this flood is totally unacceptable. (It will take a minimum of 3 months to dry out and reinstate the property depending upon the damage – and that’s if you are lucky and have a responsive loss adjuster, the builders can start work straight away, and payments to the builders are not held up for weeks at a time which means they down tools….!) You should therefore insist the landlord provide suitable alternative accommodation under their buildings insurance and Crawco authorise the cost of furnishing whatever accommodation is provided under your contents insurance.

Finally loss assessors are brought in as your agent to haggle with the loss adjustors (the insurers agent) when you are getting nowhere fast or you disagree with the loss adjusters offer.. They take a percentage (5% was the figure quoted to me) of the amount your claim is settled for…..in your case this should just be on contents but be wary if the assessor tries to include the relocation costs (these are not cheap – the cost to relocate me for 13 months including removal, agency fees etc etc was over £26,000) and reinstatement works as strictly speaking this is nothing to do with you.

Good luck and if you can get the landlord and his insurers to accept the responsibility of handling the reinstatement works, I would seriously advise you to do so. They should also have a duty to re-house you in the interim. But, if you are forced to deal with the re-instatement works yourself for whatever reason – INSIST on a SURVEYOR paid for by the insurance company to act on your behalf.

Really hope it works out for you and you don;t have the hassle I had.

Kind regards
Wol2
xx

geri1965_2

Derby2 wrote: »

5) From what I have researched, a Loss Adjuster works on behalf of a company and their aim is to minimise the loss.

Not true, the job of a loss adjuster is to investigate and deal with the claim fairly. If costs are overstated, yes, we will try and make savings - but if the loss is presented fairly and with supporting evidence then it will be dealt with accordingly.

cogito

geri1965 wrote: »

Not true, the job of a loss adjuster is to investigate and deal with the claim fairly. If costs are overstated, yes, we will try and make savings - but if the loss is presented fairly and with supporting evidence then it will be dealt with accordingly.

That certainly used to be the case but I wouldn't be so sure nowadays. When Adjusters carry clipboards with column headings 'target saving', saving achieved?' and 'if none, state reason', that does not suggest impartiality to me.

geri1965_2

cogito wrote: »

That certainly used to be the case but I wouldn't be so sure nowadays. When Adjusters carry clipboards with column headings 'target saving', saving achieved?' and 'if none, state reason', that does not suggest impartiality to me.

What company has these?

cogito

One of the big ones but it wouldn't surprise me if they all did it. In view of the way they all grovel to be appointed on insurers' panels, I've little faith that they pay anything more than lip service to the notion of impartiality.

geri1965_2

Well, it definitely isn't Crawfords and I think you should make that clear.

cogito

I can confirm that it wasn't Crawfords.

Quentin

geri1965 wrote: »

Well, it definitely isn't Crawfords and I think you should make that clear.

Are you saying you know Crawfords to be totally impartial?

geri1965_2

Quentin wrote: »

Are you saying you know Crawfords to be totally impartial?

I am saying that, yes.