Urgent advice needed - compensation for delay in home insurance claim

nadine12

Hi can anyone give me some advice? We have got an insurance claim going on at the moment with Allianz insurance and they appointed Cunningham Lindsey as the loss adjuster. Our house flooded on the 5th September last year and a claim was put in the next day. Basically they came and took all the floors up downstairs and brought in all the dryers, which were in for about a month initially. we have two children aged 1 and 2 so there was no was we could stay there with no floors, the baby had just started crawling so obviously could not crawl about on the concrete. in addition the house was dusty and cold, not the right environment for the kids during the winter. We therefore had to move into my parents house about 10 miles away, hoping that this would be a short term thing (although for around 6 weeks we did attempt to stay in the house, living upstairs with only a small spare room for living space). Since then there have been a catalogue of errors on the loss adjusters part, for example they delayed by a month instructing some one to test some old floor tiles which were holding water, they first had to be tested for asbestos, when the test came back negative it took another month for them to instruct someone to take them up. To cut a long story short they have admitted there were unnecessary delays and I have now had to go direct to the insurance company to make a formal complaint.

This has been an extremely stressful time for us all, I have been in tears on the phone to the loss adjuster because of their incompetence. They have been rude, asking me 'what do you want me to do about it' when I again rang to say no one had been to do the work. They have lied outright on a couple of occasions telling me a cheque had been requested for my electricity costs due to the drying - on checking with the insurance company, they had never requested anything. We were unable to spend christmas in our home (at this point I was in an extremely stressed and upset state) and we have had considerable expense having to pay 'board and lodge' to my parents towards heating costs etc and extra petrol to work due to having to travel approx ten miles further each way every day. Bearing in mind i have already had to pay a £200 excess on the policy.
Anyway they have rung this morning, asked what i am expecting and I have said financial compensation, which they are willing to pay. Trouble is they have put the ball in our court too give them a realistic figure and I haven't got a clue what to tell them! When the lady asked what I had been giving my parents, I said £30 per week (this is not an exagerration, most of it has been towards heating/electric costs as my mum works full time however I work part time so am home with the kids 3 or 4 days a week so obviously this has cost much more) She said this would be unrealistic for that particular loss. Can anyone advise what would be a realistic figure to ask for?? If we had had to rent somewhere it would have been much more expensive! I need to get back to them by the end of the week. Thanks, Nadine

PS meant to add, we are still at my mums at this point hoping that the work will be finished by the end of the month or beginning of next month.

lisyloo

When the lady asked what I had been giving my parents, I said £30 per week

But surely if you were at home you would have been spending money on gas, electric, water etc.
How much extra have you been spending over and above your normal costs.

I think you need to write it down and justify it.
e.g. 10 miles per day at 20p per mile over 20 working days = £40.

I appreicate you have been through a very stressful time, but you are in the best position to estimate what the extras are.

dacouch

This sounds a nightmare, you have my sympathy.

If you keep having problems with the loss adjuster give someone in authority at Allianz a call and go over it, they will try their best to sort things out.

I'm sure one of the legal bods on here will advise you how much compensation to ask for as they would be better qualified than me. However you would have been entitled to the costs of alternative accomadation so most people would have stayed at a cheap hotel for a couple of weeks and then rented out a house (The rents are nomally higher as it is a short term rent). So the Insurers have saved money on this.

Once you have got the claim settled I would recommend you write a letter to Allianz explaining the problems you have had with the loss adjusters which are fairly common in my experience. Hopefully they might take some type of action to try and reduce the chances of it happening to someone else in future

nadine12

Thanks for your replies. I have still had to continue paying the bills on my other house, despite not being there. Because of the very cold weather this winter I have had to leave the heating on a timer in case the pipes freeze up. With regards to electricity at my own property, I pay by direct debit and have had a massive bill due to the dryers being brought in. They have sent me a cheque this week to cover this which is a good start however in the meantime my direct debit was doubled by Swalec from £58 per month to £106 per month. So I have had to pay this as well as money towards my mums electricity (on a token meter), with two small babies the washer and dryer are on nearly every day - my mum usually only uses it once a week. Granted they have now given me some money towards the electric but obviously there has been a strain on our finances since September! The other thing is, it has been a big strain on my parents having two children in the house all the time at their age, I felt that we should be paying some sort of 'board and lodge' because of the big inconvenience they have had too.

Lindy_Loo_3

Hi Nadine12

Can completely relate to the issues you're going through . . . I've asked for advice on this type of matter before and would suggest you go directly to your insurers if the loss adjusters aren't being helpful. We've had to bypass our loss adjusters a few times now and go straight to Legal and General and true to form, they've been really good at getting things moving.

We asked for a contribution of £50 per week (gas, electric, additional mileage for petrol etc) and this was agreed to be acceptable; there's only myself, the OH and our baby. We also gave them the option to pay this directly to our family so there could be no question of us "pocketing" any monies as I'm sure some companies think this is all people in our situation do.

Totally agree with you about paying bed and board - at the end of the day, the insurance companies are saving a small fortune thanks to the goodwill and kindness of family, you'd think there'd be some sort of "goodwill gesture" for families wouldn't you? Unfortunately, they don't all see it like this,

Best advice I got though was to contact our insurers direct - good luck with it all, I hope you get into your house soon.

jonesMUFCforever

I would suggest that you ask to be put up either at another house or in a B&B until the house has been repaired.

To be honest you won't like it your parents won't like it but it is the only way for you to get 'compensation'.

Derby2

I too know what you are going through. Our house was flooded on the 30th October by a Severn Trent water main. Our ground floor was similarly damaged, but as it is the two of us, we have remained in the house. Our insurers have told us no payment is applicable because the house is 'habitable' because we have use of a kitchen and bathroom. The loss adjusters for Severn Trent (who our insurers will be claiming off) have said they would consider such a claim, but it is our insurers who are saying no.

Our next plan of action is to detail all additional expenses, such as additional mileage, cost of washing if using a laundrette etc. We are also planning to itemise half our mortgage, as effectively we have lost the use of half our house! I'm not hopeful, but it is our last option.

All I can suggest is to build up as much evidence as you can, set it out in Excel if necessary and itemise everything. Present that to your insurers and see what they can come back with.

dacouch

Which Insurer has done that to you Derby2?

Have you tried speaking to severn trent about them paying for you to have alternative accomadition

Kittian_the_Blue

Hi Nadine 12
I would agree with Lindy Loo that you are perfectly entitled to a reasonable figure for staying with your parents - it would have been much easier if you'd agreed a figure with the adjuster prior to moving out of your home (a good adjuster would have intimated the discussion) but £50 per week sounds very reasonable to me. Have a look at what equivalent houses to yours are renting for and then cut the figure in half - gives you an idea of what is acceptable. Don't forget that they also need to be talking to you about compensating you for the problems caused by C/L - Allianz should be reimbursing your excess as a minimum

Kittian_the_Blue

Derby2
Severn trent are unlikely to pay you direct - not their usual MO. Without knowing the exact extent of damage at your property it is difficult to advise whether it is habitable or not, but if the S.T. adjuster (Cunninghams?) accepted that it reasonable then there is no reason why your insurers should be disagreeing - it is amateurish to fall back on the bathroom/kitchen argument.

nadine12

Can anyone give me any more advice please - I am at the end of my tether! I have had a call from the insurer today basically telling me that they have spoken to the suppliers involved and basically none of them are willing to pay compensation. They say that although there have been unreasonable delays, it was our choice to leave the property, and that they do not believe it to be uninhabitable. In my opinion, with two children aged 1 and 2, a damp house full of about 6 dryers, with bare concrete floors through the whole downstairs IS uninhabitable for health and safety reasons. They replied that they have to treat everyone the same doesn't matter if you have young kids! I also said that I don't feel it matters whether the suppliers are taking responsibility as I don't have a contract with them, my contract is with allianz and that it who I pay my money to. They replied that they can't pay anything out if the suppliers do not agree that they have done anything wrong. Bearing in mind now we have been out of the property for 6 months!!! I told them that I was not happy with this, even if we had stayed at the property this is an unreasonable time to sort out relatively small rainwater flood. They are saying that it can't be helped if that how long it took to dry! The delay in our opinion is down to the length of time it took to take the floor tiles up - it was decided they needed to come up at the beginning of Nov (after 6 weeks of the dryers being in), but had to be tested for asbestos. Test was not requested until beginning of Dec. The floor was tested again on the 10th Dec,and it was decided the tiles still needed to be lifted as it was still wet. No one was instructed to take the tiles up until 5th January - but the property only took a week to dry once they did this and brought the dryers back in! We are still not back in the house, there has been a further delay with the decorating company, who apparently had to wait 3 weeks for my wallpaper to come from Laura ashley (find this strange too). Now there is a further delay as I have had to ask for extra costs on the flooring mandate as the kitchen floor needs screeding according to Carpetright (cos of the tiles being taken up). This again will have to go back to the loss adjuster for a decision - independent inspections said this morning that quotes have not been looked at yet (sent them a week ago), she will put in he urgent pile but the urgent pile is huge!!
I really am at the end of my tether with this, I am off sick from work as I was in hospital last week with a suspected stomach ulcer. I believe this is due to stress - I don't smoke, eat healthily and very rarely drink as I don't have the money to socialise these days. I honestly felt like I was going to have a heart attack when I was on the phone to the woman this morning, the palpitations I get when talking about it!! She said that they have 8 weeks to resolve the complaint (been 4 now) and then they issue forms for me to go to the ombudsman. What should I do now??