HOME iNSURANCE CLAIM. DEPRESSED AND UPSET. Plz advice!

abhiman

Hi Lindy loo and Dacouch,
Thanks for your advitce. As expected, nobody has yet contacted us regarding booking asbestos test and the loss adjuster has not emailed thr contact number (as promised by him y'day)
I have e-mailed him stating if he can give me the schedule of works with time scales and also advised him if it is worth hiring somebody like Rainbow international for sorting our contents and building. Let's see what he replies.
In the meantime, I will be speaking to Tesco claims deptt. to find out whats happening.
I mean is it not enough that we r going through stress of this accident and damage that we are further being harrased by loss adjusters.
It is high time that these insurance conpanies should realise that loss adjusters cause more loss to them by delaying things!
Anyways, I will keep you updated on further progress.
Many thanks
Abhiman

dacouch

Abhiman when you ring Tescos ask for the person you speaks to name at the start of the telephone call. Be polite and state the facts, they have poeple shouting at them all day so if you are polite etc they will go out of their way to help you.

If you do have problems with them a good trick is to say "Would you like to be in my current situation" The only way they can answer it is no.

Once you have established contact with a person at tescos who you find helpful make sure you thank them for their help (It really makes a difference) and say you have been so helpful would you mind if I speak to you again should I need to ring. They normally don't have a problem with this. You can then build up a relationship with you and the person normally makes sure they do what they promise to do as they know you will come back to them.

I find it is sensible to sumarise what you have agreed with them that they will do at the end of the call so there is no confusion and its recorded on their tapes. It is sensible to keep a note of all calls (Time, Date, Name & What was agreed etc) so if you need to refer to it later you can.

Like I said before if you know a good builder (They are hard to find) it is often worth using them.

Feel free to pick our brains if you need help.

P.S Don't think the loss adjuster is picking on you personally they are often brusk with people its the nature of their business unfortunately (There are some good ones).

Kittian_the_Blue

Hi Abhiman
My sympathies on what is obviously a very distressing situation.

You've got some pretty good advice from Dacouch and Lindy loo, but it is worth stepping back and letting the initial dust settle before asking too much of the adjuster. He won't be able to give you anything like a schedule of works this close to the loss - this would only be prepared on claims with significant levels of damage (£50K+) once the drying out has been done - between four weeks and two months after the drying has started.
It may also be the case that he's notified the asbestos surveyors and they've been slow in contacting you - again this is not something to worry about as they won't begin the proper stripping out process until the drying is well underway. I recommend you give things 3-4 days each time something is organised for things to happen. I know this is difficult to accept and you want things to be put back immediately, but it is a long process. Little will happen with the buildings damage in the short term - only once it is dry will things move forward. At that point builders wil prepare quotations for the damage - probably two or three (avoid insurer repair networks like the plague) or if the buildings damage is very severe it will go out to tender which will take about 4 weeks.
It is however a good idea for a restoration company to be appointed - they will advise what is salvageable and provide a list of damaged items (I would prepare your own as well - they often miss things that they throw away). They adjuster should do this straight away if it hasn't already been done by the insurer.

abhiman

Hi again,

I called up Tesco calims deptt. who told me that they haven't recieved any request for sending any cheque to us so obviously, they haven't sent any cheque to us. Also, they haven't had any info from our loss adjuster regarding any building quotations. So, he had been lieing to us all the way. Tesco claims deptt. asked us to contact crawfords head office and speak to them. Crawfords head office gave us contact number of my loss adjuster's manager who was not very interested in listening to us. However, my husband told him everything and now he has promised that our loss adjuster will give us the feedback on monday.
Also, we have been told by the tesco claims deptt. to contact them again should the matter is not resolved. I don't think he is experienced enough to deal with these cases as he is not talking about drying the house at all. All he wants is to do asbestos test and then start building work which is again stupid.
Can you please advice me if asbestos test is needed before drying and clearing out?
I understand that building work takes time but they should at least start clearing and drying or at least give us the date when things will start moving ahead. Instead the loss adjuster is lieing to us all the way. I feel so harrased and tormented.
I will see what he does on monday or otherwise call insurance to sort this out. I think ours is a big claim as we have a 4 bedroom semi detached house and it has been wet since 9th Jan.
I have really started to loose my patience now.
Thanks again for all your advice and support.

dacouch

I cannot believe your home was flooded out on the 9th of January and you do not have dryers in. They would normally try and get the dryers in asap normally the same or next day as it can take weeks/months to dry out.

How old is your house?

The asbestos test is to identify any asbestos in the home, identify what type of asbestos it is and then produce a log of it for any tradesman so they know its there etc. I would suggest you google "abestos testers" get a written quote from one of them (It normally costs between £100 and £200) and then show this to the loss adjuster or preferably go to tescos and get them to ok it. Speak to Tescos and advise them you do not have dryers in yet. They should be concerned about this as the longer the water is there the more damage it will do.

I would not have thought you need an asbestos report before installer dryers as they are in effect heaters that take the moisture out of the air. The chances are if your house is fairly modern it may have very low danger in the artex on your ceiling (Older homes may have asbestos on pipe lagging etc). The obvious thing is to ring a local asbestos tester get a quote and explain your situation and ask can the dryers be brought in before the asbestos test.

You need to start kicking some butt as your claim is over a month ago and they have not even started yet

Lindy_Loo_3

Hi Abhiman

Logic says that they should clear the house, salvage any items for restoration, dry out the property then begin building works etc. Realistically, you need a professional restoration company to deal with this and I'm quite surprised that this hasn't been appointed yet - despite having major issues with Crawford's, they did appoint Rainbow after visiting our property who then came and made an inventory of everything that was to be disposed or restored etc. Had this been our property and not rented, Rainbow would've started to dry out and clean the property following the removals . . .

My advice is that you need to look at contacting them first thing on Monday morning and asking why at the very least, your contents have not been assessed or removed for storage / restoration / disposal etc. As Rainbow had said to us "if we'd have been instructed sooner we might have been able to save some of your stuff." Although I suspect there will be nothing salvagable now given the length of time your stuff has been left for.

Go back to the house if it's safe to do so and take photos of every room (take about 3 or 4 from different angles etc) and start to log your possessions. It's time consuming and at some points can be soul destroying but it'll be in your best interest to make sure you've got evidence of how its looks before it gets moved etc.

paintpot

Hi

I have just completed a claim where Crawfords were involved and the L/A was equally as unhelpful, uncontactable and slow. My claim was a sewage flooded rental property.

It took a couple of weeks before I had drying equipment installled and in fact the property was also full of sewage and that was not removed until the drying company were instructed.

The loss adjuster didn't explain anything about the process. He also kept writing to the rental property which was of course uninhabitable. I sent a complaint letter to the loss adjuster, I also complained through the broker and finally things started to move. Since then, the L/A was a little more responsive. However, my case became a bit confusing as there was a surveying company also appointed and it was not made clear to me who was doing what and assessing which part of the claim and the surveyor was not aware of the L/A and vice versa which was interesting and delayed the claim further.

I ended up discoverering that far more work was required than was on the schedule drawn up the surveyor. In the end, the insurer direct authorised some and I took pot luck with the other as my contractors were in. I am hoping for it to be paid!

I would strongly advise using your own contractors or if you use insurance recommended contractors then you need to keep a very close eye on them. I had another claim on a rental property due to a leak and the appointed insurance contractors were cowboys. Their workmanship was appalling. They also didn't complete works that were on the schedule. I later discovered that they had caused a further leak which became a secondary claim and I used my own contractors after lengthy wrangling.

At the end of the day, neither the surveyors nor the loss adjusters look at anything beyond what they can see with their eyes. I think they guess about the work required. I have been caught out twice now that the schedule of works does not meet up the reality. However, the second time around I was much wiser in this respect.

Also, check your policy, make sure they are not denying you something you are entitled to. My L/A told me categorically I was not insured for X, Y and Z. Despite me asking him to check the policy, he still insisted X Y and Z were not covered. I demanded a decision from the insurer direct and he was wrong and I was right.

Good luck

abhiman

Hi again,
My house was flooded on 9 th jan however, we were not in the country at that time. Our neighbours saw water coming out of the house and complained to police who had to break the door to release water. Since, they didn't have any of our contact numbers, we came to know about the damage on when we arrived on 31 Jan. Our loss adjuster came on 2 feb and the house has been still in that condition with no clearing work nothing started as yet. All he has been doing is lieing to ua. I have again written him an e-mail telling him that giving me wrong info has been a breach of trust b/w client and service provider which has happened in our case as he has been giving us wrong information. Our house is approx. 25-30 yrs old however it is modern and was fully re-furbished before we bought it last year.
I have copied the e-mail to hia boss also and will see what he says on monday. If nobody contact me on monday, I will ask Tesco to change my loss adjuster and have decided to write a written complaint against this LA to CILA.
I think i've had enough. I'm going to fight for it now.

Kittian_the_Blue

Abhiman
It does begin to sound like the adjuster is out of his depth, crawfords are particularly bad at using adjusters who are not capable of dealing with a big loss (it's one thing dealing with a theft of a few contents, it's another to deal with a serious EOW.) It gives adjusting/insurers bad names when claims are handled like this - there is no reason for him to to lie to you it's unprofessional.
I suspect that the adjuster who has come to see you is not qualified - I recommend you ask for a senior CILA qualified adjuster to come out from Crawfords and meet with you and put the claim in order.

paintpot

abhiman wrote: »

Hi again,
My house was flooded on 9 th jan however, we were not in the country at that time. Our neighbours saw water coming out of the house and complained to police who had to break the door to release water. Since, they didn't have any of our contact numbers, we came to know about the damage on when we arrived on 31 Jan. Our loss adjuster came on 2 feb and the house has been still in that condition with no clearing work nothing started as yet. All he has been doing is lieing to ua. I have again written him an e-mail telling him that giving me wrong info has been a breach of trust b/w client and service provider which has happened in our case as he has been giving us wrong information. Our house is approx. 25-30 yrs old however it is modern and was fully re-furbished before we bought it last year.
I have copied the e-mail to hia boss also and will see what he says on monday. If nobody contact me on monday, I will ask Tesco to change my loss adjuster and have decided to write a written complaint against this LA to CILA.
I think i've had enough. I'm going to fight for it now.

Hi

I read your whole thread and you have my utmost sympathy. You've had lots of great advice. It is distressing for you I am sure. In my situation, I was the landlord dealing with two sets of tenants who were distressed. I was distressed for them. I went out of my way to do everything I possibly could. I had both claims going on at the same time and both very different causes. I felt I had a huge responsbility to deal with the tenants compassionately and to be honest, I'd rather it was me that had been affected.

One tenant was on holiday and I had to have their door broken down at midnight to find out the cause of the flood and I had no idea when they were returning so needed to make housing provisions for them before I tracked them down. I was doing all this blindly as I had no loss asjuster assigned at this point. I just did what I thought best. I called out emergency trades to stop the continuing flood.

I was told to leave everything as it was by the insurer so sewage just sat in the property until the L/A turned up. He had the nerve to ask me if the drying company had been appointed. I told him I'd been told I had to wait until he came out and it was a couple of weeks before the equipment was set up. The smell was terrible.

With my first claim, under different circumstances, I did learn the hard way. I would suggest you do keep using this forum. I shall watch out for your posts because I would not want anyone to go through what I went through with my other claim which has ended up taking over 12 months to be resolved due to the secondary claim as a result of the cowboy insurance contractors. I made an official complaint to the insurer and it has been upheld.

I was going to make a move to have my L/A removed off the claim but he did improve after my complaint and the brokers complaint.

Just keep on at the insurance company. Keep records of who you speak to etc and records of costs as others have advised.