insurance wont cover the cost? now what?

wen-tom

Hi,
I was a victim of the floods in Hull in 2007 and recently noticed problems with my kitchen which my insurance co have confirmed is secondary flood damage. they sent me a detailed job list to say what needed to be done to put it right and asked me to get quotes.

I have done this from 2 local building companies . both were between 8-9K.

we have sent one over to the insurance co and they are refusing to cover it saying that they will only offer a cash settlement of 6k.

what do i do now? there is no way i can get the job done for 6k. their only solution was for me to find the remaining money myself which i cannot do!

dacouch

Have the Insurers advised you why they are proposing a cash settlement for a lower amount, if not ask them for an explanation in writing. The matter can then be taken forward

wen-tom

thanks, they didn't say why as far as i know. my husband actually made the call. i will ask for that. what can i do about it when i have that in writing?

dacouch

Once you know the reason it will make it easier to find a solution, plus if they are making a reduced offer for no reason then it may make the letter writer see sense when they actually sit down to compose a letter explaining the deductions.

Let us know what reason they say and we can see if we can help

wen-tom

thanks, i'll get on to them tomorrow. as far as my husband can remember, they said that it was too expensive and that their estimating dept has got it to 6k instead of 8k as per our quote's.

they said that they would get their buiders to do the work if we didn't accept the cash settlement but i'm really not keen on this option because you never know what sort of job they will do.

dacouch

This does not surprise me, they are either using software where they enter the job details in and it works out a price for the work. The other option can be that their builders have quote without seeing the work and taking into account any potential problems etc. Another possibilities is their contractors sometimes under quote and then hit the Insurers for "supplementries" (They basically say other things have come to light and they need to chrage extra).

What I normally get my clients to do is talk through the job with the local builder they have quotes from. Explain the other cheaper quote and ask the builders advice, they can often explain things that they guess the cheaper builder are not including in their quote or are cutting corners on. Its even better if you can get a copy of the quote from the Insurers builder as this may show where they are cutting corners

pastra

Call them and ask then to explain the principal of insurance! Then ask, what are you going to do about my claim?

Anihilator

Sorry but why not just let their builders do the work.

It seems perfectly fair for them to propose a cash settlement if you insist on using builders who are charging 50% more.

wen-tom

Anihilator wrote: »

Sorry but why not just let their builders do the work.

It seems perfectly fair for them to propose a cash settlement if you insist on using builders who are charging 50% more.

it is fair for them to offer a cash settlement but not of so much less surely?

i dont want to use a builder who will not be based near to my home and who i cant get any references from. i think thats reasonable? our quotes are from 2 local building companies and arent 50% more. if they were, i would smell a rat but to have 2 quotes come in at the same amount makes me think that they are correct as they have actually been to my house and seen what needs to be done where the so called estimating dept is doing exactly that, estimating!

if i was to let them do the work, they would probably realise that they couldn't do it for 6 k, i would potentially have a rubbish job done when i could have used my chosen builder who i know will do a good job.

wen-tom

wen-tom wrote: »

it is fair for them to offer a cash settlement but not of so much less surely?

i dont want to use a builder who will not be based near to my home and who i cant get any references from. i think thats reasonable? our quotes are from 2 local building companies and arent 50% more. if they were, i would smell a rat but to have 2 quotes come in at the same amount makes me think that they are correct as they have actually been to my house and seen what needs to be done where the so called estimating dept is doing exactly that, estimating!

if i was to let them do the work, they would probably realise that they couldn't do it for 6 k, i would potentially have a rubbish job done when i could have used my chosen builder who i know will do a good job.

we have been forced to accept £5.5k to put and end to this miserable saga!

I'm really not happy.

what can i do? this is almost half of what my quotes were for?

Debt_Free_Chick

Has the insurer offered to have the repairs done, by a builder of their choice?