home insurance - claim goin on for 3 YEARS...HELP!

unsure.com

need advice on a very long standing matter....
We had a flood in our kitchen on the ground floor and the next room to the kitchen is a bath room. This happened THREE years ago, the insurers (Halifax) delegated the claim to their outsourced teams.
The builders have been in and out over this period, semi-completed the kitchen and have not completed our bath room since. We have a bath tub and a toilet which is not suitable for three years!
4 weeks ago they decided to send a surveyor from Halifax who is now suggesting the water is coming from the outside and that is why the bath room walls are wet.
The flood we had went on for three days, perhaps it never was dried in the first place?
It feels like we have been messed around from the contractors and Halifax has neglected this claim. Over the years we have been living in this house, the wall in the bathroom were not wet or damp, however, since the flood they seem to be??
We keep ringing for updates and it takes forever for someone to be in touch again...they are supposed to be the professional after all!
There's sooo much more, but this is the brief...
Any comments or suggestions are very welcomed!!

dogbot

Sorry to hear that you are having such a bad time. This sounds like a fairly complex claim - flood waters arn't the only things that are muddy - their after effects can be complex and confusing. Clearly there are service issues going on here that are just unacceptable, but with the info provided it is impossible to say just what Halifax should be doing, particulalry regarding the confusion with the damp.

So... there was a flood three years ago (assume you were caught up in the big 2007 floods then?) and the restorative works have not been completed, including kitchen and bathroom. It appears there is still an ongoing damp issue and you suspect that the property never dried out fully? The damp could, of course be due to something else... is it that the surveyor things it is an ongoing and unrelated damp issue? You have also had problems getting answers and in general customer service has been poor.

Have you submitted a formal complaint to Halifax? If not, then it may be time to do so urgently. If they appointed the builders/suppliers then they are responsible for them and the work not being adequate.
- Complain in writing
- put your name, address and claims reference at the top of the letter
- send a copy to the household claims manager, and if you like, the Halifax chief exec, or the chief of whoever the underwriter actually is
- list out your concerns clearly and concisely - use a timeline if this helps
- summarise the issues/problems
- set out what you want them to do about it

If you have complained, and/or the matter is complex, it might be worth your while employing your own surveyor to look at the issue or a specialist claims handler who will help put your interest to Halifax. You should also be able to obtain copies of their surveyor report to understand in detail where he thinks the damp is coming from now.

unsure.com

dogbot thank you kindly!
We had a leak under the kitchen floor the main pipe had busted. That got rectified by us and the internal was down to our insurers.
I am in the process of writing to Halifax and needed direction on how I should go about this matter.
Agian, thank you for your suggestions!
Please keep suggestions coming!
Thank you!

dogbot

You are welcome. So this is a burst pipe claim, not a flood claim? They are very different things in the insurance world, so to save confusion, be careful to use the correct term when writing to the insruer.

It seems rather unusual that damp could still be present due to the incident after 3 years, i would definatly get the surveyors report and see exactly what they think is going on. But get the complaint under way as the delays just seem unacceptable.

unsure.com

thanks again for clearing that!
it's just that when I do speak with them, they refer it to as a flood in the kitchen and bath room??
ok...in the process of writing it now...thanks again!
;-)