Help with cost of running dehumidifier

laney85

Hi

My mum was flooded by empty council house above due to a bust pipe. Her house is bought and insured , the insurers have dehumidifiers running and she cannot keep up with the electric payments to run them as she is on prepayment, Is there any help she can get until the clam is settled.

cogito

She should ask the insurers for an interim payment.

reddyman

How many have they left running? I believe they cost a couple of pence per hour to run.

laney85

Well her meter is going down at app 90pence every hour, there are 5 running , insurance says no, they will only reimburse at time of settlement

cogito

laney85 wrote: »

Well her meter is going down at app 90pence every hour, there are 5 running , insurance says no, they will only reimburse at time of settlement

Don't take no for an answer. Interim payments are perfectly normal in this sort of situation. If necessary, explain that the dehumidifiers will have to be turned off which will result in deterioration of the property.

This is simply a matter of commonsense and it baffles me why insurers manage to make themselves look so stupid.

mattymoo

I seem to recall one of the major firms in this field, going by the lovely name of Munters, used to give the policyholder cash up front to cover the increased electrical costs of running the dryer units. The cash would be handed over when the units were set up.

They knew they were quite expensive to run and so they covered it and simply included it in the hire costs they recovered from the insurers.

cb101

I currently have a dehumidifier and 3 air movers running that were installed by Munters last week. They didn't offer any money upfront and said I didn't need to take a meter reading so I assume the machines must have some sort of meter on them. (I read my meter anyway ) They advised that I would be reimbursed by the insurers when the property was dried out and the machines removed.
C