water leak insurance claim

tinysandra

:(Hello everyone, looking for some help.

I had a water leak in my home 2 weeks ago. phoned insurance, the leak was located and stopped by my emer cover and chemdry put machines to dry out house, (I did not think things was that bad.)
Both my content and building with AXA who instucted crawsfors to deal with it. It would seem I have what is called a floating floor and the floors have to be taken up to sub floor level for them to dry and then replaced. None of my contents damaged as soon as noticed water around skirting and doorways turned water off. The leak was down to a fitting under my shower tray. Before we even get to the work being done I have a problem the loss adjuster is saying that my reinstatement fig on my policy to low showing £125,000 thinks should be more like £180,000 and that I could have to pay a precentage of the claim myself. I have spoken to AXA about this who will not comment or say anything until seen the loss adjusters report( what the terms of my policy are to do with them I do not know) Have spoken to my broker Swinton who can not say for sure but think as long as claim is not over reinstatement fig should be OK,( claim will not be anything near that amount) so not to worry (:mad: I wont tell you what I said to that). One thing I would like to point out here is that had I done my insurance myself on internet I would be covered as content £60,000 and building £1,000,000 standard cover on internet. So I am sitting here I dont know what work will be done or when and if I will have to pay towards it. Any help or information on this would be great.:beer:

huckster

Sorry I am confused.

You arranged cover online with Swintons for Buildings cover with a sum Insured of £1 million. The loss adjuster is looking at the claim based on the sum Insured being £125k. Why? I suspect the loss adjuster had the wrong information and will soon realise this.

When you make a claim the Insurers assessor will always check that the property was Insured at an adequate level. If you are underinsured, they will normally deduct an amount relating to this.

You should not have a problem with the claim, provided you gave all the correct information when you applied for it online. If they can find any information was given incorrectly, they will no doubt let you know. Check your details very carefully.

tinysandra

Both my building and content was done with swinton. What I was trying to point out was that had I used internet and not broker I wold not have this problem. many thanks

huckster

Ah right. If you worked with the broker in arranging the cover, it was up to you to make sure the £125k was adequate to cover the rebuilding cost. The Broker would not have been able to have given you any advice on how to calculate the sum insured. If it was obvious at the time that you did not know the rebuild cost, the Broker should have offered the £1million sum insured policy or one with unlimited cover.

How did your conversation go regarding the Buildings sum insured? Did you tell them it was £125k. Did you visit them to arrange cover or was this by phone? If by phone Swinton may have a recording of the phone call. If the phone call or other information reveals that it was Swinton that helped you arrive at the £125k and you did not receive any warning about checking the cover, you might have an arguable case.

tinysandra

This was renewal. I think at the time I went to swinton if not last year maybe the year before cant remember. I did it on compass site and swinton came up dont know if they phoned me or I phoned them but sorted it out with local office and like many other people just did not take that much notice. My own fault I surpose but was under impression was dealing with people who knew what they was doing:(

tinysandra

As anybody else been under insuranced like this and had to pay towards the cost
regards
sandra

FlameCloud

Its a fairly standard procedure that you will have to follow if the adjuster is correct. If you have set the sums insured too low, then ultimatly it is your fault and the insurers can apply the average condition that will be within the policy. In essence, you agree to act as your own insurer for any claim if the sum insured is not deemend adequate, so you basically pay a proportion of the claim.

In your case, you are around 69% adequate if the adjusters figures are right, meaning if a claim is agreed at £10,000 then you would pay £3,100 of it and the insurers £6,900.

tinysandra

you seem to know what you are talking about more than Swinton. Is it the norm for insurance to always comply with this. Also I am trying to think as to how if it was me I would have come up with the fig but I just dont know how. I have sent the loss adjuster a email asking for copy of his report would I be allowed to have it.:beer:

dacouch

I like the way the Swintons staff have shown the depth of their knowledge by saying being underinsured won't be a problem providing the claim does not exceed the amount you are insured for. A good example of how little they actually understand the principles of insurance

tinysandra

I will be putting a complaint into Swinton and I think fair to say I will not be using them again. With the little knowledge I have now I will do a better job.:beer: