Fire at home caused by insured painting company

Quentin

Ask for local recommendation (maybe see if a local broker can recommend you someone), otherwise google (loss) assessors.

fragglepants

THanks very much

FH_Brit

Fraggle - I agree with Quentin (and that does not often happen!)

Also you may like to seek legal advice from a solicitor. They can put pressure on the insurance company and if the painter is under insured (has a limit on the policy that does not cover all your costs and/or losses, then he can "go after" the painter.

You could inform the assessor that unless they act in a timely fashion and discuss the problem, that you would engage a solicitor and the legal fees would be added to your claim - personally I'd go straight to the solicitor. Call local solicitors, they may issue a letter for a set fee in the first case and then (if it went that far) may only take a fee based on any compensation.

I think the food costs are conditional on reason - Fish & Chips = Reasonable, £100.00 per head gormet food = unreasonable.

fragglepants

Thanks for the advice re solicitor. We were happy being patient and accommodating, but as each day goes by feel as if our kind nature is being abused. We've never once kicked off about the fact that they nearly burnt down our flat and the inconvenience etc

Sorry to have caused some kind of personal argument too

Quentin

fragglepants wrote: »

We were happy being patient and accommodating, but as each day goes by feel as if our kind nature is being abused. We've never once kicked off about the fact that they nearly burnt down our flat and the inconvenience etc

The fact that the third party insurer has not replied to your insurance company isn't your worry, and should have no impact on the progress of your claim (unless there is some concern about how the fire was started).

FH_Brit

fragglepants wrote: »

Thanks for the advice re solicitor. We were happy being patient and accommodating, but as each day goes by feel as if our kind nature is being abused. We've never once kicked off about the fact that they nearly burnt down our flat and the inconvenience etc

Sorry to have caused some kind of personal argument too

It's not you Fraggle, and you did not cause anything - Quentin cannot read a post of mine without re-acting adversly - it is an ongoing thing and I've had enough of his arguing.

fragglepants

It was definitely started by the man with the blow torch!

FH_Brit

lol - very good!

Just don't get all "heated" up over it!
or
You could just "fire" the painter!

FlameCloud

Are you dealing with your own buildings insurers or those of the painters?

fragglepants

A little bit late (!) but thanks for all of your advice. In the end it turned out the reason why the loss adjuster had been so difficult with us is htat the painter's insurance company decided that the company had been negligent in performing their work so did not pay out. The painting company had already stumped up some of the costs of refurbishment and some out of pocket expenses associated with not being able to live at home, but then refused to pay anything else.

We then had to claim on our own home insurance (tip here - don't ever try to be reasonable in estimating the damage/costs as they will only beat you down even further, never be fraudulent, but let them assess the value. You live and learn!). We have now lost our no claims bonus, and in the end it will probably end up costing us a similar amount to what we reclaimed.

The whole experience was traumatic. But, as I said at the time, no one was hurt, and whilst we may have lost money we did not loose our health.

Thanks to everyone's help.