ceiling has collapsed - help please

VictorMeldew

Hi everyone, I wonder if there are any insurance people around who can help me.

The flat roof over my office began to leak around a year ago so I asked around if anyone knew a good roofer. My parents-in-law recommended an 'odd job man' who had done good work for them for years. The chap came out and said that the roof was sumping so it would need completely removing and replacing(quoted £1000). I explained to him that I would shortly be moving house (still haven't got around to this!) and that it really was not worth me spending that much money. I asked him would it be possible to 'patch up' the roof so that it would last for 5 years. He agreed to do this and charged me £200.

Shortly afterwards, (the next time it rained) the roof began leaking again, and so he came out again to look at it while I was at work. I was surprised to find an additional bill of £125 waiting for me when I got in. I have never paid this, and he has never been back in touch since.
In the last few weeks in the heavy rain, the roof has begun to leak again and so I decided to have it done properly this time. If the 'odd job man' hadn't been a 'friend' of my parents in law, I would have definitely approached him again to have him finish the job for which I have already paid him. Instead I got a proper roofing firm to do the job.
The roofing firm came out and replaced the roof today, but as they were finishing off, the ceiling of the room collapsed onto my computer desk, two monitors, speakers, printer, scanner, leather chair, etc etc. Apparently the two roofers were not even on the roof when it collapsed.
They said that the weight of water collecting in the fibre glass on top of the plaster board has caused the ceiling to collapse. They said that whoever had done the previous work on the roof was a cowboy as the felt had not been properly torched on, and the old roof surface had not been cleaned properly. They showed me what they meant and this is definitely true.

My question is, how likely is it that my insurance will pay out? I am just worrying in case they try and either blame it in on the roofers, blame it on the 'odd-job-man', or is there some other reason they may not pay up? My insurance said it will be 2 days before the underwriters contact me (groupama) and I am tearing my hair out with worry! Any help is most appreciated.

Astaroth

If they blame the roofer then that isnt a problem as they will simply attempt to recover their money from the roofer.

You have 2 other much more significant problems however. The first is that the insurer deems that this isnt the result of a single incident but the continuous action of a leaking roof which will not be covered by many policies. The second issue is the fact that your policy requires you to properly maintain your property, you were told that it needed replacing but however only got a patch job done and therefore even if the long term action of the leak is covered they may say that by not getting the roof properly repaired that you hadnt forfilled your duty to maintain the property.

To be honest it is best to wait and see what the insurer says before you get panicy about it.