LV Claim any advice welcome

MTW_2

We had a chinese lantern land on our conservatory roof at the beginning of september. It damaged a panel and the cornice that sits on the top.

There have been several visits from insurers/contractor/sub contracter etc but no work as yet.
I chased this up this morning and the contractor (Davies-Eastwell) call centre told me that there has been an issue about matching up the panels and that I can either accept a one panel mismatched replacement or pay half the cost and get a new conservatory roof.

Now my understanding of insurance is that its supposed to put you back in the position you were in prior to the incident and obviously before the lantern landed I had a matching roof.

I just wandered how to play this from here on in. I cant afford to pay for half a roof and I don't particulary want a mismatched roof.

My inclination is to stick to my guns and try and get them to pay for the lot. - Any advice would be most welcome.

dogbot

It is the same if a bit of your kitchen was damaged or some of the tiles in a bathroom - the insurer will only cover the damaged area and make a contribution to the rest.

Worth complaining though and see how far you get - talk to your insurer directly.

dacouch

Have you tried contacting the original conservatory supplier to see if they can arrange a replacement

MTW_2

The original guy was a builder who did it as part of a much larger project. He is very busy at the moment and not really interested.
I suppose that I could try and get whatever monetary value that the insurance company place on half a conservatory roof and see how close that amount is to a local quote.

dgtazzman

Now my understanding of insurance is that its supposed to put you back in the position you were in prior to the incident and obviously before the lantern landed I had a matching roof.

In principle this is correct, but they won't improve on the situation before the claim either, in fact, they're not allowed to from what I've been told when I made a claim a while back.