Should I employ a loss assessor?

Hightower_4

On new years eve, one of my party guests deliberately set fire to the upstairs of my house. As a result the whole of the upstairs has been burnt and the downstairs is covered in filthy water.
The following morning (new years day) an independant loss assessor (ambulance chaser) arrived and told me that I needed his services to help me with my claim from the insurance company. The following day, two more loss assessors from different companies arrived and told me much the same.
They have all said their fees will be about 5% of the claim plus VAT and will be taken out of my contents insurance. I am covered for £300,000 on my buildings insurance and £40,000 on contents.
I guess the total claim would be at least £100,000 which means their fee would be at least £5000 plus VAT. This would reduce the maximum contents claim to around £34,000 and I don't know wether that is enough or not.
What do these people actually do for that kind of money ?
I just don't know wether to employ one of these people or not.
I have tried searching the internet for advice but I can't find any.
Please help !

Debt_Free_Chick

They don't do anything that you can't do for yourself.

The insurance company will appoint its own loss assessor, for the purpose of calculating the total amount of your claim.

You can simply accept what they offer or bargain for more.

All these indie loss assessors are doing is offering to do the bargaining for you - at a price, of course - and with no guarantee that they will get you any increase in the amount your insurer offers you.

£100k sounds a lot for your claim - unless there was substantial structural damage. I would have thought that most of the damage would be to contents, rather than buildings This is partly what the insurer's loss assessor will do - assess what needs to be put right and the cost of doing so.

Remember that the contents sum is for the total contents of the entire house and I would have thought that less than half would be the amount upstairs - are you saying that the entire contents of the house have been trashed? :eek:

They may well attempt to salvage and clean certain items e.g. downstairs carpets, rather than replace them.

I'd be inclined to go along with the insurer for now and wait and see what they offer and if you can improve on it. If you really think that an indie loss assessor can get you more, then you can appoint one later. To be honest, I really don't see that they will get much more than you can negotiate yourself - but that depends on your own bargaining skills and how strongly you can argue for more money to replace/repair certain items.

What a nightmare though - thank goodness you are all safe and well.

Astaroth

There are loss adjusters and loss assessors. They are basically the same thing other than one works for the insurance company and the other works for the customer.

The service they offer really is the expert knowledge of being able to interpret the insurance policy wording to your best possible advantage, know FSA/ FOS rulings or case law to argue a higher settlement and point out things that you may not have thought of (eg cleaning for the other areas). The other aspect they are supposed to do is take the stress of arguing with the insurers out of it for you as they do it all on your behalf. If you wanted to give them possibly more credit than they are due it is similar to hiring a solicitor to pursue a personal injury claim rather than doing it yourself.

The important thing of cause to remember is that you cannot claim their fees back.

My personal view is that they are certainly more use in a contents claim rather than a buildings one but it is a judgement call on if you feel they represent value for money.

Mrs_pbradley936

Would you even be insured if it was deliberate? When my son was small I was ill and arranged for a nanny to look after him until my husband came home so I could go to bed.
Anyway this girl let him play with a bread knife and cut a hole for his train to go through a tunnel in a leather backed chair. Well after exploding at the girl and the agency who sent her I put in an insurance claim and they refused to pay because it was wilful damage. As much as I agree with them it was wilful damage by a 2 year old who did not know the consequences of his actions – anyway they did not pay the claim.

Astaroth

As it is not a member of the household you should be covered - after all thefts and vandalism are all deliberate acts by a party. If it was a deliberate act however the insurer would be entitled to recover their money from the party that caused the damage.

Graham67_2

Hightower,

LEAVE THE LOSS ASSESSOR ALONE.

I work in the industry and anything you need will be done by an adjuster.

I went to a large house fire before in october, where the fire service told the policyholder he would need an assessor, and one would contact him, and he did.

Where did he get the information from?

Anyway I told him to leave well alone, I told his family the same, but they wouldn't listen.

He supplied the builders, when we visited one was asleep and the other was watching !!!!!!!.

The house hasn't been cleaned or decorated properly, and they haven't fitted a new toilet, but the old one has gone. The place is a mess.

He supplied the carpet fitters, carpets are full of waves.

Now the policyholder has been ringing me asking for advice to help sort it out, problem is he's signed the claim to the assessor, so only he can sort it out.

At least with your insurer you can call if your not happy, and most will sort it out no problem.

Bossyboots

I was puzzling over how the three assessors mentioned in the opening post knew to turn up at the OP's house.

Tight_Git_3

Don't hire one....

The insurance company will send one out and in our case, following a burglary (Direct Line insurance) they were fine. Sorted out what needed to be done. The only problem came when the final settlement cheque was to be paid out. We had to haggle them upwards as their first offer was bit on the low side.

I should think that that you pay out to hire them, will cancel out any better settlement.

Astaroth

The person the insurance company sends is working for them and therefore most would say have the insurance companies best interests in mind rather than the policyholder. If you employ someone yourself then whilst they do similar things they work with your best interests in mind.

They are ultimately very much like accountants.... they dont do anything that you cant do yourself but their expert knowledge should save you more than their fees cost (and also take out some of the hassle of doing it yourself). Being realistic of cause however, if your claim is for a stained cheap carpet in the bathroom you are unlikely to get value for money.... if it is the total loss of your home and all its contents then there is a much stronger argument that they would be a worthwhile investment