Halifax Insurance battle - please help!

patricia5

Hello everybody,

I have a fight on my hands. The recent bad storms in Jan blew over a brick wall in my back garden. This is part of one long brick wall stretching around 8 other houses. In previous storms 2 other neighbours's walls collapsed, and their insurance paid out.

Now Halifax have sent a surveyor from a company called Building Claims Services, who has now issued a report stating ' the damage to the wall has occurred gradually aggravated by wind movement. Any adverse weather has merely highlighted pre-exisitng defects and has been the occasion rather than the cause of the damage'.

In other words, I am not covered. How can he have come to this conclusion when the wall is a scene of devastation? Nobody will talk to me. BCS say talk to Halifax. Halifax say get your own surveyor! I work every hour and even though I'm a MSE addict, I cannot afford this as an option.

The quote to repair the wall came in at over £5k. We're talking about a barrat house built 13 years ago, not a delapidated ancient structure!

What can I do next??? Insurance Ombudsman? Many thanks....

cahill

If the winds had not occured then the wall would still be standing!

I would tell the halifax you will commence with contacting the ombudsman if they do not change their stance.

Read this interesting extract from the ombudsmans website which may explain things a little clearer.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/28/28-poormaintenance.htm

patricia5

thanks very much Cahill..that is just what I was looking for. I'm off to battle......will let you know the outcome.

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Typical Halifax. Put a complaint first to the branch, then they will respond. Next the financial ombudsman! Otherwise they will not listen!

marcellep

Teddyrukspin is def correct make sure you write and complain to the insurance department before your make any contact with the ombudsman as they advise this is best prartice, You need to give Halifax reasonable time to investigate your complaint and respond. Then if your still unhappy take it further

quidsin

Listerning to similar insurance claims on a local consumer problem radio show, the presenter normally recommends to get in touch with a loss adjuster who'll see the problem and liase with the insurance company on your behalf - thats how i think they work, but you have to pay for their services.

Astaroth

It sounds like they are claiming the wall was not maintained properly which will be a condition of the policy.

As others have said, you need to exhaust the internal complaints proceedure of Halifax before you go to the FOS.

Unfortunately without another surveyers report to say that the wall was in a good state of repair then the FOS will see a report from a chartered/ expert company saying it is your own fault and only your word to say that it is in a good state of repair

regularsaver1

TEDDYRUKSPIN wrote:

Typical Halifax. Put a complaint first to the branch, then they will respond. Next the financial ombudsman! Otherwise they will not listen!

Branch can not deal with this - you need to contact Halifax General Insurance. The underwriters are St Andrews

You can only go to the ombudsman once gone through complaint procedure with HBOS

courtjester

Although the insurance inspectors /building service may have a point regarding a contributory factor if the condition of the wall was less than immaculate, they would be on failry shaky ground to imply that this was the main reason for the wall collapse.

The policy covers storm damage - assuming this was the January 18 storm, then it is laughable for the insurers to be suggesting that it was not the severity of the winds on that day that caused this. They would effectively be saying that even had that storm not occurred, the wall would have fallen over anyway.

The policy I suspect covers the cost of reinstating the damage arising from an insured peril (storm).

The reinstatement basis will be "as new" - hence the pre-existing condition of the wall is irrelevant providing that the prime cause of loss is an insured peril, namely storm.

The Ombudsman's opinion uses a 'but for...' test which is pertinent in this situation. The UK has a lot of windy days which are not 'storm'. Poorly maintained propertty may suffer damage on such days which will NOT be due to storm - the damage is inevitable because of the vulnerability of the structure through lack of maintenance.

However, on those occasions where extremes of wind occur (18 Jan) =, it is farcical for insurers to try and wriggle out of their liability on these occasions - you could always point to maintenance if you took that route and never pay out on any valid claim...

patricia5

Thank you everybody for cheering me up. Here's the update...

They are paying out!! Halifax sent a consultant who agreed that it was unreasonable to claim that wear and tear was to blame.

I had lots of ammunition courtesy of your responses so I was confident of a positive outcome in the event of a fight. In the end, it wasn't needed, but many thanks anyway for taking away the doubts...