Evacuated from house. What receipts should we be keeping?

FlameCloud

What policy are you on? There will likely be a general exclusion for terrorism but I doubt they are going down that route even if the explosion was deliberate.

malcindebt

FlameCloud wrote: »

What policy are you on? There will likely be a general exclusion for terrorism but I doubt they are going down that route even if the explosion was deliberate.

I'm with Budget.

Can't put my hands on the policy at the minute. Don't even know if we got a full policy or whether it's online.

Will have a look.

rs65

malcindebt wrote: »

As the explosion which caused damage to the house has potentially been caused deliberately, the guy from the insurance company yesterday said it is possible that my policy will not cover the damage caused.

I would be very surprised if that was true. Damage caused by explosion usually isn't qualified in any way.

hcb42

AS a former Shaw resident, my thoughts are with you.

dori2o

dacouch wrote: »

Is there any damage to your home?

dori2o wrote: »

Currently the only 'noticeable' damage is the front window has gone through (just one pane of the double glazing), but we have to wait for the structural engineers report.

Now that we are back at home we have looked at the property and have the following problems.

Living room window, 1 pane of glass smashed and frame cracked (the council have also screwed into the frame when putting up board over window)

Front bedroom window - seals gone on double glazing, frame looks to be twisted slightly and lock on top opening is broken (the blast forced the top opening open)

Electric was turned off by the emergency services, as a result all our food defrosted and food in the fridge has gone off. Approx estimated cost to replace £275 ( a full list of food that we threw away was written out)

Fridge Freezer number 2 no longer working. There was no problem with this f/f, it was fully in use before we left the property.

Laminate in back room damaged as a result of fridge freezer defrosting.

Expenses calculated so far.

Board and lodgings (£100)

Emergency clothes/shoes for 2 adults and 2 children £60

Cleaning products (required to clean the house after we were allowed back in) £10

Additional petrol costs £20

Food (takeaways during time out of house) £30.

Other than 2 blown lightbulbs in the light fitting in the front room (£3.50 each at B&Q) and a sunflower plant that has been destroyed in the garden, neither of which I think we will be able to claim for, that is what I have so far.

Just got 3 quoted for the replacement windows, all between £740 and £800 fitted.

One final question. Obviously when the windows are replaced there will be additional costs due to the need to redecorate/make good around the windows. Is this something ther insurance will be aware of or will I have to notify this after the new windows are installed?

Thanks

phill99

dori2o wrote: »

Now that we are back at home we have looked at the property and have the following problems.

Living room window, 1 pane of glass smashed and frame cracked (the council have also screwed into the frame when putting up board over window)

Front bedroom window - seals gone on double glazing, frame looks to be twisted slightly and lock on top opening is broken (the blast forced the top opening open)

Electric was turned off by the emergency services, as a result all our food defrosted and food in the fridge has gone off. Approx estimated cost to replace £275 ( a full list of food that we threw away was written out)

Fridge Freezer number 2 no longer working. There was no problem with this f/f, it was fully in use before we left the property.

Laminate in back room damaged as a result of fridge freezer defrosting.

Expenses calculated so far.

Board and lodgings (£100)

Emergency clothes/shoes for 2 adults and 2 children £60

Cleaning products (required to clean the house after we were allowed back in) £10

Additional petrol costs £20

Food (takeaways during time out of house) £30.

Other than 2 blown lightbulbs in the light fitting in the front room (£3.50 each at B&Q) and a sunflower plant that has been destroyed in the garden, neither of which I think we will be able to claim for, that is what I have so far.

Just got 3 quoted for the replacement windows, all between £740 and £800 fitted.

One final question. Obviously when the windows are replaced there will be additional costs due to the need to redecorate/make good around the windows. Is this something ther insurance will be aware of or will I have to notify this after the new windows are installed?

Thanks

You would better off getting a single builder to undertake the works to your property. He would then arrange for the windows to be installed, any making good and re decorating. Additionally he would sort out the laminate flooring. Insurance companies prefer to ave one contractor to deal with and pay rather than individual tradesmen.

dacouch

The council will probably send you a bill for the boarding up, take a copy of it (Copy all receipts and correspondence between you and the Insurers / Loss Adjuster) and send it to the Insurers for settlement.

With regard to your fridge and freezer food, do not be tempted to inflate this part of the claim, I'm not saying you are but Insurers normally check this part of the claim as it's very easy for them to do. If they suspect your adding items, they can get the cubic size of the fridge and work out if the food fits in. I've seen quite a few people come unstuck this way.

I strongly recommend you set up a spreadsheet for your claim and keep very thorough records of everything, especially payments from the Insurers and payments you have need to pay. It's easy to lose track and can be a real pain if you get a bill from say a tradesman some months later that you had forgot about and have since spent the money.

Keep posting here for advice

dori2o

Thanks very much for all the advice. Spreadsheet done and ready for the loss adjuster to see.

They are coming on Wednesday at 10am.

The food is definately not inflated, in fact where we had half bags of chips, frozen veg, etc we didn't count it in the list, neither did we count any homemade food (leftovers) that had been frozen. (I use these for work to keep down the cost of lunch).

The way we have calculated the cost is to use the Tesco website and select the items as though we were going to do an online order and then take the final total. (taking care to select the basic own brand stuff as that is what we buy anyway) Obviously we don't have receipts for food we have bought over the past few months and I couldn't think of any other way we could do it. The only thing I worry about is that we had a salmon in there from Christmas and the loss adjuster asked us to keep any expensive food, but I couldn't keep something that was going to rot and stink the place out so I have added that to the bottom of the list as a seperate item at the moment. I know that this cost £16 as we got it off the docks at Fleetwood. If he won't allow it it's not the end of the world.

recoverydust

Did you take photos of the food?

dori2o

recoverydust wrote: »

Did you take photos of the food?

yes we took photos