Insurance contractor or cash settlement - What would you do?

davilown

Due to a water leak that was discovered this weekend, I contact our insurance company to see if we were covered for damaged laminate flooring. They were very good and the assessor has been today - to be honest, due to the extra water excess, we were not expecting it to be worthwhile to claim.

After totting up the figures, they gave us a repair estimate of £2600. This covers the flooring (26m2) removing cupboards and a full redec. The cash settlement was £2100.

Should we take the cash settlement or shall we pay the excess and let the contractors undertake the work? We thought that we would get the worktops replaced at the same time with cash on the side.

magpiecottage

If you get the insurance company's contractors to do the work then the insurance company is responsible for its quality. If you take the cash and instruct somebody yourself then if the work is faulty you are on your own.

There have been cases of an Ombudsman forcing an insurer to pay for shoddy work by their contractors to be put right.

So I would probably go for that.

davilown

Thanks for your advise - we have gone for the cash settlement