Insurance claim for flood damage by tenants

D_Dickenson

My father has a 2 bedroom house that he has been letting out to tenants for 10 years. Unfortunately the most recent tenants stopped paying the rent and the eviction process took ages. After various court dates my father regained possession and discovered the house was not in a very good state and smelling very strongly of musty damp. The roof was leaking which he fixed but the workmen discovered that washing machine was not attached to the waste pipe and instead was emptying in the void under the kitchen floorboards. This had probably gone on for months and months so the water was all soaked up in to the walls and joists. The water was pumped out and some fans and dehumidifiers put in place to limit any damage.

We have had a damp expert come round to give a report who said 1m of the plaster needs to be chipped off all the way round and industrial dehumidifiers put in place for a month which is a major job and needs to be done on the insurance. I've never made a claim so any advice how to approach the claim would be appreciated.

*Scarlett

Have a good read of the policy book and your policy schedule.

Insurance for let properties usually has more exclusions and conditions than your own personal home insurance.

There might be an exclusion for damage from a "gradual cause" which could be the reason for the water damage from the washing machine. However if you had no prior indication of the problem you may still be able to claim.

If you can't find answers in the policy book the only way you can find out is to speak to your insurer. Tell them the full facts as accurately as you can - maybe make a few notes of dates, costs etc before you ring. Also make a note of times and dates of calls and full name of who you spoke to in case you have to refer back to previous conversations.

Bear in mind that this will go down as an loss / incident against the policy even if the claim does not go through.

Good luck in getting this sorted.

D_Dickenson

Thank you for that.

If anyone else has recommendations of how to approach the insurance company it would be much appreciated. I have an inbuilt mistrust that they will try and find a way to avoid paying. Hopefully I am wrong!

D_Dickenson

We have now go to the stage where the loss adjusters asked us to get two quotes from builders to fix the work (cheapest was £5400). The adjusters have said the maximum the insurance company will pay is £1725 (after the £250 excess).

There is no reasoning or breakdown on how they have got to this figure.
We can think of no reason why they should not pay out in full. Any advice much appreciated.

TrickyDicky101

What reason have the adjusters given for the settlement figure they have quoted? If they haven't provided a reason, perhaps you should be asking them first?

D_Dickenson

They have given no reason. We asked if we can proceed with starting the work (regardless of who eventually ends up paying for it) since it was taking so long and they replied:



Good morning Mr S

Thank you for your email.

If you proceed with the works, you are doing this on your own authorisation. The maximum your insurers can offer as a settlement is £1,727.99 which would be net of your £250 policy excess should your insurers advise that we are ok to proceed with your claim.

Regards

Ms W
Incident Manager

D_Dickenson

This is the reply I am thinking of sending. Any advice welcome.:



Thank you for your email. The information contained is unclear. Can you please clarify the following?

1. Have you now completed your investigation and your assessment?
If so can you please explain why you are restricting the payment to less than half the cost of restoring that part of the property damaged by flooding.
My recollection is that your investigator promised a schedule of works. I have not received this so I cannot judge whether £1,728 (net of the £250 excess) is correct. Both contractors estimates are considerably higher and they both said they would follow the normal insurance company costings.

2. You say "If you proceed with the works, you are doing this on your own authorisation". That is clear but what is the consequence of my doing so with regard to the claim?

Can you please give an estimate of the time scales.

After going through the insurance policy in detail and taking advice we believe there is no reason for the claim not to be settled in full. If this is not the conclusion you reach then we reserve the right to do the following.

Appointing our own loss assessors who have advised there are a number of areas where we have not claimed where we are entitled. This will include but is not limited to
a) Lost of rent.
b) Utility charges for the period.
c) Currently only damaged kitchen units have been claimed. Since replacement units will not match the existing units these will need to get replaced and appropriate redecoration made.
d) All relevant reasonable fees incurred with regard to making the claim.

We would like to take the opportunity to request your company complaint procedure and that of the insurance company. If the claim is not settled in a satisfactory manner we will request a 'deadlock' letter so we can escalate our complaint to the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service). We would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) obligation that you have that is enforced by the FSA (Financial Services Authority).

Can we request that all future correspondence is done via email to leave a full record to assist with any independent adjudication. Please also include the address [email]advice@********.com[/email] in the cc address field. We respectfully give you 48 hours to reply to this email.

Quentin

You say "If you proceed with the works, you are doing this on your own authorisation". That is clear but what is the consequence of my doing so with regard to the claim?

If you organise repairs yourself, then the insurer (correctly) washes their hands regarding any problems you have with the repairers - you are on your own.

rs65

D_Dickenson wrote: »

This is the reply I am thinking of sending. Any advice welcome.:

I think your draft is a bit confusing as to what you actually want. From your earlier post you are seeking clarification as to where the figure of £1727.99 comes from. I would simply ask that question – there has to be a calculation behind it. A figure that precise has not just been plucked out of thin air.

Although you have given them 48 hours, you must realise that your letter suggests dissatisfaction which can trigger their complaints procedure. This allows them up to 8 weeks to respond.

Your letter sort of suggests a complaint but doesn’t really make one. If you want to go down the complaints route, then do so and make it clear what your complaint is and what resolution you want.

You could seek straightforward confirmation of the amount at the moment. You can always complain at any time later.

hugoshavez

There's no reason not to name the insurer, the loss adjusting firm and the firm advising you.

If they're offering settlement at that amount I'd expect them to say they can get the works done for that. But if only some of the kitchen units are included they'll be desperate to keep their panel contractors away from it.

So I'd be pretty tempted to ask whether they're offering to arrange for the works at this price.

I'd also try claiming for the damp expert's fee. If it was a "free survey" it may not be worth the paper it's written on.

D_Dickenson

rs65 wrote: »

Your letter sort of suggests a complaint but doesn’t really make one. If you want to go down the complaints route, then do so and make it clear what your complaint is and what resolution you want.

You could seek straightforward confirmation of the amount at the moment. You can always complain at any time later.

Thanks, we followed this basic advice. We just sent the first 2 question parts. We'll save the complaining for later if needed.