Help my house burnt down.

lisaburton

I was a reegular on this board but as the title explains I have had alot of problems at the moment.

On the 21st of March my house burnt down with me and kids inside we all got out fine but the stress of it all is really getting to me.

We are insured with payment shield who have passed it over to the halifax and have began work on the house.

We have a loss adjustor who we sent our contents list to which totaled about 42,000

Our loss adjustor then went on to offer us a 19,000 settlement for the contents which we refused of course. When i asked how he came to that figure he said that it reflects the price it would cost the insurace company to replace the items like for like.

Anyway I have now forwarded him a list with exact models etc and a list of where I have found it at the cheapest price and my list still topps 38,000.
He has told me he will look at it again.

Theres more....

The builders have been working on our house and have now completed most of the structural work but as far as we can see it is at a very poor standard (my husband works in the trade) .

We still havent had a buildings speck but have had to choose a bathroom and kitchen we were given £600 for bathroom £3000 for the kitchen.

Since the fire we have not received any paperwork even saying that these builders are working on my house let alone how much they will be spending.

As well as this we have had local youths break into the house whilst it has been empty even though we told the builders and insurance company to ensure they made sure the house and surrounding area was properly secured as I dont live in the best area.

So far I have gone to the house on 2 ocassions and the builders have left the back door unlocked. We have had our childrens trampoline stolen from the garden and last night even our fence was stolen (it is on the side of an alleyway.)

If the house was secured proplery with a metal fence all the way round instead of halfway this wouldnt keep happening.

I am constantly phoning the insurance company and the builders and the police to complain about what is happening and its not getting me any where.

I just feel that I am at the end of my tether and dont know what to do anymore for the best

There is loads of other stuff like the builders keep chosing things and putting them in the house that we dont like. like door handles,flooring,pipework, etc

I just need a bit of help and support at the moment as its all stressing me out so bad

obviously I dont have a computer as it went up in the fire with everything else and althought the insurance company have given us £5000 it has nearly all gone as they moved us in rented accomadation and we had to get suff for our two kids who are 3 and 2.

But i will hopefully get back online later tonight when I visit my friends

thanks
Lisa

mattymoo

Given the huge gap between the insurers offer and your value I suspect you may need to consider appointing a loss assessor.

the adjuster is working for the insurers to manage the loss but at the same time minimise it in their favour.

An assessor works for you and is there to maximise the payout for your benefit. Look for loss assessors in yellow pages.

Unfortunately they have a pretty bad rep as an industry with very little regulation. Plus you also pay them a fee of typically 10% of the loss. A good one though is worth the outlay.

As for securing the site, the person to speak to is the loss adjuster and insurer (to apply pressure on the adjuster). Make it clear to the insurer that the adjusters failure to manage the contractors is resulting in losses from the site and that these will be added to the fire claim. Stress you will not let them treat it as a separate theft issue (and apply a second excess) because the loss is down to the negligence of their contractors and they are jointly responsible as they selected the contractor.

julie1075

I don't have any advice that will help but just wanted to say how sorry I am for your misfortune and hope you get it all sorted soon and have a lovely "new" house to move back into. Try and stay positive however hard, you still have your lovely family together safe and well. Let us know how you get on and we all look forward to seeing you back on the forums again.

agaveworm

julie1075 wrote: »

I don't have any advice that will help but just wanted to say how sorry I am for your misfortune and hope you get it all sorted soon and have a lovely "new" house to move back into. Try and stay positive however hard, you still have your lovely family together safe and well. Let us know how you get on and we all look forward to seeing you back on the forums again.

Ditto. I hope it all sorts itself out in the end, too.

Gingham_Ribbon

I think you need to speak to the insurance ombudsman. I hope this is sorted out for you soon. I really feel for you.

Keep your chin up. You all got out safely. The rest is hard but will pass. xxx

paddy's_mum

lisa - I have only just discovered your thread as I normally frequent other parts of mse. I can TOTALLY understand your feelings as exactly this happened to us in October 2004 after our house was virtually destroyed by fire.

In short, we endured the same runaround from the insurers and their officials. In the end, we instructed an independent loss adjustor of our own. It cost us almost a grand in fees but he fought our corner with vigour and apart from feeling that finally we had someone on our side, his advice (we were so naive!) got us every penny we were entitled to and the gains more than paid his fees.

I don't often offer it, but if your feelings (as well as your property) have been injured, please feel free to PM me. Been there, done that, got the teeshirt, suffered the nervous breakdown and come out the other side. I am truly sorry for your trouble and if my steep learning curve can help someone else, I am only too pleased to listen and offer a shoulder.

lisaburton

Thank you all so much for your replies.

My Husband has arranged a meeting with the loss adjustor and the builders to discuss what he is not happy about on Friday.

I have been signed off of work with stress (work couldnt wait to get rid of me as I have been a mess over the last couple of months)

I have enwuired about getting an independant assessor but we cannot really afford the fees the lowest wuote I have recieved is for 6.5% of whatever our total claim is so If you add my buildings claim which is looking at about £60,000 plus the contents which is max of £40,000 we will be paying him about £6,500 which we cant afford to do even if we do get £40,000 which doesnt look very likely at the moment.

I am just so stressed and have got to a point at the moment that I just cannot be bothered with any of it anymore!!

Thanks again for all of you replies

Lisa

Cazza

Hi Lisa,

Before I say anything, please don't read this message in the context of my signature. This is NOT advice based on professional experience, it is something I was totally unaware of prior to last year, this is purely personal experience via family!

My in laws had a fire in June last year, it was serious. The house has been demolished and rebuilt. They are still in rented accomodation but hope to move back in to their new/old house next month. They lost most of their personal belongings - my MIL's only clothes were the shorts and t shirt she'd worn to go and walk their dog!

Within a few days of the fire, following conversations with their loss adjustor, they realised they had been grossly underinsured on their contents cover. Their cover amount was £40,000. Their loss adjustor explained to them that in situations where you are underinsured, the insurance company will pay out the full insured amount (£40,000 for them) but that they would then deduct a sum from the £40,000 to account for the fact you had been under insured (believe it was an "indemnity" policy???) I can't remember the exact amounts of the deduction, but it was a substantial amont, to the extent that the £19,000 your insurance company have offered doesn't sound dissimilar.

The loss adjustor explained that the way to work around this problem, was to ensure that your claim was high enough that even after the indemnity amount had been deducted, you still received the full £40,000. To this end my in laws claim was for c£60,000.

This is NOT to suggest that they (or you!!) should lie to the insurance company, invent tems you do not have or anything like that at all. It is more to suggest that you ensure you are realistic about the belongings you have lost and the cost to repalce them with the same quality and quantity. Try to remember which DVDs, CDs and books you owned. You can buy a reasonable double bed and mattress from Argos for £250. If your bed had an expensive frame and a posh mattress which cost you £1500 - tell them that! Don't forget to include items such as light fittings - double check exactly which items are buildings and which are contents.

As I said above, this post has nothing at all to do with any professional experience I have had. I make a point now of drilling into my customers the consequences of not having enough contents insurance. I just thought this information might be useful to you in talking to the insurance company and your own loss adjustor.

I also wanted to send you a big hug - it's a horrible, traumatic event to go through - and that's only as a concenred relative! Look after yourself and good luck!:grouphug:

CelticStar

I've just read this thread and even though I don't have any constructive advice - except that I really think I would find and independent loss assessor if I were in your shoes as most insurance companies are little more than sharks - I am just so sorry to hear of your troubles. I really hope that things get better soon. Take care.

CS

sooz

Hi Lisa,

Really sorry to hear what has happened, but I would strongly repeat what the others have said...do appoint an independant loss assessor to fight for you. I know you think that £6500 is too much to have to pay someone to get the insurance that you have already paid for, but it will be worth it.

I had a much much smaller claim than yours for a flood, and my insurance company were being so awful that i took advice and employed an independant assessor and he was wonderful.

Firstly, once I'd appointed him to act for me, I didn't have to speak to the insurance company again. This took so much stress away!

Secondly, he made sure I got back money to cover everything that I'd lost. And I got a cheque, not Argos vouchers or whatever rubbish they were trying to palm off on me.

Thirdly, I didn't have to pay him until after I'd received my money from the insurance company - you shouldn't have to pay upfront (I know I couldn't have done...I was totally skint!!)

A good assessor will almost certainly get more back than the insurance company would pay out without one..and this should more than cover their fees.

lisaburton

I have employed an independant loss adjuster who is charging me £100 per hour initially for 10 hours, He has said he will let me know when he is getting close to the 10 hours and we can discuss my requirments.

So far we are still only being offered 28,000 and halifax wont budge. My loss adjuster is hoing to speak with the area manager on Monday to see if it will help influence any descions.

Me and my husband have spoke and have both agreed that we would be happy to accept around 32,000 if it comes to it.

Thanks for all of your help

Lisa