Water leak & home insurance

Sharon700

Hi

Not sure if I'm in the right section or not but hopefully someone can advise. I had 2 water leaks in my kitchen, one on the fridge/freezer pipe which backs onto the hall floor. The hall has a lot of water damage with the water mark going up the walls, it has been leaking over a length of time.

The leak No 2 is on the opposite side of the kitchen, under the sink, the waste pipe has been overflowing/leaking again for some time. This wall backs onto a utility wall. The water marks are up quite high on walls in kitchen & utility room, can now also smell the damp.

We had a leak/detect (certified qualified for Ins) man out who stopped the leaks & had to dig up a hole in the tiled floor near the sink. In that hole there is still a small pool of water.

We removed the kicker boards of kitchen units, no tiles under the units. The floor top was obviously wet but the top layer has since dried, having left that area open & windows open.

Our insurers came out. They have agreed to take up the hall (laminate) floor but are saying the kitchen tiled floor which goes on into the utility doesn't need to come up & they won't authorise for that. The water/leak man says that is rubbish & that the tiles definitely do need to come up as the water has clearly spread throughout the floor (under the tiles) The insurers say they will arrange for dehumidifiers where they drill holes in the tiles & put in air pipes ? which will dry it out.

My strong advice from the leak man is the tiles must come up but the insurers insist they don't. What can I do ? My instinct is to go with the leak man, plus I want to get this job done all together. It is a very large kitchen area & not a small job.

The hall is also large & the flooring backs into a study area so all that will be getting redone/decorated. I'm concerned about the tiled flooring. I want the job done properly, which to me means taking up the tiles & getting it redone.

Can I insist on this or do I have to go with what the insurers say, which is a complete contradiction to what the leak man advices. The insurers are coming back in the morning to speak about getting these humidifiers up & I'm confused as to what I can insist on. Sorry, long post but want to try & give as much detail. I really hope someone can give advice. Many thanks.

FlameCloud

What insurance qualifications does your leak detection contractor have?

Directed vented- which is what the insurers are suggesting, is a proven way f drying concrete slabs.

Sharon700

Thank you for your reply. This leak/water detector has many years experience of dealing with these cases - that's all I know.

If this way of drying concrete floors works (I'm not saying it doesn't, I don't know) why does anyone have to get their floors taken up ? I think I'll have a quick search on this system, thank you.

Sharon700

Haven't been able to find out anything on this drying out system but interestingly I found an awful lot of absolutely terrible reviews on my insurance company More Than. Like the other customers have said their service is terrible. The assessor who came out was very aggressive in her manner & kept saying " how strange, it's really strange " I lost count the number of times she said it as it felt like she meant suspicious instead of strange. First time in my life I have ever had to make a claim & I am far from happy with them & nor do I trust them, even less now that I have read all the reviews.

Sharon700

Hi

Just wanted to add an update in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar water leak position. The new assessor plus a rep from the drying out company called. They were both extremely helpful & very quickly came to the decision that the tiles do need to come up. When the walls are so clearly wet drying machines can not do a proper job without the floor being lifted. This was always my gut feeling & I feel a lot better knowing the job will now be getting repaired properly.