House insurance settlement

dizzybuff

I had a flood in my bathroom which damaged my property .

The loss adjuster came out and looked around and gave me a schedule , said the contractors were busy and id be better getting builders quotes so I could get the work done quicker.

I did this provided them 2 3000 quotes and one 4000 quote , they have gone away and said they would pay me 2200 as thats their contractors price .

How the hell can they say that when they havnt been out to the property .

do i have to accept this , I cant afford 800 more for my builder to do the work .

Im so angry . none of this has been explained to me, and why ask me to get quotes when they are not prepared to pay.

[Deleted User]

Why not just get their contractors to do it? Ask them to pay out for any costs incurred while you wait for the work to be done. They are under no obligation to pay rip-off builder prices I'm afraid.

FlameCloud

The issue with insurer based contractor networks is that their prices are biased towards jobs that are more common. This means on minor jobs such as tiling, decorating and plastering the rates that the insurers pay will likely be either without profit for the contractor or they will be losing money.

The contractors then make it back by the allowances for the less common jobs - structural work, glazing, drainage etc being significantly higher than what a normal contractor would charge.

What is wrong however, is when an insurer tries to use their (below market) rates to force the insureds own contractors to either lower their price or the insured having to partially fund them. One insurer we used to work for would require the adjuster to scope the job on their rating system, and then refuse to allow any form of contractor network to be appointed, so it may not even be the adjusters fault.

dizzybuff

The loss adjuster said to me it would be easier and quicker to get my own builders to do it and to do this I had to provide three quotes which I did. The quotes are all very reasonable and very much so in the market prices for today.


I frankly do not have 800 pounds to spend on builders , that's why I have insurance for heavens sake. Ive seen work the builders have done that have provided the quotes , the insurance builders havnt even been to my house to look at the damage.


They have 24 hours to respond.

dizzybuff

Well I have had their final response they have offered me an extra 300 quid as a good will gesture, lots of sorrys. Plus the opportunity to have their contractors do the work or come and do a quote.


I want the quote but scared they will say its less than my very reasonable contractor.


Whats a sheep to do.