Eviction proceedings due to Merlin loss adjusters non payment to contractor

Silk

D_M_E wrote: »

Silk - I think one of the key things here is that the OP states that all correspondence was sent unopened to the loss adjusters who didn't seem all that bothered, and continued to give the OP "we'll deal with it" type response

As I've pointed out above, Merlin were taken off contract in May 2012 and went into administration in Aug and dissolved May 2013 after which they were non existent ....even if you were to send correspondence during/after those dates they would not be able to say "we'll deal with it" and any mail would have been returned.
Besides which it would only explain the builders requests for payments and non of the bankruptcy correspondence over the last 2 years.

ampersand wrote: »

Silk - 'even for a Guardian reader'

Your litle dig is unworthy, says more about you than me.

It was reference to the survey a while back that Guardian readers are supposed to be more imaginative than other newspaper readers, Artists, Musicians, writers etc etc
However if you feel it's a personal dig fair enough

ampersand wrote: »

This is about mastini's dire situation and failure to have any case for redress or stay heard.
Let's just stick to trying to guide and help.

The OP was made bankrupt over 12 months ago, there was probably a stay of execution with the sale of the house for 12 months due to having a spouse living in it.
The help "would have been" for a member of the family to have bought out the OP's share of the equity in the house which may still be possible.

D_M_E

Another possible course of action is to go to your local university and see if they do law degrees or courses.


If they do, then ask if they take on cases as a way of introduction and teaching for their students, and ask if they would consider your case as part of their coursework/studies.


Some of them do and they could well offer you help - you need to speak or write to whoever is running the course.


You mentioned Bournemouth court - there is a university and they do law


https://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-degree/law/151/

rs65

mastini wrote: »

it has also come to light that the 16 thousand that we know owe is down to the excess on the rebuild, due to the fire, no one ever mentioned this in anyform of writing to us , on our policy it states £150 excess

What is meant by the excess on the rebuild?

magpiecottage

rs65 wrote: »

What is meant by the excess on the rebuild?

I would hazard a guess that it is betterment - i.e. getting a better house than before the incident. The insurer would never have been liable for that.

rs65

magpiecottage wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that it is betterment - i.e. getting a better house than before the incident. The insurer would never have been liable for that.

That's what I was thinking, or maybe underinsurance but there was a suggestion earlier that the cover was more than adequate.

If so, this isn't a L&G or Merlin issue - it is due by the OP so must be a legal mix up of some sort.

magpiecottage

rs65 wrote: »

That's what I was thinking, or maybe underinsurance but there was a suggestion earlier that the cover was more than adequate.

If so, this isn't a L&G or Merlin issue - it is due by the OP so must be a legal mix up of some sort.

I think so too.

The OP does not seem to be giving us the full story. So I think we may just be getting a partial version of one side of it.

FlameCloud

I have never been directly involved in Merlin however I have heard the normal industry rumours about their methods of operation.

Merlin chose to get business by charging significantly less fees that the market norm for adjusting, and made up the difference by placing a huge proportion of work through their contractor network.

Its at this stage things get convoluted, because they would retain 10% of any job for 6 months from their own network contractors for snagging works (as well as charging an admin % of the claim). Several builders I know who used to work for their networks then also tell me they would arbitrarily deduct money for works not up to standard despite no complaints from the insured, and spend months arguing to get it paid.

It is possible that Merlin went under in the period between the bulk of the works being paid for and the retainer not being paid to the contractor.

They would also work exclusively on a mandate basis, where the contractor was working for the policy holder, and not the adjusters. A suspect arrangement but there you go.

somalt

It does sound like it may be an under insurance issue and the excess £16k was the amount over the sum insured.

Given the delay in work starting, and what sounds like a serious amount of work needing to be done the building repairs may have been put out to tender. If so, the surveyor may have awarded the tender on the policyholders behalf, but in those circumstances the agreement is between the policyholder and the builder, not the insurer.

I think Merlin had a surveying services wing too, so they might have been involved? I guess they vanished with the administration too, but i'm not sure.

I don't know if that's what happened, but it would explain how judgement could have been made against Mastini.

mastini

Hi big cheese ,BVO forced the bankruptcy, the court is Bournemouth county court, my apologies for the delay we have been pulling our hair out emptying our home,
plus garage ,workshop etc as we have been informed that they will seize all assets along with the house, we also have sold most of our furniture and vechiles , etc out side,

why on earth some of you find this sinario fishy is totally beyound me, we have tried all of the avenues you mentioned, not one has got back to us,

what are you supposed to do, i was wondering we may have a friend whom may be able to raise the cash to pay the dept, originally 16 thousand but now apparantly with costs very nearly 30-40 thousand.

we have been informed that they may not acept an offer to pay as we have left things so long thanks to merlin loss adjusters.

mastini

we also have found a letter whilst boxing everything up from legal and general clearly stating that they appointed merlin as our loss adjusters,