URGENT...I need some help with regards to monies and a claim monies

lisaburton

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: this is a long story so get ready...

Our house burnt down in march and we lost everything.

In terms of contents we got done over my our insurance company so employed an independant loss adjustor.

He told us we could claim for out cats accomodation as they had been staying at my neighbours.

I had been paying my neighbour an amopunt regulary up until then for looking after them.

Our loss adjuster research catteries and came up with a figure of £80 week.

we received money backdated since the fire.

My neighbour recieved cheques there on after for £80 a week.

I kept the money that i got as i looked as it as being mine and throughout the period before the fire i had been paying her direct an amount each week.

My neighbour has now contacted the insurance company to say we havent given her the money we got for the cats.

The insurance company want me to give it to her or back to them.

The only reason i go the money in the first place was because i employed an independant loss adjuster which cost me £1000.

I am really confused and need some help

My neighbour wont speak to me as she said the money is hers as she looked after the cats although i have already paid her out of my own money previously.

I have no proof i have paid her as prior to this we where friends and i paid cash on a weekly basis and didnt know i could claim it back so didnt bother with receipts etc.

What do i do? can the insurance company ask for the money back when they already agreed that amount and sent us the payment a couple of months ago? what do i do about my neighbour

can someone please help as the insurance have told me i have to sort it out tomorrow and i no-longer have the money!!

thanks

mattymoo

So it looks like the neighbour has got greedy and now she realises what the going rate for a cattery is, she is claiming this - backdated to the time of the fire. Last thing you need after the major upheaval of the fire.

I think you need to speak to the assessor you employed and be guided by them. This is partly because you need to know how he went about getting the £80 a week figure agreed.

If he said "lisaburton is paying a cattery £80 a week, please settle at this figure" then really he is defrauding the insurance company.

If he said "lisaburton is paying a neighbour on an informal basis but the going rate at a cattery is £80 and this is what you should settle at" then it is all above board.

If it is the latter, then as I see it the dispute is between you and the neighbour and none of the insurance companies business. Explain to the insurance company that the neighbour is simply getting greedy and that it will be for you (lisa) to sort out and no business of theirs.

As for the neighbour - first of all, do they still have the cats. Would hate to see them being used as leverage by the neighbour. I would suggest that you get the cats back and tell her she has now lost out on £80 a week through her own stupidity.

Then, either employ a proper cattery at hopefully £80 a week or ask true friends / relatives to help out if you are not yet in a position to take the cats back.

Good luck and keep us updated.

lisaburton

I have spoken to him and he has said it was the latter.

The insurance company have said that i have to give her the money or give it back to them??

My neighbour still has the cats. we could put the cats into a cattery as 2 of them where pregnant and later had 8 kittens. Until this we where really good friends with our neighbours and gave them 2 kittens and told them they could keep all monies for the others as a thank you gesture. this was before we found out we could claim for them.

My husband is at my neighbours at the moment trying to find out why they are being like this with us.

We are due to move home on friday and the insurance company have paid them all monies now up until then so seems a bit pointless. I dont think my neighbour will be able to use the cats as a leverage as we live nexst to each other and once we move home surely our cats will make their own way back as they already spend most of their time in our garden.

I just cant afford to pay anyone the money back as we lost everyhthing and ended up losing 25% off our contents after it was adjusted.

thanks for your help

mattymoo

lisaburton wrote: »

I just cant afford to pay anyone the money back as we lost everyhthing and ended up losing 25% off our contents after it was adjusted.

Presumably as a result of underinsurance. Did your independent loss assessor not make any headway on this at all? I hope the cat money was not all he achieved for the £1000 fee.

lisaburton

well yes basically and our content insurace he also managed to get increase by £2000 which covers his costs.

He was crap and i wish i didnt get him.

lisaburton

we were insured for 40,000 contents but only ended up with 30,000 our contents list totalled 44,000 we were penalised for being under insured.

mattymoo

That sounds very wrong.

Quick sums show you were insured for 90.9% of the true value. Most insurers only start to apply what is known as the "Average condition" when you dip below 85% of the true value but it does vary from one firm to another.

Under the Average Condition, the claim payout should be 90.9% of the amount claimed. So assuming you lost everything that you were insured for (£40k) then the payout should be £36,360.

This is basic insurance practice and the assessor should have been arguing for £36,360 or, insisting they do not apply the average condition and simply pay out £40k.

It is also worth noting that the £44k value is to some extent subjective. Loss adjusters employed by insurers use the Argos catalogue almost as a valuation bible. It is worth asking for how they have arrived at £44k and a full breakdown to see if you agree with the figures.

As an example, I have quite a big dvd collection - around 300 disks. If a loss adjuster applied an arbitary £15 per item (high street price) then this would total £4,500. I nearly always buy from Play or Amazon when the price is nearer £8 so this makes my value £2,400 (not far off 50% of their value).
Now, the insurers use the likes of Play and Amazon to replace the discs using their supply agreements and get a price of £8 or less even.

So cost to me, £2400, cost to replace by insurer £2400 but arbitary value placed ont them by adjuster is nearly double and will affect overall total and possibly trigger the Average condition.

Many insurers are now moving over to unlimited contents cover (or very high sums insured such as £250k) given as standard to avoid the need for the average condition because it causes so much agro.

lisaburton

got another email form halifax today.

Despite confiming to them the situation was sorted with my neighbour they went on to email my neighbour and ask if I had paid her the money i recieved. My neighbour was honest and said that she hadnt and now halifax are saying i need to give her the money and give them confirmation when I have.

The money halifax gave me was for the period of time I had been paying her directly. I have told halifax this and they are still saying I have to give my neighbour the money.

Please help me.

knowledgeman

lisaburton wrote: »

got another email form halifax today.

Despite confiming to them the situation was sorted with my neighbour they went on to email my neighbour and ask if I had paid her the money i recieved. My neighbour was honest and said that she hadnt and now halifax are saying i need to give her the money and give them confirmation when I have.

The money halifax gave me was for the period of time I had been paying her directly. I have told halifax this and they are still saying I have to give my neighbour the money.

Please help me.

So you were paying the neighbour £80 a week out of your pocket?

I bet you werent and are at it, you need to pay to your neighbour £80-whatver you were giving them, which ill bet is a lot lower

Im sure at that point your neighbour will admit to having received their full entitlement but at this stage your basically asking your neighbour to commit fraud

Im sure the insurance company themself will back off once they see you've paid the extra to the neighbour but I think they know like I do that you've pocketed a large sum here


As for being "done" whilst I appreciate its a difficult time its your own fault you were underinsured and no one elses

lisaburton

It was my independant loss adjuster that came up with the figure by researching independant catteries in the area this figure was agrred by the insurance company and the assessor that agreed was aware at the time that I had a private arangement and had been paying her weekly. they then sent me the money for the time between the fire and the time they agreed to the payment.
Then after they paid my neighbour directly £80 a week.

Its the money that they paid me directly that is being queried.

Im not asking anyone to lie its just as far as I am aware the money was mine. It was what my independat loss adjuster agreed with my insurance company for the period that I had a private aragement with my neighbour.

i just need advice on what to do next as I dont have the money to pay back and still beleive that the money was mine.

knowledgeman

lisaburton wrote: »

It was my independant loss adjuster that came up with the figure by researching independant catteries in the area this figure was agrred by the insurance company and the assessor that agreed was aware at the time that I had a private arangement and had been paying her weekly. they then sent me the money for the time between the fire and the time they agreed to the payment.
Then after they paid my neighbour directly £80 a week.

Its the money that they paid me directly that is being queried.

Im not asking anyone to lie its just as far as I am aware the money was mine. It was what my independat loss adjuster agreed with my insurance company for the period that I had a private aragement with my neighbour.

i just need advice on what to do next as I dont have the money to pay back and still beleive that the money was mine.

Did you deliberatly avoid the question or did you just not read

Prior to the insurance company taking over how much per week did you pay your neighbour to care for your cats?