House Fire - Insurance Claim & Loss Adjuster Advice

Marianne_B

Hello,


We had a fire in the house, caused by our dishwasher which set alight on 23 Dec. Thankfully both my husband and I, and our 11 week old daughter got out safely, but we're now starting the process of claiming on our home insurance as the house is uninhabitable with extensive smoke damage.


We have a visit from the loss adjuster tomorrow and have heard they can be difficult to deal with - as their aim is to minimise the cost to the insurer.


Does anyone have an advice to offer? Including:
- how we can argue for items to be replaced rather than cleaned - many were newly bought as we were nesting in advance of the arrival of our first baby daughter, and I'm concerned cleaning will not remove all the soot particularly in the nursery, for example her carpet or rug
- how to come to a valuation for items where there is not an exact match? Eg sofas - different valuation depending on from DFS or John Lewis
- any advice on managing the overall process, given some of the above challenges, and the number of people who will be involved... we are already dealing with many third parties, beyond our insurance provider; the loss adjuster, the house cleaner and another company who arrange accommodation for us (so far a hotel room is all that has been offered, not ideal when little one is waking regularly in the night with a cold and keeping both of us awake), and this is before we get trades people in such as painters, carpet layers, electricians etc,
- who we can escalate to if we're not happy?


Any advice on the above points or other experience you may have would be really appreciated.


Thank you - and happy new year!


Marianne

phill99

I deal with insurers and loss adjusters in my work (property maintenance). In my experience, loss adjustors are normally very fair. It is the insurers own in-house loss assessor that normally tries to reduce costs to the insurer. The loss adjustor is there to effectively act as a middle man and to ensure the terms of the policy are dealt with fairly.


Firstly, I would say if you are already talking about escalation, you and the LA are not going to get off to a good start. Do not try and pull the wool over their eyes. It will come back and bite you where it hurts. Nor start claiming for things that weren't there - this will result in your policy being null and void and you will get nothing. Also don't inflate the claim by saying that the sofa cost £10000 when it actually only cost £1500. Again, this is seen as fraud and result in zero payout.


The LA is guided by the wording of your policy. Don't kick off demanding x,y and z when the policy says otherwise.


In terms of accommodation - you are accommodated. Bare in mind this happened at the worst time of the year. Discuss this with the LA who may put you into a serviced apartment given your situation. However, a hotel room is normally all they offer, so don't kick the ar%e out of it. If the works to your property are likely to take a prolonged period, they will probably put you into rented property - its more cost effective for them and better for you.


In terms of cleaning - they use specialist cleaning companies who do this day in, day out. They will get rid of the smells and soot deposits even in places you didn't think was possible. You can't demand replacement just because you don't appreciate the cleaning process.


In terms of lost items, you need to get receipts, bank statements etc showing costs of items. Also get comparisons from websites. The replacement is normally on a new for old like for like basis. If you have ikea furniture, that's what the replacement will be based on, not stuff you would like from Harrods. Remember also all of the stuff you don't think about - CDs, lamp shades, socks, etc etc. It all adds up.


Check your policy to see if you have the right to appoint your own loss adjustor. Many policies allow you to do this and then to have the costs paid for by the insurers.


Good luck with it and I hope it gets sorted soon.

paddy's_mum

Good advice already.

We too lost almost everything in a house fire in 2004 and our insurers, HSBC, played entirely fair with us.

We did employ our own loss adjustor simply because we didn't want to shoot ourselves in the foot, as it were, through ignorance of how that particular system worked. His fees worked out at about £700 but he saved us far more than that with his advice and recommendations.

It's also quite comforting to have someone who you know is on your side when your whole world seems to have gone belly up.

It might sound like a daft thing to say but the one positive experience that came out of our disaster is that we have never since taken our safety lightly (some would say we're a bit on the neurotic side about it!) and I think that can only be a good thing.

Good luck.

Davesnave

There's excellent advice above which I can't improve on.

Our disaster happened a long time ago in similar circumstances, but what shocked us most was how much responsibility fell on us for arranging the re-build.

Hopefully, procedures have improved, but you'll still have to make a lot of decisions in a short space of time, or else hand them over to someone else.

We remained 'hands on' throughout. It drove us mad at times, but we were terrified we'd not like the house once it was habitable again.

The good news is that none of our fears was realised. Everyone (other than British Gas!) was fair and we learned a hell of a lot.

Unhelpful people asked how we could return with the memories so fresh in our minds, but it wasn't a problem, especially with the great neighbours we had. We lived there for another 8 years and still look back on those times with fondness.

You'll be fine.

nimbo

my mum and stepfather had a garage fire - his brand new car and golf clubs and his spare set of clubs were in it....

when they mentioned a loss adjuster my mum got really anxious and upset... They'd written a list of things in the garage... The guy sifted though the rubble and ended up with a much longer list... My step dad had made a list of the tools he frequently used - the loss adjuster found the remnants of things he rarely used and had a huge list of 'bits' such as screws and bolts and tins of paint etc...

They had to struggle to get a cheque for some of the things that they'd needed to replace such as the drill (my step dad can't not do something with a power tool for over a week)... but other than that they were really helpful.

Their main issue was with the car insurance gap insurance provider...

It won't be quick - but they will be through. The things that they listed as having found the remains of was astounding - my mother never would have remembered or thought of half of it... (to be fair the masses of half finished spray paints and solvents probably encouraged the fire to spread - many of which were 'inheritied' from the previous owner)...