Asprea + Norwich Union Buildings Insurance

Jesstiggs

Insco wrote: »

Jesstigs - have you seen this other thread?????

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=15459199&posted=1#post15459199

Thanks for that, I really hope NU sit up and take notice of all the comlaints against Asprea, not to mention their contractors!.

One of the members talks about being a claims handler at Asprea, I never actually got to talk to ANYONE from there unless they were told to call me, then spun me a load of cr*p and continued on their merry way doing nothing.

The person handling the claim at Mono (Asprea`s contractor) didn`t take incoming calls!!!, how idiotic is that?!!, so i had to talk to one of their "advisors" about my claim and then nothing again:mad:

I was told by the Loss Adjuster the day he visited after the fire "Don`t worry, everything will be taken care of with no problem`s for you at all", yea right:mad:

deputy1234567

Unfortunately your story is not uncommon, as explained in previous links there is nothing in place to chase up claims once the work order has been issued to the Contractor, other than the PCA diarising the claim to call the Contractor to ensure they have been in touch with the Customer, this in theory sounds simple enough but on top of that constant pressure from Management to keep call production to a minimum to allow calls to come in to keep our stats above the 95% mark. Also the Contractors can, to be honest tell us anything 'ye we called the Customer, ye we will call the Customer now' they basically want their contracts back end of story.
Please see the other links i have put on this to give you a better in-site into the workings of this Company and the constant fight the PCA has to keep in contact with the Customer. Each PCA is issued with a postal code that they are responsible for to ensure their claims are kept on top of and that every Customer is contacted, although this is attempted by the PCA our hands are tied on doing the best we can, resulting in the poor service received. There are as in any place of work staff that go that bit extra and others that don't, deadwood if you like, whether these members of staff are shown the door is doubtful as no one knows what will happen come March when the NU contract comes under review also most of the deadwood are family members placed in positions they are ill equipped to do.

Survey1

Hi
I started reading through these posts relating to Insurance Surveys and was confused at to what the company are doing.
I am a Surveyor and would like to pass on some help to the people who have issues with the Surveying practice of this company

There are 2 types of Surveyors. Those that are qualified and those that wish to be surveyors. There is an easy way to tell them appart.
The 2 Authorities that recorgnise Surveyors in this situation (House Surveys) are the:
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors RICS
and the
Chartered Institute of Builders. CIOB

Both have a very stringent qualification process and give their members a little card, like a credit card, showing that they are members of the organisation. If someone turns up at a house and is not willing to present this card then the liklyhood is that they are not surveyors at al.

If an Electrician or Gas fitter turned up to do some work and they were not qualified would you let them work in your property???

As there seems to be a level of confusion as to the types of people taking these surveys and then passing the work onto building companys . It seems prudent to ensure that the person taking the survey, know what the are doing.

Dont let people deal with financial matters unless you are sure that they are competant to do so.

Hope this helps

Survey1/Cambs

[EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com?subject=Reporting post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=15754243"][/EMAIL]

mattymoo

Survey1 - there are other types of surveyor but not necessarily involved in claims.

I am a risk surveyor for a commercial insurer but have done household work for high net worth customers in the past. Risk surveyors go out to visit clients at policy inception or renewal and discuss matters like security, housekeeping, H&S and disaster recovery planning. Not all of these apply to domestic work but I'd hate to be turned away by a client who has read your post.

Survey1

Hi

I do understand the issues of RISK Surveyors. But can you get Professional Indemnity Insurance to specify works carried out by a Surveyor?
The People that cary out the Surveys for this company appear on the surface to be somwhat directed to produce specifications and schemes for repair with no recourse to profession responsability. If I was to specify works in the fashion that has been described earlier. I suspect I would have my Chartered Status removed. Therefore the only restriction on these Surveyors who may or may not be Chartered is the direction imposed by their companys. The term Surveyor is used to describe a multitude of acctivitie positions. But in the context I am writing about , I refer to House Surveys within the Insurance market.

S1

jon_stubber

Survey1 wrote: »

Hi
I started reading through these posts relating to Insurance Surveys and was confused at to what the company are doing.
I am a Surveyor and would like to pass on some help to the people who have issues with the Surveying practice of this company

There are 2 types of Surveyors. Those that are qualified and those that wish to be surveyors. There is an easy way to tell them appart.
The 2 Authorities that recorgnise Surveyors in this situation (House Surveys) are the:
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors RICS
and the
Chartered Institute of Builders. CIOB

Both have a very stringent qualification process and give their members a little card, like a credit card, showing that they are members of the organisation. If someone turns up at a house and is not willing to present this card then the liklyhood is that they are not surveyors at al.

If an Electrician or Gas fitter turned up to do some work and they were not qualified would you let them work in your property???

As there seems to be a level of confusion as to the types of people taking these surveys and then passing the work onto building companys . It seems prudent to ensure that the person taking the survey, know what the are doing.

Dont let people deal with financial matters unless you are sure that they are competant to do so.

Hope this helps

Survey1/Cambs

great info, i have a Surveyor coming next fri, i will check them out.

Insco

Jon

Obtain two estimates from two reputable local contractors for the repairs, so that you are prepared. You could arrange for the contractors to attend at the same time as Asprea.

Asprea have seriously under-scoped and excluded works that were necessary and admissible under the policy on several cases we have seen recently. On the other hand they have also unnecessarily caused another claim to be far in excess of what it should have been by insisting on disposing of all contents in a room claiming that they were all contaminated by asbestos, following water damage to an artex ceiling that contained asbestos. This caused unnecessary stress and aggravation for the claimant.

We have even seen one case recently where the sub contractor appointed by Asprea turned up on site to start the works and then walked off claiming that he could not possibly undertake the works he was supposed to for the sum that Asprea were paying him!

Adelaidebound

Hi All. As i previously stated I am a former Asprea employee at the Peterborough Branch. I was the ONLY RICS qualified surveyor and they had NO CIOB surveyors. A few may have an HNC but most were ex tradesmen wanting to get off the tools with no qualifications whatsoever! If you ask an Asprea surveyor for RICS/CIOB membership you will be out of luck! Absolute shambles of a company. They are paid to reduce costs on claims, which they do by underscoping the job!

Insco

I have heard that companies like Asprea who are tied into contracts with Insurers are also set " repudiation targets" - in that they have targets set for the number of claim repudiations they have to achieve - which is absolute nonsense and hardly reflects treating the customer fairly.

FlameCloud

The thing I hate most about being forced to use companies like Asprea is that it takes control of the claim away from you, and who you then have to defend and constantly apologise for.