Buildings insurance claim difficulty

mike5190

I am insured with Rias and have had a water leak from the bathroom which has damaged the ceiling below as well as the bathroom flooring going underneath the bath. I've spoken to them and asked for them to send someone to repair my house out but they've refused and said they're procedure is to offer a settlement over the phone and they don't send people out any more. Thye also said they don't cover the water leak repair(it was a pipe under the bath)

I thought they were there to help me? they've told me they can pay me about £1,500 but thye haven't even seen the damage and I don't want to get ripped off by a builder i don't know. Is this normal? They said they could make a complaint but it can take up to 8 weeks to reply and it wont change things and in the meantime my bathroom and dining room look awful.

buglawton

It’s all normal. I once had a water leak damage claim where a slow loft pipe leak had totally soaked the ceiling till it sagged, which was the first I knew of it.

The insurance company admitted they couldn’t source a tradesman so they accepted the only quote I could get within a week, £900 (about 10 years ago).

What you should have done is got a quote and presented that to your insurance company. It may/may not be higher than £1500.

huckster

The plumbing issue is general household maintenance, not an insured peril, so the fix is at your expense.

The damage caused by escape of water is covered by insurance and you need to get written estimates ( normally at least 2). You supply these to the Insurers and they will pay the lowest estimate. It is up to you to arrange for the contractor to do the repairs and the Insurers will arrange to pay the amount on completion of the work.

mike5190

Thank you for your help. I spoke to the insurer again and they said they don't take quotes any more, they have a computer that tells them how much it costs and it's up to me to find someone to do it for that amount and I need to keep looking until I do. I have had a friend who is a builder who said he would charge about 2k for the work and would be surprised if I can get it for that low. He is out of the country next week though so can't help

They also said that they'll only pay to replace one wall of wallpaper - wher it ran down from the ciling. I don't know where the wallpaper was from so I will have to pay for the other 3 walls myself. To be honest i thought inurance was meant to make things easier when things like this happen but it seems like they want to make it as difficult as possible.

paddyandstumpy

mike5190 wrote: »

Thank you for your help. I spoke to the insurer again and they said they don't take quotes any more, they have a computer that tells them how much it costs and it's up to me to find someone to do it for that amount and I need to keep looking until I do. I have had a friend who is a builder who said he would charge about 2k for the work and would be surprised if I can get it for that low. He is out of the country next week though so can't help

The highlighted bit is ridiculous IMO. Having worked for a HH insurer for nearly a decade I can agree that most have a pricing matrix they would price the job at, based on the damage you describe verbally (if they don't send a loss adjuster out). They do this to ensure that quotes you provide them are in line with expectations and not overly inflated. However, it's unduly onerous on you for them to only offer so much and for you to then to "keep looking until you find someone at that price".

They also said that they'll only pay to replace one wall of wallpaper - wher it ran down from the ciling. I don't know where the wallpaper was from so I will have to pay for the other 3 walls myself. To be honest i thought inurance was meant to make things easier when things like this happen but it seems like they want to make it as difficult as possible.

This is more standard I'm afraid. If you don't have matching sets cover they will only pay to replace damaged items, not undamaged items. However, they should then contribute 50% towards replacing undamaged items in a set.

I'd approach this two ways if I was you:

1) Read your policy book. There will be a section in there "how we settle Buildings claims". Make sure they are following their own procedures. If they say they will arrange tradesmen, then push for this. It would be helpful if you could copy/paste the relevant section and I can offer my comments on it if you'd like.

2) Source 3 quotes for reinstatement, and send them into the Insurer. They should then pay the cheapest quote (less your excess). If they don't, (and I'm not generally a fan of this advice but I think you have a valid complaint"), then raise a complaint. If they don't concede or don't respond in the 8 week time-frame, you can escalate to the FOS at no cost to you. I think you'd have a decent case to take to the FOS, and I think they would find in your favour that the insurer are not playing fair in this case.

HTH.