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Rebuilding brick wall and pergola

Dilly
Posts: 122 Forumite


Hi
I have been offered £1500 by my insurance company to rebuild a brick wall Last Feb the wall was blown over in Hurricane Clara. Because of the pergola attached to the wall, it did not fall down. My builder made it safe and the insurance company surveyor came. The wall is approx 20 feet long by 9 ft high. The pergola has 5 beams for the 'roof' and 5 uprights. The base is paved. The wall is single brick with 2 pillars, one each end
The surveyor thinks it needs 8 hours of work to remove the wall, move the rubble to a skip at the front of my property. Approx 200ft. Bring the new bricks to the site and build the wall. The £1500 is for materials and labour. This is ridiculous, far more time is needed.
I took the case to the Insurance Ombudsman who has ruled that the Insurance Company did nothing wrong as it has made me an offer and has also offered to have the wall rebuilt. At no time did the Insurance Company tell us that if more time was needed by the contractor they supplied the job would be completed. In fact they did not make any concession for the pergola, as they say only the wall was damaged. They also said that if there was any damage by the builder we would have to take that up with the builder
So it seems that the Insurance Co can give any offer it feels like and the Ombudsman will accept it has complied with the policy cover. In effect it could have been offered £100 and that would have been acceptable. Again this is beyond belief
I intend to appeal this decision, but I would like to know if anyone thinks this is a reasonable sum to offer and any other lines of pursuit I could take with the Ombudesman
Not 100% sure this is the correct place to post, so will also post under Is this a fair quote
Thanks for any help
I have been offered £1500 by my insurance company to rebuild a brick wall Last Feb the wall was blown over in Hurricane Clara. Because of the pergola attached to the wall, it did not fall down. My builder made it safe and the insurance company surveyor came. The wall is approx 20 feet long by 9 ft high. The pergola has 5 beams for the 'roof' and 5 uprights. The base is paved. The wall is single brick with 2 pillars, one each end
The surveyor thinks it needs 8 hours of work to remove the wall, move the rubble to a skip at the front of my property. Approx 200ft. Bring the new bricks to the site and build the wall. The £1500 is for materials and labour. This is ridiculous, far more time is needed.
I took the case to the Insurance Ombudsman who has ruled that the Insurance Company did nothing wrong as it has made me an offer and has also offered to have the wall rebuilt. At no time did the Insurance Company tell us that if more time was needed by the contractor they supplied the job would be completed. In fact they did not make any concession for the pergola, as they say only the wall was damaged. They also said that if there was any damage by the builder we would have to take that up with the builder
So it seems that the Insurance Co can give any offer it feels like and the Ombudsman will accept it has complied with the policy cover. In effect it could have been offered £100 and that would have been acceptable. Again this is beyond belief
I intend to appeal this decision, but I would like to know if anyone thinks this is a reasonable sum to offer and any other lines of pursuit I could take with the Ombudesman
Not 100% sure this is the correct place to post, so will also post under Is this a fair quote
Thanks for any help
0
Comments
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What quotes have to gotten for having the work done?0
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Just one from my own builder. Which is of course a lot more than what I am being offered. He has said £5,0000
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Then get another two0
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Are the insurance company giving you the choice that their contractor will rebuild it or you can have £1500 and supply your own builder?0
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Yes that's correct. The problem is that the £1500 is way below the proper cost of the job. It seems that as long as they offer any sum that's ok according to the Ombudsman. We don't want the one to to provide the repair as they won't tell us who they will be sending, so we can't check them out and if the builder is only going to be paid this nominal sum, I dread to think what kind of job they will do.
Also the list of works in the report does not cost in half the job
We think the insurance co just don't want to pay out0 -
The builder would be paid what they charge... you’d expect it to be about £1500 + vat + your excess remembering they get reasonable discounts for the volume of work the give the company but still plenty of builders are cheaper than insurers preferred choices.
as said, you need two other quotes as your builders could be ripping you off0
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