Insurance Claim Hell

NAKK

I would like to gauge my options for resolving this unfortunate situation I am in with my insurance provider. Conscious this is a long post but the context is important to get to the current situation.

Around Christmas time in 2022, the water pipe in my kitchen ceiling burst leading to an escape of water which led to most of the ground floor of my house flooded not to mention the various other damage inside, and outside the walls, ceilings, etc. In total, 4 rooms were affected, some more than others.

Upon getting in touch with my insurance, I requested to be put in alternative accommodation as there were live wires dangling in the kitchen and we have kids as little as 3 in the house. They refused to put us in alternative accommodation citing the reason that we have an additional kitchen (which we do) so the house is habitable.

They sent a surveyor who confirmed the claim as well as confirmed that everything in the kitchen (the source of water escape) was damaged including integrated appliances. The insurer delegated my claim to subcontractor VBA (made up name to keep anonymity) who then delegated drying and strip-out work to subcontractor XYZ (made up name to keep anonymity). I have had nothing but stress, frustration, and disappointment with VBA and their nominated subcontractors XYZ.

It took them 2 months to get the strip-out works started so early March. They miscalculated the days, and the scope of work required so the strip-out work which was 7 days in total took them 6 weeks to complete. You can imagine I had to constantly chase both VBA and XYZ. The case manager at VBA used to speak to me in a condescending manner providing no meaningful update every time I queried so I refused to speak to him so his manager took on the case as the Case Manager.

I was getting nowhere with both of these companies so I launched 3 complaints (2 with my insurer and 1 with VBA) to get any traction with my claim. After an investigation spanning several weeks, the complaints were upheld in my favour along with financial compensation of £300. This intervention by the insurer did improve the VBA's communication slightly but things got back to how they were.

I now find myself in another challenging situation with VBA and XYZ.

VBA depends on XYZ to provide them with strip-out and drying info to progress the claim. Post the strip-out and drying work completion towards end of April, XYZ sent VBA energy cost calculation, the number of drying machines used. They were all falsified so I challenged them successfully by providing photo evidence. They retracted (no apology or admission of error) and amended the info. Now for the building work, VBA commissioned another subcontractor KLM (after I stated that I don't want XYZ to carry out the build work). KLM surveyor's scope does not include the 3 integrated appliances. When I challenged VBA on this, they claimed that XYZ advised that the 3 appliances were simply disconnected and left in the property to be assessed for damaged - another false statement. In reality, XYZ took 2 of the appliances to dispose them off; for the third one, when they disconnected it, they said to leave it outside the property and they will dispose them off. We left it, and someone took it (may be them, may be others, we don't know). I asked VBA what evidence XYZ has provided which states the appliances were functional and they did not dispose these off. They sent me 4 photos - 2 of which are from the electrician when he came to disconnect the 3rd appliance (after weeks of chasing them to do it) and the remaining 2 photos are the same photos I sent them as evidence of challenging their false energy calculation and drying equipment. The evidence I cited was that during the weeks of chasing them up via call and written, on VBA's online claims portal, I would make a note of any progress by the contractors in my property. These notes cite multiple times the 3 damaged appliances and me chasing them up to dispose these off as they pose a risk hazard. Both VBA and XYZ never once hinted or advised that they will assess these appliances for damage. They didn't even address my evidence and rejected the integrated appliance inclusion in the build work.

The past few months, since December, have been extremely challenging for my family especially given the fact my wife was pregnant and my children suffer with asthma. The dust, constant back forth with the sub-contractors, the waste, all made our lives miserable. We haven’t had any social event or even family visit due to no space to sit. We even had a baby birth in the broken house where we could not truly celebrate the birth due to the halted work.
I have highlighted to my insurer, on several occasions, the inefficiencies, lack of accountability, ineptness within VBA and XYZ. My question is what can I do now to take this forward? Is it small claims court or rejecting the existing complaints and escalating those complaints to the ombudsman? If I were to take anyone to Small Claims court would that be my insurer or VBA or XYZ?

I would appreciate help from this community.

TL:DR - Escape of water claim launched with insurer at beginning of Jan, 2023. Insurer allocated subcontractor VBA who delegated it to aother subcontractor XYZ. XYZ falsified information which I successfully challenged. They have now falsified information pertaining to 3 integrated appliances claiming they never disposed these off and are still in the property. In reality, they disposed these off. The 3 appliances are not included in the build work. I already successfully lodged 3 complaints against VBA which were ruled in my favour. Shall I take them to small claims court or reopen the existing complaint to escalate it to Ombudsman?

DullGreyGuy

The lowest risk approach is to use the ombudsman assuming you've had final responses to your complaints (or 8 weeks have passed since the complaint was logged)

huckster

I think you need to speak to the Insurance company managers, advising them it is getting to the stage where you will have to take them to Court. Ask them to involve their head of claims and to seek urgent actions to move the claim forward.

If you can get senior people in the Insurance company involved, they should be able to speed matter up and resolve issues.

Not saying Court is best option, but companies don't like have Court claims issued against them, as they will incur additional costs, more than they are charged by the FOS.