House fire - loss assessor or not?

Dizziej7003

Our house has been destroyed by fire. The insurance company's loss adjustor has been for a visit. I found out about loss assessors when one turned up at our door to sell their services after the fire (not using them). 

I feel so lost already and now I just want to know if I should or should not use a loss assessor to act on our behalf - for me the benefit would be to make the process smoother and take away the stress, as I have two young kids to deal with over the summer holidays too. 

Any recent advice on loss assessors would be great. There are two who work in this area that I have met with. I have read reviews, I have read previous threads but one comment contradicts the next and I'm no further forward. 

HELP PLEASE :-(

Brie

No specific experience with this but I suspect that anyone you "hire" will need to be paid by you.  Maybe they do all the paperwork, take the phone calls, get the insurance company sorting everything etc.  But how much are you willing to lose for that.  If it's a couple of thousand on a house worth £500k well alright.  But if it's 30% of the settlement cost then no.  So it's a case of finding out what you are signing up for and very carefully reading through the T&Cs. 

Sorry about the fire, no doubt you've lost lots of irreplaceable stuff.  But it sounds like you and your family are safe and that's the most important thing.   

DullGreyGuy

Brie said:

No specific experience with this but I suspect that anyone you "hire" will need to be paid by you.  Maybe they do all the paperwork, take the phone calls, get the insurance company sorting everything etc.  But how much are you willing to lose for that.  If it's a couple of thousand on a house worth £500k well alright.  But if it's 30% of the settlement cost then no.  So it's a case of finding out what you are signing up for and very carefully reading through the T&Cs. 

Sorry about the fire, no doubt you've lost lots of irreplaceable stuff.  But it sounds like you and your family are safe and that's the most important thing.   

The other normal points are...
1) They are professional negotiators, they'll get a better outcome for you
2) They have their own trades people selected on quality rather than price unlike the insurers 
3) They'll think of things to claim for/ask about that you wont think of

In reality its impossible to run the same claim through with and without an assessor to know the real difference between using one and going it alone. Personally, I'd hire one assuming you'll be losing whatever fees they charge and they will destress the process... if they happen to increase payouts then thats a bonus but dont depend on it.

Dizziej7003

DullGreyGuy said:

Brie said:

No specific experience with this but I suspect that anyone you "hire" will need to be paid by you.  Maybe they do all the paperwork, take the phone calls, get the insurance company sorting everything etc.  But how much are you willing to lose for that.  If it's a couple of thousand on a house worth £500k well alright.  But if it's 30% of the settlement cost then no.  So it's a case of finding out what you are signing up for and very carefully reading through the T&Cs. 

Sorry about the fire, no doubt you've lost lots of irreplaceable stuff.  But it sounds like you and your family are safe and that's the most important thing.   

The other normal points are...
1) They are professional negotiators, they'll get a better outcome for you
2) They have their own trades people selected on quality rather than price unlike the insurers 
3) They'll think of things to claim for/ask about that you wont think of

In reality its impossible to run the same claim through with and without an assessor to know the real difference between using one and going it alone. Personally, I'd hire one assuming you'll be losing whatever fees they charge and they will destress the process... if they happen to increase payouts then thats a bonus but dont depend on it.

I have seen your comments previously and you seem very helpful and knowledgeable. Do you work in the business? 

Do you know of any firms ok to use or definitely not to use? I am stressing myself out so much looking at reviews and there may be 50 good ones, but the 2 terrible ones are what I'm focussing on. 

It's not a bigger payout I'm after, just someone to help me as my partner is no use at anything like this and my parents are both gone. I'm not a great judge of character - I'm easily duped in terms of the front-facing person they send to you who always seems fab. 

DullGreyGuy

Dizziej7003 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Brie said:

No specific experience with this but I suspect that anyone you "hire" will need to be paid by you.  Maybe they do all the paperwork, take the phone calls, get the insurance company sorting everything etc.  But how much are you willing to lose for that.  If it's a couple of thousand on a house worth £500k well alright.  But if it's 30% of the settlement cost then no.  So it's a case of finding out what you are signing up for and very carefully reading through the T&Cs. 

Sorry about the fire, no doubt you've lost lots of irreplaceable stuff.  But it sounds like you and your family are safe and that's the most important thing.   

The other normal points are...
1) They are professional negotiators, they'll get a better outcome for you
2) They have their own trades people selected on quality rather than price unlike the insurers 
3) They'll think of things to claim for/ask about that you wont think of

In reality its impossible to run the same claim through with and without an assessor to know the real difference between using one and going it alone. Personally, I'd hire one assuming you'll be losing whatever fees they charge and they will destress the process... if they happen to increase payouts then thats a bonus but dont depend on it.

I have seen your comments previously and you seem very helpful and knowledgeable. Do you work in the business? 

Do you know of any firms ok to use or definitely not to use? I am stressing myself out so much looking at reviews and there may be 50 good ones, but the 2 terrible ones are what I'm focussing on. 

It's not a bigger payout I'm after, just someone to help me as my partner is no use at anything like this and my parents are both gone. I'm not a great judge of character - I'm easily duped in terms of the front-facing person they send to you who always seems fab. 

I've worked for insurance companies for 20 years, I used to work in claims for Motor but then moved into product development, then strategy and change. I tend to mainly deal with corporate type insurances these days or back office stuff but occasionally pick up work on consumer insurance which can be anything from home, motor and travel to annuities, kidnap & ransom and some other left field things.

I can't recommend individual firms, firstly because I have had some in my client list and so would have a conflict of interests and secondly because mainly dealing with Motor from a claims perspective I've just not had enough exposure to all the firms. Like most things though, 80% at least comes down to who the person working your case is and not really which company he comes from. I've known the same firm to have amazing people and some shockingly bad people (not just in loss adjusting/assessing)

Loss assessing is a regulated activity by the FCA, as such there really should be a minimum standard. They also have their own Chartered Institute and so if you wanted you could make sure the person you work with is an Associate or a Fellow (the second being the higher) which again shows that on paper they know their stuff. (https://www.cila.co.uk/cila/advice-for-policyholders) 

In practice though, especially with your comment about partnering with them, it can come down a lot with just how you gel with someone. A person could have a PhD in loss adjusting, be the technical lead for the CILA internationally but if you find them to be a pompous snob and you hate every second of speaking to them, it aint going to work for you.

TELLIT01

Why don't you wait to see what figures the insurer comes up with first.  If you believe those figures to be fair you have no need to incur the cost of your own assessor.  If you don't agree that is the point at which you consider getting an independent assessor.

Our experience isn't recent, but when we were burgled many years ago I listed everything I could think of and included approximate prices where possible.  The assessor visited and said he thought we had underestimated some costs and increase our claim value.  I don't know if that is common or not, but does suggest that at least some assessors employed by the insurer don't just act in the best interests of the insurer.

DullGreyGuy

TELLIT01 said:
I don't know if that is common or not, but does suggest that at least some assessors employed by the insurer don't just act in the best interests of the insurer.

Most are outsourced and they are fairly conflicted... they get audited occasionally to make sure they aren't paying out when they shouldn't but the more they pay out the more they get paid.

On a review with one particular TPA in the last 3 years they had settled hundreds of claims at £4,999, £9,999, £19,999 and in each case had they settled for £1 more (or in some cases, 1p more) they'd have earned an average of £150 more

On a personal level, when we had a small home fire they too pointed out that we should have been claiming for cleaning etc so increased the value of the claim. On a theft claim it was much more swings and roundabouts with them increasing the value of several items but the pointing out that on jewellery we were massively underinsured and so 1) applying averaging and 2) discounting for wanting cash settlement rather than vouchers.