Insurer's contractor damaged my drive - how to approach this?

Stu666

I have a claim open with my home insurer for subsidence which has caused some minor cracking in the brick to one of the corners of my home. As part of the rectification work, the insurer instructed their contractors to undertake some repairs to the drains.  This involved replacing gullies, rebenching a manhole and patching cracks in the sewer pipes.  As our entire drive was tarmac'd around 5 years ago and in perfect condition, it was agreed in advance that no digging would be carried out and the pipes would be relined/patched using a "no-dig" system. This was all covered under our insurance policy and a settlement figure for the subsidence was offered.

To cut a long story short, it turns out the contractors were cowboys who made a dogs dinner of the entire job. Another contractor was sent out by the insurer, who's report found multiple issues and poor workmanship with the previous contractor's work. This was subsequently put right by the new contractor.  However, during the original work undertaken by the cowboy outfit, their equipment got stuck during the relining process and could not be extracted.  Basically the resin they used went off too quickly, or they left it curing too long.  Either way, they had to excavate through our pristine drive to recover their equipment and make good the repair.  They backfilled the hole with cold lay tarmac straight out of the packet, and did not seal the edges. I have mentioned that this would need putting right to the insurer, but they have remained tight-lipped so far.

I've had a tarmac contractor out who said that cold lay tarmac can only be considered a temporary repair and that to restore the drive to its previous condition would necessitate a complete resurface. It was also his opinion that the insurance company are liable for this.

The question is, how should I approach it with the insurance company?  Should I reject their settlement figure for the subsidence and insist they add on the driveway repair work?  Or do I open a separate claim for accidental damage to the drive (and potentially have to pay an excess?).

born_again

Raise it as a complaint on the current claim. 

FlorayG

It's definitely not a new claim; the damage was done during work to correct the original fault so it's part of that claim