Tradesman caused damage - insurance issue

btcp

I had work done in my house, and the tradesman damaged a water pipe that caused a massive leak. We are in a terrace house, and the neighbouring property is damaged too. I asked the tradesman to cover the repair by his insurance, and they filed a claim and asked me to follow up with them. 

I am now a bit confused about what and how they are planning to repair. They asked me for the photos of the damage and the invoices paid to date. They also asked for the repair and drying quote. The issue is that no one will know the repair cost until it is fully dry. And drying companies are not giving quotes upfront as they don’t know how long any particular wall will take to dry. I am running circles with them and not sure how to resolve it. When I dealt with my own building insurance in the past, they appointed a contractor who did all the drying and repair. This tradesman insurance is not offering me this option. I appreciate any advise.

DullGreyGuy

btcp said:

I had work done in my house, and the tradesman damaged a water pipe that caused a massive leak. We are in a terrace house, and the neighbouring property is damaged too. I asked the tradesman to cover the repair by his insurance, and they filed a claim and asked me to follow up with them. 

I am now a bit confused about what and how they are planning to repair. They asked me for the photos of the damage and the invoices paid to date. They also asked for the repair and drying quote. The issue is that no one will know the repair cost until it is fully dry. And drying companies are not giving quotes upfront as they don’t know how long any particular wall will take to dry. I am running circles with them and not sure how to resolve it. When I dealt with my own building insurance in the past, they appointed a contractor who did all the drying and repair. This tradesman insurance is not offering me this option. I appreciate any advise.

When you claimed off your home insurance you were their customer, they have a regulatory and commercial duty to you. If you want to be cynical, they also are aware you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman if you aren't happy with the results. 

You are not the tradesman's insurer's customer, their role is to protect the tradesman not to help you. As you aren't their customer you have no access to the Ombudsman, your only option is the courts and to go to court you have to have all your costs quantified.

Drying companies should be able to give you an estimate but the final cost will be variable depending on how long it actually takes. You should also make efforts to record your electricity readings before and after the drying, note the energy use of the driers so you can add it to your claim; these things can eat up electricity!

It sounds like you are going to have to self fund the initial drying at least to be able to get the quotes for the repairs afterwards. Your alternative is to claim off your own Home insurance who will then counterclaim off the tradesman's once they've settled your claim.

btcp

Thank you @DullGreyGuy, your explanation makes perfect sense. 

I don’t want to claim on my building insurance as I have £500 excess and my premium will increase next year due to the claim made. I don’t think I should be incurring these cost, since it’s the tradesman who is liable. It’s not fair. 

I am wondering if his insurance will wait until the walls are dry, to compensate the final cost? I am prepared to self-fund  initially , but I am not certain why they are asking for quotes upfront if my final bill may end up higher. 

Good tip on electricity. Do I need a smart plug or something like that? I cannot simply do readings before and after, as we are using electrics to live here.. 

DullGreyGuy

btcp said:

Thank you DullGreyGuy, your explanation makes perfect sense. 

I don’t want to claim on my building insurance as I have £500 excess and my premium will increase next year due to the claim made. I don’t think I should be incurring these cost, since it’s the tradesman who is liable. It’s not fair. 

I am wondering if his insurance will wait until the walls are dry, to compensate the final cost? I am prepared to self-fund  initially , but I am not certain why they are asking for quotes upfront if my final bill may end up higher. 

Good tip on electricity. Do I need a smart plug or something like that? I cannot simply do readings before and after, as we are using electrics to live here.. 

You have 6 years to issue court proceedings for damages not involving injuries so even if you are trying to dry them with a hand fan you've got plenty of time before you're out of time. 

Typically we would use photos of the meter before it started and at the end. Your previous utility bills can show what your normal utilisation is and so the excess use in the two photos is what you claim is your cost.  So the photos show you used 200kWh during the period, your bills show you'd normally have used 90kWh in that timescale so you bill them for 110kWh.

You could try using a smart plug but you'd end up buying a few which you wouldn't be able to claim for and dont know how well they'd be received as accurate and reliable measure or did you actually use it on a 3kW heater to up the monies... if you want to try it do it in addition to the way stated above. 

btcp

@DullGreyGuy that’s great information, thanks! I understand on the court, but how long we can push the insurance for to wait until it’s dry? Court sounds like an extra hassle no one wants to go through…

DullGreyGuy

btcp said:

@DullGreyGuy that’s great information, thanks! I understand on the court, but how long we can push the insurance for to wait until it’s dry? Court sounds like an extra hassle no one wants to go through…

About 5 years and 364 days technically but your then at risk of MCOL being offline or something on the last day where you have to file. 

They can only complain about timescales if they can substantiate that the delay has either worsened the damage or reduced their ability to defend the claim. As you are a third party and not their customer it all comes down to legal processes not stuff written in the policy book etc. 

Most insurance claims are measured in months... unless its Marine or Industrial Disease in which case it's measured in years. 

btcp

DullGreyGuy said:

btcp said:

@DullGreyGuy that’s great information, thanks! I understand on the court, but how long we can push the insurance for to wait until it’s dry? Court sounds like an extra hassle no one wants to go through…

About 5 years and 364 days technically but your then at risk of MCOL being offline or something on the last day where you have to file. 

They can only complain about timescales if they can substantiate that the delay has either worsened the damage or reduced their ability to defend the claim. As you are a third party and not their customer it all comes down to legal processes not stuff written in the policy book etc. 

Most insurance claims are measured in months... unless it’s Marine or Industrial Disease in which case it's measured in years. 

@DullGreyGuy Interesting. So technically them pressuring me to get quotes upfront means nothing? It sounds like I  can remedy my damage at my own pace. Let it dry first, then see if any cabinets or skirting is damaged after drying, assess if I need to replace the plaster or just repaint, etc. and send them invoice for each stage? 

DullGreyGuy

btcp said:

DullGreyGuy said:

btcp said:

@DullGreyGuy that’s great information, thanks! I understand on the court, but how long we can push the insurance for to wait until it’s dry? Court sounds like an extra hassle no one wants to go through…

About 5 years and 364 days technically but your then at risk of MCOL being offline or something on the last day where you have to file. 

They can only complain about timescales if they can substantiate that the delay has either worsened the damage or reduced their ability to defend the claim. As you are a third party and not their customer it all comes down to legal processes not stuff written in the policy book etc. 

Most insurance claims are measured in months... unless it’s Marine or Industrial Disease in which case it's measured in years. 

@DullGreyGuy Interesting. So technically them pressuring me to get quotes upfront means nothing? It sounds like I  can remedy my damage at my own pace. Let it dry first, then see if any cabinets or skirting is damaged after drying, assess if I need to replace the plaster or just repaint, etc. and send them invoice for each stage? 

Absolutely, as long as the waiting doesn't cause worse damage.

It's generally easier to submit a single claim for the whole amount than do it piecemeal but in principle you can do it in stages. It's best to mark out the steps putting in estimates against them as they come in and have a "to be advised" against those that you believe will materialise but dont yet have estimates. 

Be slightly wary of them sending payments stating they are for full and final settlement before all the works are done. You can respond referencing your prior letter showing there are further elements outstanding but that you will take the payment as an interim payment unless they advised otherwise in X calendar days from the date of the letter (X should be 7-10 days)


Without boring you of the technicalities of how insurance accounting works insurers have to hold reserves for claims, these are divided between claims they know about (case reserves) and "IBNR" for claims that have happened but they dont know about or are worse than they have been told etc. On top of both they have to hold a margin in case they're wrong. So if I think a claim is going to cost £10,000 I have to hold £12,500 or more as a consequence an insurer would rather pay out £10,000 or even £10,100 now and have the £2,400 released for investments, marketing or whatever. Insurers therefore are keen to get claims done quickly.

tegmim

You could ask if they are happy to fund a loss assessor, who can look around at the damage and organise the quotes on your behalf. That's my only suggestion to add to the good advice you've been given.

Spinhead

actually you should have appointed a loss assessor and the insurer will then send a loss adjuster.

btcp

Tradesman insurance appointed company called Crawford to deal with it. I believe they are loss adjusters. 

For me to appoint a loss assessor will be additional cost I suppose? I could just get the quotes for repair myself, why wouldn’t I? 

Also, is that possible to add any compensation for the inconvenience here? Time I spent on looking for builders, getting quotes, sourcing materials for repair, etc?