Claim against contractor workmanship

Delaydeferdenyconcerned

I had a major flood whilst roofing was being undertaken on my property. The protection provided was clearly inadequate and the roofer says he was 'caught out'. My insurance does not cover this. The contractors insurance company is being unhelpful. Three months after the event I have seen the loss adjuster and provided them with three quotes for repairs. I am told that they are not accepting liability at this stage and are under no obligation to respond in any time scale. They have advised that i get a solicitor. I am reluctant to commit to even more expense and as i am a 3rd party in this I don't really see that it is my responsibility. Any experience anyone?

Aretnap

Unfortunately your rights when claiming as a third party are more limited than you might expect. The builders insurer works for the builder, not for you, and their primary job is to protect the builder. As you're not their customer you have no right to use their complaints process or the Financial Ombudsman.

If they don't respond in an acceptable timescale or if they don't accept liability then your only way of forcing the issue is to take the builder to court for the amount that you think he owes you. If that's a substantial sum then you should definitely get legal advice before you head down that route. Does you home insurance come with legal cover (even if the insurance itself doesn't cover the damage)?

Have they said why they're not accepting liability? You would normally have to demonstrate negligence on the builders part to prove liability. When you say he was caught out do you mean caught out but the fact that it rained (which should obviously have been foreseeable and would clearly be negligence if he didn't safeguard your house adequately) or by freakishly bad weather (in which case it might be more arguable whether he was negligent or not)?

DullGreyGuy

The alternative to a solicitor is a loss assessor. They're the same as a loss adjuster but work for you rather than the insurer. Not normally used by a third party but in principle with liability not being in dispute they may be willing to work. In most cases they work similar to no-win, no-fee solicitors in that they take a percentage of the award but some will do the work for free as long as you use their supplier network to do the work