House Fire Insurance Claim - when should work start?

AoCRedux

Hi folks.  Looking for some experience or knowledge, please.  :-)

TLDR:  Had a house fire seven weeks ago.  Insurance accepted claim, likely to be out of home 6 - 12 months.  Have had some emergency funds released, and funds to equip an unfurnished let, but still have lots of things to replace and no money.  1) When can we expect a payout for contents?  2) Why hasn't work already started on house?  Is this normal?

On 24th Feb our house went up in flames, taking most of the first floor with it.  We, and our pets, are miraculously okay. 

After 3 weeks and 3 temp accommodations we managed to get settled into a short term rental (which we found!) which is probably the only positive thing of the whole saga, because it's comfortably shabby, so we're not stressed about the impact of our wild kids, dog and two cats, and it's set in beautiful countryside with woodland beside it and a stream in the garden.  We have bats.  I am in paradise.

We left the house with nothing but the clothes on our backs, and the kids in pyjamas.  We've since been able to recover some things, such as kitchen equipment, a desk, a chest of drawers and a few clothes, although they needed washing many times to get rid of the stink.

Insurance released £1k emergency funds, which we used to replace toiletries, meds, clothing (Asda and Primark!), a couple of toys for my 11yo who lost everything, blankets, mats, pet supplies (crate, litter trays, beds, cat carriers)

Then they gave us £2,000 to furnish the rental.  It sounds like a lot, but believe me it doesn't go far when you've got to buy beds, bedding, towels, chairs, table, sofa, lamps etc  We got most of it from charity shops and FB marketplace (sorry, I bought the bedding and towels new!) but we still spent another £2k on top of that. Insurance say they will give us that, too, but no sign as yet.

Then, sadly, my much-loved father in law passed away.  Quite apart from the grief and upset, we've had to pay for the funeral, buy everyone smart (but still as cheap as I can make it!) clothes for the funeral including coats and shoes, because we were all living in joggers/leggings and t-shirts/hoodies.   The funeral is in Essex, and we're 300+ miles away, so travel and food is also going to be an expense.  We have borrowed from family and taken out another credit card, but it's still absurdly tight.

But there are still many things we need to replace.  Husband's PC, kids' tech, more clothes, decent furniture to replace what we've lost.  We're in our fifties, and have lived in that house for nearly 23 years.  You accumulate stuff!    When can we expect a proper payout for these things?

On top of this, there has been no work done on our house.  We've had visits from building surveyor, structural engineer, recovery company who, we presume, have provided reports to our insurers.  Questgates, the people who are handling the claim for the insurers, tell us that they've provided a schedule of works to the insurers to approve, but that was nearly 3 weeks ago and still nothing.  How long does it take for things to get started?  There's a hole in the roof and although we've been ridiculously fortunate with the weather, it's now raining again.

I should also mention I have limited mobility and chronic pain, and my kids have special needs, particularly the 11yo.  We've been having difficulties for over a year before the fire and as a result are carrying debts.  We're not in debt crisis, but we're painfully close to a debt spiral and it really roasts my raisins that the fallout from the fire is exacerbating that.  Ironically, once the insurance claim is completed and FIL's house sold, we'll probably be more financially secure than we've ever been before.  But in the mean time we're running on fumes!

Thank you if you've managed to read this far.  Any insight will be very gratefully received.  :-)

DullGreyGuy

AoCRedux said:
But there are still many things we need to replace.  Husband's PC, kids' tech, more clothes, decent furniture to replace what we've lost.  We're in our fifties, and have lived in that house for nearly 23 years.  You accumulate stuff!    When can we expect a proper payout for these things?

On top of this, there has been no work done on our house.  We've had visits from building surveyor, structural engineer, recovery company who, we presume, have provided reports to our insurers.  Questgates, the people who are handling the claim for the insurers, tell us that they've provided a schedule of works to the insurers to approve, but that was nearly 3 weeks ago and still nothing.  How long does it take for things to get started?  There's a hole in the roof and although we've been ridiculously fortunate with the weather, it's now raining again.

I should also mention I have limited mobility and chronic pain, and my kids have special needs, particularly the 11yo.  We've been having difficulties for over a year before the fire and as a result are carrying debts.  We're not in debt crisis, but we're painfully close to a debt spiral and it really roasts my raisins that the fallout from the fire is exacerbating that.  Ironically, once the insurance claim is completed and FIL's house sold, we'll probably be more financially secure than we've ever been before.  But in the mean time we're running on fumes!

As long as you were properly insured in terms of the declared values of the "accumulated stuff" then it should ultimately payout the appropriate sums. Unfortunately as you say, many people do end up with a lot of stuff and many dont declare its value properly because they think of the big things like their TV or golf clubs and forget to add up all the kitchen gadgets that sit there unused for decades or teaspoons etc. 

How long it will take depends on many factors, has the structural integrity of the building been compromised? Is it cheaper to repair or rebuild if it has. These often require quotes from different people to be able to compare and contrast. Depending on the level of delegation Questgates has been given they may be able to do everything themselves or be required to pass the big questions back to the "insurer", depending on who they are they themselves may have to pass the biggest questions up to the true insurers. Inevitably the more hands it has to go through the longer it takes as each step is going to the back of someone's email queue etc. 

In my modest experience (I did much more Motor work in claims than Home), the priority tends to be in getting the building sorted. Contents is normally taken offsite by a specialist company that will determine what can be cleaned, repaired or is a write off. Stuff that will ultimately salvageable is often held in storage by them until the property is ready to be moved back into. If there are urgent things beyond the immediate cash sum they gave for essentials then highlight them to the loss adjuster to see if they can check the status and arrange settlement if they're a total loss. 

AoCRedux

Thank you for your reply.  :-)  It helps me understand a bit more.

I think I'll just feel better when some sort of progress has been made.  And when I've finished the itemised list with replacement values, including the entire contents of the loft, which was rammed.  It's taking hours and hours!

TELLIT01

Good builders are always busy so it could be several months before work starts on the house.  Not what you want to hear, but it's the reality.

AoCRedux

I thought I might update this for those, like me, that trawl the net for comparable experiences.

There has been no practical progress 4 months after the fire.  Our house still stands open to the elements with an ever expanding hole in the roof, and almost all of its contents still in place merrily mouldering away.  One half the house (under the hole) is completely sodden and ceilings are in danger of coming down.

The recovery firm which the loss adjusters asked to quote gave a quote for £60,000 to sort, remove, restore and store the contents.  This is more than the entirety of our contents cover limit, so the adjusters have tried to add in that work to the building restoration tender, but from what I've heard from the contractors who came to look over the house, that's a non-starter.  As one of them put it, "we're builders, not furniture removers and restorers."

So I really don't know what's going to happen next.  We were advised that the contents would be contaminated and toxic, so even if we had endless time and money (which we don't) I don't think we could recover everything ourselves.

I've requested a meeting for an update and review, but everyone is on holiday....  *eyeroll

CHEKOUT123

Hi, Just thought I would respond as we are in a very similar situation. 

Our kitchen caught fire in mid-March, forcing our family to leave in pyjamas at 1am. 
4 months later and no structural work has started on the house, it is exactly as it was went we left that night. We are however hopeful that work will start soon and the schedule of works is almost agreed. 
Our insurers also used QuestGates as the loss adjuster.

In terms of contents, although it took a while, all our contents were moved out of the property in May by a insurer appointed contractor (DisasterCare). 
Although we still don't have everything cleaned and back in our letted property yet, we have received back our soft furnishings (including clothes and kids teddies). In honesty when these were returned they still stank of smoke and most items where destroyed during the restoration process - so we are still fighting the insurer on how we get around this new issue. 

We did receive more money for furnishing our rented house than you, but it still wasn't enough to suitably furnish the properly. We are just glad not to be jumping from air bnb to air bnb which was the case for almost a month! 

So in summary although our experiences are similar- I don't think your contents should have just been left and I would have thought you would be closer than us to the work starting on your house.
The main difference perhaps is that we appointed a loss assessor to correspond with QuestGates on our behalf. This means they really chase the loss adjusters and perhaps this has helped get things moving for us. 

To confirm Loss Assessors usually don't charge you, and instead will manage the renovation of your house and get their fee from the contractors instead (for us a Win/Win).

Good luck!