Insurance claim escape of water

junebaby

Hi

2nd post today. Will be glad to see the end of this year!!

Washing machine packed up. John Lewis came to install new one. When they pulled the old one out the floor under was soaking. We have had a leak from our stop !!!!!! which had obviously been going on for a long time. 

Covered by insurance. Plumber and assessor sent out. 

We have a kitchen/diner with amtico flooring. Insurance have offered £4,750 to fix repairs. This includes taking up all flooring including amtico, base and replacing wet floorboards. New amtico. A skip, side panel down side of cooker. Replacing carcas, but not door of corner unit. Replacing and painting skirting. Also making good wall behind washing machine/corner unit. 

We are getting our own quotes for the work. Contractor came out to price for all works excluding amtico and base. 

We have a crack in our granite which he feels was caused by movement due to the wet. Also to replace side panel and get the carcas out of the corner he could not guarantee that the granite would completely crack and as the kitchen is 20 years old a new carcas would be a different size and not fit our door. 

He thinks we need a new kitchen. Insurance have told us to get a report from contractor and submit it. 

Flooring will take up most of the £4750.   

Any advice appreciated. 

junebaby

Granite crack. 

MyRealNameToo

Submit what you've been told to and see what they say. 

Also read your policy book paying particular attention to how they deal with "matching sets". Most basic policies will only cover the parts that have been damaged by the incident and the fact replacements arent available etc isnt the insurer's concerns. If the whole kitchen needs to be replaced then at best on a basic policy the insurer will pay for the bits directly damaged and make up to 50% contribution on the undamaged parts with you having to make up the rest. 

junebaby

Thank you will check policy documents. 

TadleyBaggie

There is no way you would get a whole new kitchen for free, the value of the kitchen after 20 years use would be a tiny fraction of what you paid. 

MyRealNameToo

TadleyBaggie said:

There is no way you would get a whole new kitchen for free, the value of the kitchen after 20 years use would be a tiny fraction of what you paid. 

Some people certainly have, when buying top tier policies. 

Home insurance is typically written on a new for old basis. Ignoring the appliances there hasn't been big movements in kitchen technology so arguing what is like for like is easier than say a flag ship TV from 20 years ago. 

eddddy

Just as an aside - not relating to insurance... regarding the cracked granite worksurface... there are companies who do invisible granite repairs. 

But presumably the granite worktop cracked because part of it was lifted by a swelling carcass panel or similar, so you'd have to deal with that first, and get the worktop level again, before doing the repair.

junebaby

Update. 

Insurance have agreed to pay for granite as impossible to take units out without worktops coming off. 

Problem is kitchen is not drying walls still soaking wet!!  They put in another dehumidifier and sent trace and access out to see what the problem is. He checked house and said no pipes leaking so he went outside to have a look. 

In the corner where the leak is some mortar and pebbledash have come away. We have no recollection of this but sure we would have noticed when we were out in the garden this summer. They are now saying water ingress even though they sent a plumber out 3 times. The 3rd visit they replaced the stopcock as around the pipe was still wet. 

Our argument is that the outside wall became wet due to the leak inside. Trace and access were unable to get their camera in there due to the floor joist and the wall. 

If anyone has any experience of this or where I should go with it I would be very grateful for your comments. 

junebaby

Update. Could really do with some advice

Insurance insisted we had wall repaired so we had large section, which had blown, hacked off and repaired. They then reinstated dehumidifier for another 2 weeks. When they checked again wall was still wet in one area. They said it should have dried out by now and asked what was on other side of wall.

We are a terrace house so share a party wall with our neighbour. Called neighbour and dehumidifier guy went in with his moisture metre and said their side of the wall was saturated. They suspected they had a problem as there were white deposits on the wall and they had a musty smell. We are at our whits end.

Have arranged for an independent damp company to come and investigate. We are sharing the £500 cost with the neighbour to get their house surveyed. We are desperate to get our kitchen repaired and have been without a washing machine for 4 months since this all started.

I would be grateful for any thoughts or advice on where to go with this.

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894481#Comment_81894481

No advice sadly, but I really feel for you dealing with this situation and hope it's resolved soon.

One big positive, your neighbour is co-operating and sharing the cost of a surveyor. There was a post on here a couple of weeks ago, where a member had water coming through the wall from their neighbour, but the neighbour refused to do anything about it. The member suspected that they didn't have insurance.

Another big positive is the insurance company agreeing to pay for the granite. So there are some positives to hold onto.