Royal sun allience v my mattress!

Serendipity_phoenix

Wondering if anyone could give advise or comment!

My husband and I moved into our house in October
we put our mattress on the floor by a blocked up fireplace,
October, November, December had really bad weather here, with the river flooding several times.

On the 24th December:rolleyes: (great timing) we moved the mattress, getting ready for my mum to come and stay, when we lifted it, it was wet, mouldly and rusty underneath:eek:.

We lifted the carpet, and found the carpet and floor boards wet
our landlord was away, I got sick with that awful sickness bug, and it was January before we could contact him, in the mean time we where (and still are) bedless:rolleyes:

I phoned my insurance company and told them of the mattress, I started the call with "I need to make a claim", as you would after going through the annoying menu system, but as the call went on it became clear i needed more info, like what exactly happened etc, the lady i was on to, said that if it was the fire place it would not be covered as that would be progressive damage, but she would make a note that i would phone back,
I do have flood/water damage on my policy, but with what happened with it being down a chimney over time, the only way they would cover it was if i could prove, from the met office that on the day it happened it had rained more than 4mm in an hour!!:rolleyes:
I phoned the met office, if you need details for more than a week ago you need to pay:rolleyes:, as i only knew it was between October and December i would have needed to have paid over £300 to find out the rainfall,:eek: and even then they only record it for 24hr periods not hourly!!!

Landlord came around a week later, and found the problem, the roof had leaked, now i dont completely understand this as we where still sleeping on the thing, and although it was bl**dy cold, as we didnt have heating, i didnt feel like i was being dripped on, but there are no pipes under the floor, and he found the lead strip had come off the roof!

So i phone back the insurance company, because the lady before said she was going to put a note on the system, I didnt mention the call before, just went thorough the call and answers, i was asked the date of damage, and i had and still have no idea, only the date we found it, because of this, i was told someone would need to come out and see the mattress, fine i said, it is still in the room, a week later no contact, so i phoned, to be rudely told wait longer, i did, then 2nd week in feb i got a letter, saying they questioned my good faith of the claim, why had i not disclosed the 1st claim, ect

I was most upset! and told them so in a letter:mad:, stating all the facts, and asking them to listen to the phone calls i had made, i had never been told that a claim had been turned down! only progressive damage wasnt covered

I got another letter, saying that they didn't believe me as my call had started with "i need to make a claim"!:mad:

they have asked for proof of the purchase, which i have sent them, and proof of the repair, which i told them in the 1st letter the landlord had done himself!:rolleyes: I have enclosed his address and phone number twice!
The receipt is in my former name and address, so have offered proof of that as well, and proof of my lease too!

they are asking again what damage is it exactly, stating they dont
cover progressive, but my argument is water damage is water damage, even if we had seen it happen the claim would have been the same..... a wet mattress, the only difference is it had the time to go icky!

they have lied in saying that someone was coming out, and now say that was my suggestion and they wouldnt do that anyway!!


We need this claim as cant afford a new bed! I am currently on the sofa and my hubby on the floor!
It was only four years old, and £900 worth in the sale!
I have spinal problems so that make the sofa worse!
We have new for old policy, and like i pointed out to them, we stayed with them even when they bought out the originally company i was insured with and put up the monthly cost!!


I have sent off my second letter today, but any comments on how to deal with them would be helpful
Thanks

FlameCloud

Hmm, a difficult one.

The mattress- was it up against the fireplace the whole time? If so, what were you sleeping on?

They are right to decline the claim if the damage has occured over a long period of time, which it sounds like it. It wouldnt be covered under any of the 3 water perils- Storm, Flood and eow, as it wasnt storm damge, you havent been flooded and water hasnt escaped from somewhere it should be. Unfortunatly, you are only covered against certain things happening, and water damage isnt just water damage.

With regards to them thinking you are lieing- it maybe that you remember the first call wrong however they would normally have to be quite sure before they start argueing about good faith, and will have probably listened to the calls. As far as they are concerned, they probably think that you are changing the cause of damage to get the claim paid.

Let us know how you get on, just dont get your hopes up to much.

Serendipity_phoenix

We where on the mattress
it was on the floor, with the top, (headboard top), against the blocked up fireplace

My point is that i was never told the 1st call was a claim, and had been declined, just advised that sort of damage wouldnt be covered

I made it so clear to them that i was going to phone back

and instead of it being, what i thought water seeping in down the fire place and along the floor boards and up
it was water coming straight in from outside, through the roof

I wish I hadnt made that 1st call now, but i was concerned that they would say i had waited to long to report it

Does anyone know where we stand on getting the landlord to pay out or claim on there insurance???

when he 1st saw the damage, he said they would phone there insurance company and get something sorted out for us
i gave him the make, model and price of the mattress, so he could give the details, but as it was more than he was expecting, he said i dont think they will go to that
a couple of days later, he said he has spoken to his broker, and his broker had told him to get us to claim on ours

the thing is even if i do get my insurance to pay out, we have to pay £100 excess and lose all our 2 years no claims bonus

this doesnt seem fair, when i was there building that was faulty and caused the damage