Home Insurance Discussion

anita116 wrote: »

Our home burnt down a few days ago. My son and I have lost virtually everything apart from the clothes we were wearing at the time. Any advice, guidance, checklists, pitfalls to avoid etc when dealing with insurance etc would be really, really helpful.

I've had it myself and also work in insurance.

You should treat this as a business project.

You will be dealing with a Loss Adjuster who represents the Insurer and collates details of the claim and reports to the Insurer for authorisation to instruct the chosen suppliers and make payments to you.

The Insurers will generally want to use their own tradesmen, if you know any builders I would ask their advice on any hidden work they spot or isn't included in the Insurers contractors quotes.

They will also generally use suppliers to replace items such as electrical items.

Your contents will normally be settled on a "New for Old" basis, this means they do not deduct "Wear and Tear" but pay the current new price or arrange a replacement through their suppliers.

They will generally deduct "Wear & Tear" from the settlement cost of Clothing & Linen.

You should bear in mind that the price of technology is dropping, so if you paid £1500 for a TV or Lap Top three years ago. They can probably replace the item with a new item with the same or better specifications for nearer £500.

When I say deal with it as a business I recommend you buy yourself a full size diary eg a one page per day. This can then be used to make notes of conversations you have with the Loss Adjuster or Insurer or Contractors (Take a note of the persons name) which can be invaluable if there is a dispute over what was said and when if you need to query it at a later date. It can also help you make a note on a future date they have agreed they would carry something out.

They will be asking you for proof of ownership eg photos, boxes or ideally receipts where reasonably possible. Obviously this is not always possible on a large fire, but gather what information you can now.

They will arrange alternative accomadation while the house is repaired. This will initially normally be a hotel or B&B and then they will try and arrange a rented property. Bear in mind you will need a largish deposit for the rental property which the Insurer may not be willing to pay. You may find you can twist their arm if you cannot afford the deposit. The Insurer will then pay the rent.

You would need to pay for food if you were still in the house so you cannot claim all of the food costs back whilst in the hotel/b&b but they should give you a nominal amount to help eg about £10ish a day. Once your in rented accomadation food costs are obviously your own problem.

Keep a record of all phone calls and who you spoke to, also keep a record & ideally receipts for all expenditure. Most of the costs you won't be able to cost eg phone calls but if there's a problem with the claim you can often claim back the cost of the calls due to the Insurers incompetence.

Keep a record of all payments you receive and all payments you pay out. This can help you keep track of what can be large amounts of money you receive on ad hoc basis

The Loss Adjuster is a professional person who tend to be very focused on their job. They want to gather the information and ensure the Insurance company pays the correct amount out for the claim. They can often come over as being a little impersonal. I would recommend you don't take anything they do personally and do your best to assist them as it pays to have them on your side.

Do not be afraid to ask the Loss Adjuster to explain what will happen with your claim when they come out this week. They will deal with house fire claims all day long every day so will know how your Insurers will be looking to handle your claim

Whatever you do, please do not be tempted to inflate or add items to the claim. Your friends in the pub will tell you to do this, the Insurers are experts at spotting this and frequently check up. If they discover you pulling a fast one they will normally throw out the whole claim.

Giving the customer a pack would be a good idea but I don't think any Insurers do that.

Loss adjusters love information so don't be scared to over load them, if they don't need as much information they will tell you.

Some appreciate you looking items up on generic websites such as Argos or Amazon and then giving a link to the page or noting the item/catalogue number. It may not be the item they end up supplying but can help them work out what the item was.

A spead sheet can be helpful with columns for replacement price and another for wear and tear percentage (For clothing and linen) and another for amount claimed.

I found the loss adjuster just wanted the amount of T shirts & sock etc I had, he then applied an average price to each say £10 per t shirt and deducted £3 wear and tear.

When you've moved back in you'll find you realise what a good idea it is to walk around with a video camera into each room and opening each drawer and cupboard. This then means should the worse happen again you can show proof of what you had and it also works to jog your memory of what you own as you'll forget all the items you have. Store this away from your home eg at a relatives or using cloud storage along with scans of receipts for any big purchases. More detailes photos of jewellery and watches is a good idea and is also very helpful for the police if they're stolen.

If you forget items, do not be afraid to add them to your claim at a later date. Providing you're playing fair the LA will not have a problem with this.

The LA will either produce a schedule of works which details what work he wants the building contractors to quote for or will ask the contractors to draw one up. As I mentioned before if you have any friends who are good builders ask them to cast an eye over it as they may spot things that have been missed or are being done on the cheap. If you don't know any it may be worth paying a good builder or surveyor to have a look. It's not essential but it's easier to iron out any problems before they start rather than after they have finished.

The Insurer is responsible for any problems with the work their contractors or suppliers cause, so if there are any problems refer them to your LA or Insurer.

If you have problems with the claim please feel free to post up on MSE for help. It may be better for you to start your own thread, this means that anyone who is in a similar situation and googles it will come across your thread and can follow the situation.

shambolics wrote: »

This is a great question but I haven't seen anybody answer it. Nobody have an views on this?

The pitfall is that if you do need to make a claim, you need to pay the excess. For some a catastrophe is the house destryoyed but for others it could be £2k of repairs to a roof. Would you have a spare thousand to pay if you needed to make a claim.

Any help would be most appreciated!