To think the insurance company shouldn’t be causing me this much stress after a fire?

@FireAdvice Your list should itemize everything you lost. Loss adjusters are not the same as raking over a fire people to salvage things. The loss adjusters look at your losses and what the company thinks should be paid out.

@FireAdvice Unfortunately insurers do have partner firms that don’t always sell what you have lost! A big issue and we’ve had to fight that twice.

The police are not interested in fires if everything is insured. They don’t care about arson. I know that from direct experience so you won’t see them again. You are insured.

Your excess is what you expect to lose. That’s standard. I’d not lose sleep over that.

Loss adjusters are appointed by insurers. You can haggle with their findings. So you don’t have one appointed by the insurance company? That’s odd. You can appoint your own to haggle for you but mostly people don’t. We’ve managed to haggle when our very old semi derelict summer house was the subject of arson. We didn’t rebuild - I got a new kitchen. The best advice is list what you had. Purchase price if special kit and details of spec. Then do your homework and come to a reasonable figure. We could not get pp to rebuild the summerhouse but I like my kitchen!

And this is where you are going to run into problems. You're thinking "new laptop" he's thinking "same spec". So if it's based on 5 year old specification, it's not going to be like a new one today. It will be smaller hd, slower chip etc. If they can't find the exact same spec, it will be absolutely current bog standard.

I remember your original thread and the damage, it was terrible! Sorry you're still struggling to put it all right when it was entirely the fault of your neighbour.

Some insurance companies are under handed.

Who are you with?

OP, a loss adjuster more than pays for themselves when you have a good one.

My friends house was destroyed with smoke damage from electrics and she had a cheque within a couple of months.

So many things she never thought of that the loss adjuster added.

Money so well spent.

Make a detailed complaint and write you will be going to the Ombudsman about their treatment of your case.
Make noise.
Find your fury.

Can I ask which insurance company?

Wtf! £40k.. no loss adjuster and no payment yet. Wow, just wow they are asking to be shafted. The onus is indeed on you to prove your loss on law. But there will be a lot of things you can't prove like the signed Buddy Holly book, the Stanley Matthews match worn shirt etc. (I exaggerate).but there is a huge scope for you to inflate the claim and to take advantage
You really need to write everything down you are not happy with and if you don't hear anything by Friday get back onto them asking for details of the complaints process.

I think you're too nice in accepting that they will deal with things. Set expectations by asking for firm dates re payment and rebuilding etc

Just one email needed

I might also send a letter before action to the neighbours for your uninsured losses - stress etc if you have legal expenses cover

Lastly before bed! If you felt pressured to close the complaint today raise a complaint about that! You should never feel pressured to say yes to a resolution. Mention that in your email.

Hopefully it won't come to that.
Try not to let it stress you, stressing won't rush them along, it'll take a hit on your health.
Best of luck.

Any action being taken against the neighbours?

The 48 hour rule doesn't exist anymore. It was removed in 2011.

But if the complaint is closed (and you've received a final response - or it might be called a summary response letter - get straight to the ombudsman).

What was the outcome of the complaint, have you received one yet? How long ago did you log it? If you've had a final response or it's been more than 8 weeks you can go to the financial ombudsman.

Insurers are going to be jumpy right now as the FCA literally today have published findings from a review they did on home claims and it wasn't good. Find the ceo or compliance manager email address l - it's listed on the financial services register of you search for your insurer and copy them in. They'll light a fire under the claims arses if they know what's good for them.

What was the subject of the first complaint? If it wasn't delays then make another one. Call them and state that this is affecting your mental health as that then makes you vulnerable and more options become available to the call handler.

First of all the phrase is “new for old”. That means you are insured to have a brand new item to replace your 10 year old item. You can check your policy easily. Does it say “new for old”. If it doesn’t it’s going to be a valuation of what you lost based on its current value, not what you paid for it. So if a car costs you £20,000 but after 5 years it’s worth £10,000, you won’t get £20,000. If you insured the bikes with a new for old policy, you get the insurance claim met based on the new price of the bike.

I think you need to be clear on the wording of the policy and make sure what’s “new for old” replacement and what isn’t. Often they pay a sum based on like for like which means a sum of money based on the value of a 10 year old bike, not a new one. The sheds etc should be replaced with new sheds.