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Home insurance claim.

1 reply

Taurini · 09/02/2022 07:18

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long post but I need some advice!
The first weekend of November whilst we were out a braided hose/pipe burst In our bathroom and flooded the house, it brought down the ceiling in the kitchen etc.. the house is a complete mess.
We have been living with my parents since it happened as we have 3 young children, the youngest has only just turned 6 months and 3 of us are asthmatics and there's plaster dust everywhere.
Anways.. we use admiral, who use a company called sedgewick who are dealing with our claim..
Even though under our insurance they're supposed to compensate/cover living arrangements they refuse to compensate us living at my parents house to contribute to bills (they're retired) because they decided due to the electric being on again its safe and livable.
We have stated we have young children.. and asthma.. and have said its not suitable living somewhere where they will be eventually ripping out the walls and replastering etc but they disagree and said they'd put a kitchen pod outside for us to use..
Also they have constantly been saying throughout their inspections that things will be replaced like for like, which is fine.. but they gave us a price limit of £25 per m2 for kitchen tiles.. upon looking at the recommended tiles companies we realised there was next to nothing in that price range other than white tiles.. we have rainbow ones which our kids love and are devastated about loosing, we found some tiles that are exactly the same as ours and they are valued at 3x the price we were quoted. We messaged sedgewick asking how they came to this estimate as as far as we were aware it was like for like and the amount they've quoted us is not of equal value.
They responded by saying our policy is not like for like.. we have looked at our policy and it doesn't state any information about this kind of stuff anywhere, or what is considered "livable" etc..
When challenging them again they said we need to send them a receipt of the original tiles.. which we dont have as we have been living there less than 2 years and they've been there a long time.. or to send them evidence of like for like, which we have done.. but I have a feeling they're going to find some kind of excuse to save their money..
Has anyone dealt with this kind of thing before and do we have a leg to stand on? Or do we have to accept we are going to have to have things of less value that we dislike? Etc.
Thank you. X

OP posts:
1Dandelion1 · 12/02/2022 19:38

If you didn't buy and install the tiles how do you know they haven't offered a fair settlement? Like for like is generally based on material and quality, not just price.

Can only suggest tou get you own advice from a reputable building, but stay away from hiring your own loss assessor unless you are prepared to pay their fees.

Regarding the accomodation, insurers only pay for accommodation if the property is unliveable, normally judges by the loss of sleeping, bathing or cooking facilities, as they have offered a kitchen pod they officially meet that criteria. There's nothing stopping you moving out, maybe ask for a cash settlement for the hire costs of the pod (likely to be between £400-£700, so you can be put that towards your out of pocket expenses, you will expected to fund any additional costs from your normal expenditure of groceries and utilities.

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