My insurance company have not done ANYTHING in 4 weeks, now sending loss adjusters in..what should i expect?

[ROSEgarden]

had a flood in kitchen 4 weeks ago, rang insurance straight away and ever since ben in constant contact with them..it took them two weeks to get a surveyor out then a further 8 days for him to submit his report and a figure to which wouldnt have coverd half of the work so i declined the amount, they then said i should have ahd the walls dried out the weekend it happend(and it wasnt) so send a company out yesterday to put down anti bac, rip out flooring, clean everywhere and install huge dehumidifiers.
the dehumidifier guy said the extent was so much worse than the surveyor had put in his report and ecause the surveyor hadnt pulled floor up or even done damp test, he had missed so much and was incompetant!..hes submitting his report this week and i rang insurance to tell them what was said..new supervisor agreed this was unacceptable and told me to get price(inc breakdown) of full new kitchen!..shes just rang back to say the first surveyor has been removed from the case and they have now appointed a LOSS ADJUSTER..so 4 weeks on and all they ahve done is send a guy out with a dehumidifier and 2 supposed expects to deal with it who obv havent..so NOw this loss adjuster is due to ring me today..what will HE/SHe do, will it now be sped up, are the known for being tight when it comes to replacing what needs to be replaced..am so fed up and havent a clue what to exxpect next so anyone who can help would be very appreciated

We had a flood in our cellar just before Christmas - luckily only the carpet and floor underneath was damaged but it still took two months before it was back to normal. The insurance company paid for the the cleaning company, dehumidifiers and floor repairs directly and gave us a voucher for the carpet.

I think having a loss-adjuster is a good thing. My biggest gripe was that it took so long because no-one from the insurance came around - cleaning contractor came first and then passed the job to a surveyor who passed it to a contractor who passed it to a sub-contractor, etc etc

yeah thats whats happend ere..2 weeks before irst surveyor came round..another week before he submitted his amount..only a week later did they send out chem dry to rip up flooring and put in de humidifiers(which was then he discoverd the 'amount' of water/damp/mould and poo pooed the surveyors findings..now a week later(5 weeks!!!) im getting the loss adjuster out to tell me whats what!?..am 'preeetty' fed up now and its 'really' becoming a problem work wise, we cant cook meals properly, had to remove all cooking contents from one cupboard this morn as i got something out and noticed there was blue/green ould climbing up the far side from the ottom...argh..need a time machine and ten extra pairs of hands to sort it out!

oh for goodness sake..2 hours later and theyve offerd £500 LESS than the original surveyor..however they have then bumped it up by me suggesting they pay 50% towards cost of new kitchen so theyve now offerd £600 more than original offer by first surveyor..i said i dont know how theyre going to o the ork for this and they said they would get their 'guys'(builders etc) out to 'properly' quote(which is gunna be the same isnt it if theyre 'their' guys!..he also said, contradicting hat everyother tradesperson has when coming in that the electrics and plumbing 'would not' be coverd..i dont know whether im on my arse or my elbow!

Why are plumbing and electrics not covered?

Why only 50% of the kitchen? (unless you have a lot of wall cabinets, they might not cover you for those).

Surely all of that should be covered, it certainly was for us.

Also, make sure you work on them to cover your electricity costs for the drying equipment.

Time scale wise you are actually doing really well. I know it was a one off flood for you and ours was part of a larger scale thing, but even so, I know of families here who are only now getting in dehumidifiers and ripping out plaster. The flood was last June FGS!

Good luck.

i dont know St george? everyone else who has been has included it!???

only the units that were damaged are being replaced, however because Mr C is so helpful, he agreed(after looking very surprised) that they would give approx £1000 towards rest of kitchen.
Hes sending thier guys out within next fortnight to give me price, althlough i doubt it will differ, his company pay their wages!

We actually mentioned you today St George, the guy from chem dry was here and he was saying how lucky i am(!!!??) because there are people only now with dehumidifiers in since those floods, he said he only came back up last month and had been down there for months..he also said(dont know if this applys to you?) that his company were in big pow wow with barclays because 'one' resident damaged their dorrs and was trying to claim for this and several other things which could have in no way been a result of flood!...so maybe this has also put the brakes on an already terribleservice to you??

Oh loads of people are trying it on no doubt, but I'm pretty sure the majority are genuine.

I have 1 friend for example who only had water under the floorboards, it never actually broke through above the floors. If the loss adjusters/insurers/chemdry etc etc had got their acts together she would now have a dry house and a claim of less than £5000. However, because the whole system stalled she now has damp crawling up the walls, mould spores running riot in the upstairs rooms and kids with chest infections! Her claim is now more likely to run to over £20,000 and she still has no end in sight .

Mr C recommends that you just use the contractors sent by the loss adjuster, as then the money bit doesn't matter - they have to do the work that they are set, and any 'budget' won't matter. It also means that the insurance company are responsible for any problems during the installation.
He also says that he'd be suprised if the electrics and plumbing actually need replacing as a consequence of the flood.

Plumbing might not be damaged but you still need plumbing services when fitting a new kitchen. You might be able to fit your own taps but if you have gas appliances it has to be done by someone qualified/registered.

Electrics need checking out for safety reasons and again, you need electrical services when the kitchen is fitted anyway.

oh thats terrible SG..how bad is yours?

Mrs C..thanks for that..the prob with the electrics is that theres one under sink!..attatched to sink unit!!???/, one on side wall which is flapping about due to the plaster coming loose and the plumbing, well no gas but id assume they would 'put it all back' when they take it out to replace???

i have just emailed insurance co(the supervsior that was dealing with it) to let her know what has happend and asked if she can get it resolved quicker and at the initial sum(plus what ever theyll pay for other units).. i feel like a bit of a mona what with St G and her neighbours but am so stressed now and more and more mould is appearing depsite them 'spraying it'!

oh and the bit about insurance co being port of call if any probs if we use their guys sounds good..at least someone else can deal with any probs!

We had about 4 inches of standing water throughout the ground floor. Had to have all floorboards stripped out, plaster stripped to a metre up the walls, all furniture on ground floor was contaminated so all gone . The water was contaminated by back wash from the main drains so the stench was appalling.

We now, finally, have an almost complete kitchen again. We are currently decorating the lounge/open stairway. New carpets and furniture all ready and waiting to be delivered. Still fighting to get our electricity bills paid and storage bills for the rest of our possessions.

The loss adjuster can't seem to get his head around the idea that we needed to put stuff in storage - his attitude is that if a cupboard was damaged, they will replace the cupboard and that's it. Where exactly he expected us to keep all the stuff from the cupboards whilst we had no floorboards, mould in the house etc I'm not really sure

that is truely shocking StG..i understand insurance companies dont want to have to pay out but surely theyve got to remember they are still people at the end of the day!..how would they feel in your situation!?
i hope you get pulled together soon..is the ground floor dry now?

oh no St g just looked at your profile..thats terrible

Rose - obv they will hook plumbing up, put electrical sockets back where they were etc - what they prob don't need to do is replace all your water pipes and rewire the kitchen. But if they do find that its not safe or whatever during the installation, then of course they will have to deal with it then. If you use their contractors, they have to deal with it all - theres no 'you've reached the amount agreed' to worry about.

I forgot I had those pics on there!

We are dry now thankfully. We actually set to and did a lot of work before the insurers gave us the official go ahead, stuff like stripping the plaster off the walls to let the bricks start drying, stripping out the carpets and skirting boards. That made a big difference.

I am more than now though. I see light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting closer

i think we will Mrs C, i much prefered the kitchen showroom we went to that DIDNT have their own fitters, so my concern was getting some who were relyable..as you say, i can go back to them and if they do find more work, theyve signed up for it now and insurer will have to sort it out with them!

St G, you sound so 'get on and do it'..id have crumbled i think!..am glad you are getting there now!, how have you managed all this time!..you ARE a saint!

Hi all..i sent an email last night to the supervisor at the insurance company explaining how much of a mess this whole this was, detailing the loweer offer, the need for yet another person to come and take a look, the fact the mould IS rising and developing in areas it wasnt previously, that i cant use my kitchen properly which is imperative in my job..and so on...just got an email abck tonight from said supvisor saying she is incredibly sorry, that she had already discussed this case with HER supervisor yesterday and that she has now escalated it to her supervisor to 'tie up', she IS very sympathetic (she also uses a childminder and has been asking her what she would be like if this happend and CM said she would prob have to close! so 'sems' to be being more helpful than another may have been!?)
She says she is "so glad you came back to me after the Loss adjusters visit so they can NOW resolve this"1????..im to expect a phone call from the higher supervisor tomorrow.............fingers crossed!..and ill send her your way St G..see if she can kick some ass there as well

Good news, sounds like you have a good one there, hang on to her!

well shes passed it on to her senior now, but i am pleased i got her...although dp is sceptical, thinks its all mind games and trying to delay and put us off further????...am out with children all day today so have mobile fully carged incase she rings while out!? hope so!

i got a call on my answerphone today to say "actually Rose garden the loss adjuster HASNT offered £1500, they have offerd ........wait for it........£6217.97!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..i ring to confirm, yes thats right, i busts a gut to tell dp, he says he wont belive it till its in writing, insurnace ring me back to confirm and say i must be glad its all over, i say too right..then loss adjusters company ring me and no nothing about this figure..they ring insurance and ring me back ...the figure ive been told is the total cost of work to be done..which includes paying chem dry for the dehumidiers(£1000!!??[hmm}), a contingiency fee of £500!!!!!£250 'protection'??????£2659 to us for work and £1000 towards other units..then 20% of this total to builder for ripping kitchen out...so on and so forth meaning the initial pissy amount of £1500 still stands, although they assure me it IS NOT a cash settlement, the work will be done regardless of money(so why are they taking a £500 contingiency fee off the total amount???.....am so farking fed up again my head is banging and im no further forward...Mr C is it worth contacting F.O.S now to ask their advice????

Hi Rosegarden

I'm a little confused by your msg - if you are going to use the insurers contractors then you can forget about the cost it will be done anyway - is this what the person at the insurer told you??

The figures they are quoting look like the reserve from the adjuster to advise the insurer how much it will cost to do the repair work (the insurer will hold a reserve for the cost of your claim)

• it's not been explained to you properly and has I think caused a lot of confusion.

The Continency fee is for if they discover any additional work - its not being taken off your claim it's being added to it! likewise with the protection figure - this is an additional amount to protect the remainder of kitchen/house.

Trust the adjuster here - he looks to have advised you properly and I presume is arranging to get a contractor to do the work? I presume he/she left you a letter saying what will happen next - what did that say?

I'm around tomorrow and will happily give you some more advice, but don't get too worried it all looks about right to me

Mr CMOTdibbler

Hi Mr C totally lost this thread, jsut trawled through to check up on it, but need to ask another question to anyone who m may be able to answer??...this whole palarver we're having, chem dry came out last week to check on de humidifier..he moved the unit and to keep the water pipe put of way he wrapped it around and around my tap...obviously i cant use the tap like this so i unwrapped it and now the tap is swinging round its so loose..they came back yesterday and i told him about it and asked him to tighten it..when he got under sink..there is......A LEAK!!!...its coming from the pipes on the tap, it seems to be the cols water one and that doesnt 'seem' to move when the tap is wifggled but neevr the less, nothing else has happend to this tap and nowthere is a constnat drip drip drip in a kitchen that was 'lmost' dry...rang insurance last night to tell them and they said i would have to ring back today on normal number or be charged for the plumber!, so am rining again at 9 this morn...where do i stand here? surely its not another claim?, it should be just a prob caused by thier guys which should be fixed shouldnt it????

He was asking about you yesterday - will go and ask

Mr C says to call your loss adjuster, and get him to sort it out.

HI Mrs C..i couldnt find the thread at all but lokoed again this morn and somehow had a new set of eyes on!

to update, loss adjuster has send their builder round to survey..AGAIN!..he came yesterday, aain i had to point things out to him, pull out appliances, he wasnt interested whihc made me mad as this has been 8 weeks now..he said he would put his findings together and have a price by end of this week(BTW he didnt even know loss adjuster had been and ahd no idea about the problem!?)

So back to today, rang Insurance told ehrt he prob, she got onto chem dry they said I had damaged the tap well before theyd been and the cable wasnt heavy enough to do damage and that THEY had stopped the leak anyway, so i invited the girl round to look in my bin and see the 4 rolls of bounty that were sopping wet and the constant flow herself!..she then said as it was my word against theirs but there was obv a leak i could call a plumber out myself and they would foot the bill up to £100..plumber just been his bill was £65 so their sending me a chq out PDQ!

Soooo..now have to wait to see what these last guys say about the work..TBH am not looking forward to it, wish id just taken the lower(but highest ) amount that was offerd..but never expected the amount to go down instead of up!