aviva/asprea building insurance - anyone else suffer their terrible service?

[LouYK]

we are in the middle of a claim due to an under floor leak and aviva and their appointed loss adjusters, asprea (owned by aviva, funny that) have been shockingly terrible. has anyone else managed to get a claim sorted without losing the will to live?

Not had great experiences with aviva car insurance or work pension. You have my sympathies.

They denied our claim first time saying my (new Bosch) washing machine was the cause. Then the slow leak pipe burst and they had to pay out. We had to get them to redecorate twice.

I had a large water-damage claim with L&G, they appointed a claims handler called Chempro who were very unsatisfactory. I complained to them first, them to L&G but they had not much more luck than I did. I got so fed up that I booted the panel builder out when they thought they had finished, rather than wanting them to come back and do things again properly. I got quite a lot of flannel. When L&G came to inpect they noticed and photographed some of the work and the builder offered to come back but I'd had enough.

If I had to do it again I would engage a loss adjuster or claims handler myself, even if I end up paying them a few thousand to get a good job done, it would have been worth it.

Incidentally I also had a quite separate claim on an Amex policy after a bad accident, and although they were not very quick to get started, their settlement was first-class.

We have an ongoing buildings claim with Aviva that began with a storm on Jan 03. Asprea originally dealt with our claim and I got on really well with the guy from there and they settled their part of our claim really quickly.

However some of our claim was out of their league (involving two other properties and their insurance companies) and instead of passing it on they tried to get us to accept a measly sum of money and then leave it for us to sort out ourselves. We insisted it was referred to a suitable loss adjuster and eventually Aviva agreed. Ever since then the loss adjuster and structural engineer have been slowly working to an agreement with the other two insurance companies.

It has been a really slow drawn out process but only because of three houses being involved. The Asprea part was no problem but they do only have the authority to deal with smaller amounts of money so could this be the problem with your claim? I also think it is pot luck how good the person is that you get to deal with your claim.

Don't know if any of this helps.
Good luck.

elliptic - that sounds like a bit of a nightmare for you. I'm sorry.

piglet and mummytime - i hear the problem is that asprea/chempro put the work out to their contractors who in turn subcontract so you have no idea who is coming to do the work ... hence more often than not you get a shoddy job.

We have employed the services of an independent surveyor and I would urge anyone in the same situation to do so too. Aviva are of course making excuses not to pay their fees but even if we pay, it is worth it. The contradictory messages and fabricated information (such as me asking for a cash settlement) coming from Asprea is quite incredulous.

There seems to be no urgency on the part of Aviva/Asprea. The first visit was 12 june ... The shocking part for me is that I have a baby and a 3 year old (of which they are aware) and I was the one who had to repeatedly bring up alternative accommodation. We moved out at the beginning of the week as the smell of damp in the bedrooms was unbearable to sleep in. Luckily for us we can stay with my parents but I dread what would have happened to a family whose relatives were not down the road (an willing to have their house taken over temporarily). They have now appointed an agency to find us a suitable temporary home. I am hoping that when they have to start paying for rent it might help speed the process along.

Anyway work starts tomorrow to find the source of the leak (with contractors appointed by our guys) but Asprea have said that no floor tiles are to be removed. There was I thinking that to get to the source of a leak under the floor an option might be to ... look under the floor where the tiles are clearly saturated...? Anything they can do to lessen their payout, find a quick fix, close the claim ...

wish me luck!