Insurance claim - Ruined carpet / floor. (More than)

[ChairmumMiaowGoingItAlone]

A couple of weeks ago my DS managed to break our stop tap, and the hall and lounge was flooded. I sucked up all the excess water with a carpet cleaner and attempted to dry it out with a fan heater.

Unfortunately, in at least a few places the floor boards are still wet, so the carpet is going to come up ASAP and then we have to decide what to do with it.

I have never claimed on my insurance before, but am guessing that they would replace on a like-for-like basis.

Has anyone claimed with moreThan before? Would they hand over the money towards something else (we have floorboards that could be sanded and varnished) or insist on arranging the new carpet?

The bloke on the phone just seemed to want me to make a claim, but if I'm just going to get a cheap carpet (money is tight at the moment, but H (we're separated) thinks it is worth getting the sanding done as it is what I have wanted for ages) its probably not worth claiming as I have a £100 excess.

So before I phone back, has anyone claimed for this sort of thing before and what was the process?

Normally, somewhere like Morethan will give you a credit at somewhere like CarpetRight for the cost of recarpeting to a similar standard. So you wouldn't have to have carpet necessarily, but another form of flooring.

Maybe now isn't the time for all the mess and distruption of sanding the floorboards though ?

As I understand it, an Insurance company can't insist that you use one particular retailer (it makes me really cross when they do...you're the customer!). They try to (as they have financial kick-back agreements in place), but you can just politely request they send you the cheque and you will choose where and how you spend it.

I work at an independent carpet retailer and although we have never had a problem getting the insurance company to pay us for replacement work, they initially always try to push the customer to the shops that they have financial arrangements with. Equally, if a customer requests that the insurance company send them a cheque, rather than pay us direct - there is never a problem either.

Call them, they will explain that you will need to get a couple of quotes to replace with a like-for-like quality. You will need to send them off, and they will contact you with the figure they are willing to pay out. They may want to send out an inspector first, but I don't think that happens very often. Then you can just ask for the cheque -that should give you a bit of time to decide whether to replace the carpet or sand the floorboards.

we claimed for lots of carpet with More Than about 5 years ago now

we had a small fire and there were burn marks on kicthen floor, bathroom floor and stairs and hall carpets

they sent a loss adjuster round and he persuaded us to claim for all of the hall and stairs carpet (we're in a townhouse and only middle and ground floors were affected)

we were told had to use their supplier which was a PITA as they were miles away and it took most of one Saturday to get there, decide on 3 lots of flooring and then get back

in the same claim we had to replace a fridge (sent us Currys vouchers IIRC) and a bath (we bought from Homebase as that's where it had come from originally and it was a corner bath, so not easy to replace) and have that fitted. More than paid Homebase directly, but sent us a cheque for the fitting, we just had to provide a quote from the fitters.

thanks for the advice everyone!.

H organised for someone to come round today and quote for sanding and stuff. He said that the insurance company would just say that the carpet should be dried out and cleaned, so we've decided to give that a try - so H and SIL came round to take the carpet up and move all the furniture round to do it.

However I now have to deal with a house with carpet gripper all around the outside of the lounge and a toddler (most of the time) to entertain during the day - and I find it hard to be out all the time, but at least he'll be at H's tonight and wednesday. Perhaps it will dry quickly!

We had a flood and the carpets were damaged.
The insurance company sent round someone to remove the carpets and supply us with deumidifiers.
We got quotes for new carpet and they sent us a cheque once the carpet fitter had confirmed the work had been done.
I realy dont think that your insurers will suggest you simply leave the carpet to dry out, I think mould/damp forms on carpet very quickly and it starts to smell.
You have my sympathies re the gripper rods as they are quite nasty and hard to keep LOs away from.

Perhaps worth another call to your insurers to explain you have a toddler living in the house and see if they can push things along.