Leak, insurance where we might have to move out and put our retriever pup in kennels.

[Ineverpromisedyouarosegarden]

We have discovered a leak in our shower. Apparently both bathrooms are affected. Wall and floor tiles will need to be removed and a "drying company "brought in.

We have a year old retriever. He has been to kennels once recently and wasn't at all happy. Showing his teeth and growling. He is very much a family pet, in the house all day except for walks etc

Anyway if anyone has been in a similar situation. What did you do?

Dh says we just tell them we can't move out. We also have a seven year old bichon and a cat.

While the idea of moving out seems impossible, the idea of staying seems equally impossible.

I found a cottage that was willing to accept pets then passed the details along. Call them first, explain the situation, they charged full whack but didn’t charge extra for the pets, insurance company use a booking agent and they paid for it directly. I told loss adjuster I couldn’t afford to pay and reclaim it was £1200 a week! We stayed for five weeks.

We had a flood in the ground floor and the drying company installed multiple dryers. They didn’t suggest that we moved out - it was noisy and hot but we could still access the rooms. It took about a month to dry out.
Would you be happy to keep living there and shower elsewhere? This assumes that at least one of the toilets remains useable; but it would be better than putting the pup in kennels for that time.

They also offered to put a bathroom and a kitchen on the drive in a fancy cabin if you want to stay. Just need water/ power.

oh that's interesting. Yes definite preference would be to stay here. Kitchen, toilet and living room totally unaffected. Three of the kid's bedrooms are unaffected. Ds has autism but he is happy to move out of his room into the good room (as long as his xbox goes too.) Dh and I need a bedroom so a cabin on that driveway with a bedroom and bathroom would be awesome.

We are at that stage at the beginning where we don't know exactly what is going to happen and we have a million questions. Hopefully hear more from the insurance company tomorrow

Are you renting? Or is it your house?

Just wondering as if you’re dealing with the insurance it sounds like it’s yours, in which case... who is going to make you move out?

I doubt they would move you out for this, they would simply bring in industrial dryers and do them one at a time, at most you may need to move for a week or so, travelodges take dogs as do many other hotels

Yes it's my house so dealing with insurance. I don't know if they can make us move out but both bathrooms are going to be out of action and the hall too.

I have two kids who have Autism ( 4 in total, although 2 are young adults now) as well as the pup, the older dog and the cat.

I have really bad asthma and allergies. It's difficult to know if staying or moving out would be more stressful.

The pup is pretty good in general but I would worry about him being anxious and chewing everything in sight. I will still need to go to work.

Has anybody any experience of insurance companies. How does it generally work?

I had to move out when my ground floor got flooded. I stayed in a rented fiat paid for by insurance company. I got to take my cat too

Oh I wasn’t being dismissive of the stress of it, just meant, if it’s your house no-one can force you out of it if you decide it’s easier to stay.

Are you on any local or National Goldie groups on FB?
I am and people there often help each other out if needed

Yeah I have friends who would take him but I just love him to pieces. I don't want to be separated from him plus he isn't an official ASD dog but we have trained him to help with my son's meltdown's. He is such a smart dog.

Have they appointed a loss adjuster yet? Different insurance companies have different rules and they will be best placed to tell you the process. In our case they appointed a company who sourced emergency accommodation. They found a local hotel for 3 nights and paid it upfront sending me reservation confirmation. I found a dog friendly cottage convenient for kids school and sent the loss adjuster details. She forwarded it to company and authorised costs for 3 weeks then we had to extend.

She was keen to work with me and minimise inconvenience. If you think a bathroom/ bedroom cabin on the drive would work best for you. Be proactive, find out who supplies them and if it’d work for your site. Outdoor tap, external socket, drainage within so many metres. Motor home rental if bathroom was decent?

If you do the legwork and tell them what you want and it’s not massively more expensive than other options ie rented flat then it’s justified and they will go with it.

The first guy they sent out was a surveyor. He took
moisture levels and said he would send them back to insurance and they would send someone else out. Not sure whether to start packing up affected rooms or wait to see what they say. How long were you out for in total?

Just over 5 weeks. It is annoying as there seems no rush from insurance people. The repair took a day once right people were on site. Blocked water pipe so we had no supply at all.

Definitely no rush from insurance people. They are coming back out on Wednesday.