Roof Damage

[sm03art]

Late last May high winds blew one of my slates off the roof, the constant rain poured through bringing down the bedroom ceiling, my fan light was soaked, and the fire brigade told me to get it sorted a.s.a.p ,which i did.Eventually they sent out a loss adjuster who agreed to my claim but just needed to confirm with weather report to ok the work. They sent a roof specialist to do a temporary repair on it , i was horrified i went from 1 lost slate to a roof like swiss cheese....i complained and refused to have them back ,so they sent out another company to repair the temp' repair, by this stage the roof and ceilings where a nightmare. While i struggled on with no electric lights for 2 weeks the loss adjusters confirmed that all was well and would be fixing my roof a.s.a.p this conversation was witnessed. Then to my horror they had turned me down on the grounds of neglagence on my part ie:nail rot ?????? I have sent several letters of complaints to them, my roof is ruined my ceilings and rooms etc.... damaged but my sanity and my health are most at risk ..how can they say one thing and then retract that. it was all aproved by their LOSS ADJUSTERS it is criminal what they have put me through can somebody please help me/

[craigwalton]

What you need to do is to get proof that there were storms on the date of loss. If you are able to prove this, then by going through the complaints process you should be able to get the Insurance Company to contribute towards the damage, as the storms have been a contributing factor. Regarding the Internal Damage to the ceilings, if you have Extended Accidental Damage cover on your Buildings Insurance then this should cover the Internals, as the Nail Rot damaged slates have "accidentally damaged" the ceilings / internals.

I think this is the best option to go down, rather than complain that the Loss Adjuster said it would be repaired. After all, the Loss Adjuster can reply "from the information he had at the time then it would appear the loss was a valid one, however, from new information it would seem that the damage is not covered"

Good Luck

[elvissprout]

I don't know if you are still having issues with this (just came across the thread) The technical term is `nail sickness' not nail rot, basically the slates were nailed with galvanised nails and over the course of around 100 years the nails rust away meaning the slates are held by gravity and friction. As far as I'm aware (from a roofing company perspective) you should still be able to claim as the slate coming loose was through the storm winds, you should be at least covered for repairs. Very unlikely to get them to pay for the whole roof to be replaced (which would on a standard 3 bed house be around £6000) but they should still cover the repair.