Hi all, I'm digging around for some advice on a home insurance claim which is slowly turning into a total mare. Brief history as follows.

21st May - Built in fridge spontaneously combusts at 6AM requiring fire engines etc. Localised fire damage, lots of smoke, one third of the kitchen is now in the garden. Luckily the burglar alarm was triggered which meant I dialled 999 within a few minutes. About £150 worth of food was lost as well.

After 2 weeks the loss assessor arrived. He was a complete wally who left me fuming after leaving me with a list of work comprising "replace fridge and base unit".. In fact there were three base units damaged, the melted fridge, the worktop, the scorched plasterboard, damaged floor tiles, smoke damage to ceilings/walls, broken wall tiles etc etc.. I sent my list to their loss adjusters (Cunningham Lindsey) challenging their interpretation

I was hoping I might use my own choice of builder but I couldn't get a definitive list of work from them with which to base a quote. The kitchen isn't new and when I pointed out I couldn't get a match for the units for either colour or design I was advised to hunt around on the internet!

At this point I decided to offload the problem back onto Direct Line and their builder visited the site 4 weeks after the event. That was 3 weeks ago and I've heard nothing since.

Their loss adjusters don't work outside office hours on claims and don't respond to my e-mails. I've tried Direct Lines complaints dept but they can't contact anyone at Cunningham Lindsay either.

They currently have no record of my contents claim as it was wiped from their website shortly after I'd raised my voice to a member of their staff. I've since e-mailed them the list again but there's no indication that they've received it.

I'm adamant that I won't allow non-matching units, floor and wall tiles to be fitted as this will de-value the house. I've offered to go halves on replacing the rest of the kitchen but all they've offered is an additional 50% of the cost of any new base units towards the entire kitchen.

I'm self employed and am currently working weekends/evenings to keep up with demand so haven't the time during the day to chase this down. They won't speak to my wife either as I'm the policy holder.

In 7 weeks I've had a replacement fridge, (a built in model but with nowhere to build it in). The kitchen still smells & there are still burnt out units in my back garden. I've also heard nothing on my contents claim (small I know but it's still rightfully mine) I've contacted a loss assessor but they said the job wasn't big enough for them to take on.

To cap it all I suggested I could get a better policy elsewhere but have been informed Direct Line can't cancel the policy with an outstanding claim on it!

My wife's spitting bullets and I'm in the firing line so I really need some advice on how to get things moving.

Thanks in advance. G

Hmm a bit of a nightmare scenario for you... Im sure one of the resident claims experts can help with most of this for you but with regards to cancelling the policy there is nothing stopping you cancelling. As the claim happened prior to you cancelling the policy this should be ok and them telling you that there is an outstanding claim preventing you cancelling is rubbish.

The only thing with that is that you would be subject to short term cancellation charges (dont actually know what direct line charge for this).

good luck with this.

The best advice I can give is to get a better insurer next time....

Does this claim come under the house fabric or the house contents cover? I know most contents policies explicitly exclude matching sets when one item is damaged (e.g. three piece suit, crockery and so on) but I don't know if fabric policies do - it would not make much sense. Check the wording on you policy to see if that is included.

As far as cancelling the policy is concerned - if you have made a claim then you will probably not be entitled to a refund if you want to cancel the policy early - that is standard in most contracts. However there is nothing they can do to stop you going to another provider on the renewal date.

You are of course entitled to go to your own builder - the best thing to do would be to get a quotation (better two) for the work you think needs doing and send it to Direct Line.

DL need to respond promptly, which they clearly haven't done, so they have put themselves in the wrong. That means you have some scope to put things right yourself and they have less scope to object/refuse to pay.

If you can afford to do so - and are prepared to risk not getting all the money back - then you could go ahead and get things sorted out to your satisfaction and send the bill to DL. This is the approach I have taken recently with these cowboys and it is now with the FOS to get the money back.

Thanks for the input so far. I really appreciate it as my ignorance of this whole subject is a bit of a hindrance. The policy booklet I've got is incredibly vague so I'll ask DL for a copy of their full documentation.

The food etc comes under the contents policy. The kitchen is under the house fabric policy. Obviously my assumption that al insurers are the same was an incorrect one. Does any one have a recommendation for house insurance?

I think I'll take your advice of getting some builders in to quote based on what I think needs to be done and then fire those quotes over to DL. Being a bit naive I expected a machine to roll into action and just sort things out while I got on with my life!

I'm fortunate in that I run an architectural services practice so I can put a package of drawings and a spec together myself.

I'll check on the cancellation terms as well.

As things progress I'll post any updates.

Regards

Sorry to hear about your claim.

Direct line are correct on the Kitchen units however, the policy advises if the items are not damaged they will not replace as part of a set. However, the ombudsman challenged this and now 50% towards the undamaged units is considered the norm.

Regarding not being able to contact Cunningham & Lindsay - I doubt this very much. Having worked for Direct lines previous loss adjuster they will not accept this. I would suggest that they have contacted Cunningham & Lindsey and C&L have said that they will get back to them, as they are very busy (due to the floods). It might be worth writing Cunningham & Lindsay a letter giving them authorisation to speak to your wife regarding the claim.

Thanks Craig. I have offered to go 50% on the rest of the kitchen but they turned me down so it sounds like that's worth pursuing. The offer they've made is to pay me 50% of the cost of the replacement units only i.e. the three damaged units. I was planning on replacement windows but they'll have to wait now!