I have just found this forum and it makes for great reading, here my current situation:

I had a water leak 3 years ago and anyway my insurance L&G sent out a real dodgy company called Indpendent Inspections well anyway my flooring was changed.

4 months down the line the laminate flooring started to open and it is what the professionals call concave bowing.

I have been fighting with L&G since then and they have had 3 seperiate inspections carried out.

Here is my letter to L&G:

Dear Legal & General,

I write to you regarding our complaint to you which was May 2007, I informed you of the issues and also informed Independent Inspections of the issues with the fitting of our laminated flooring.

After informing Independent Inspections of the many issues with the laminated flooring they issued a letter to Litherland Carpets which resulted in a visit from the fitters and he informed us that there was nothing wrong with the laminated flooring. We contacted yourselves to inform you that we were not happy with what the fitter was stating. We then received a visit from what I can only assume know is some type of inspector who in our opinion should not be allowed to inspect laminated flooring because from my private inspection which I have obtain the report which has been issued from Independent Inspections is complete lies.

I can know confirm after a lot of trouble and digging to try to find a specialist in laminated flooring which you stated we had to find because you were not prepared to organise another inspection. You had left it up to us to arrange another inspection which has caused is great trouble trying to find a suitable inspector to carry out this inspection which we I can confirm we have finally had done.

You will see from the attached report the issues which I raised which both Independent Inspections and you back in May 2007 and these issues have been flagged from my private inspection.

We are very unhappy in how this claim has been handled by Legal & General.

I know require the following payments for the trouble, time and expenses you have caused me because of this whole situation and these are as below:

Replace laminate flooring like for like - £1,500.00

Removal of damaged laminate flooring and fibre boards - £500.00

Damage to newly decorated skirting boards, doors, frames and architraves - £800.00

Costs of Private Inspection – £150.00

Time spent on telephone calls, letters, faxes, meeting with fitter, inspector - £1,250.00

Pain and suffering to our family, we have young children who have cut themselves on the concave bowing of the laminated flooring - £2,500.00

I do hope you understand the problems you have caused our family and we expect you to pay the above in full and final settlement.

It is now 2 years since i first contacted L&G, i finally was informed that they would replace my flooring but everything else would need to be consider everything else.

I have informed they i am not happy as i have waited long enough.

What am i to know ?

Thanks

Jimmy

Hi

what a load of muppets, I thnk you must have been driven made, would it be worth writing once more.

Head the letter FORMAL COMPLAINT, listing again your concerns, this I believe should prompt them to give a Final response.

In fact even if you get all you have asked for still complain requesting compensation.

Finally go to the FOS our complaints procedure and how to complain they will investigate your complaint, and can award compensation

Thanks for your advise.

I have already been in contact with the FOS about 3 weeks a go but i contacted them this week and they say they are still behind with post.

I have contacted L&G yesterday to speak with the manager over the complaints handler who is handling my claim and i have again contacted L&G around 1pm and have been informed that the manager is in funny enough in a meeting and will contact me this afternoon - I will not hold my breath.

I have been informed by L&G that they are going to pay for the replacement of the flooring but my expenses will be considered, my expenses have know esculated to nearly £3,000 because of the time off work have had to take and the amount of time spent throughout the complaint.

I will wait to see what this manager has to say ? because i will expect answers from her because the complaints handler has een unable to give answers to other issues.

Thanks

Jimmy

Looks like you got everything covered, but I for pone won't be using this company

Just a little update.

I have contacted L&G again and there response to my claim for expences which comes in at a little over £3,000 for telephone calls, letters, days off work and they have offered me £200.00 plus my £50.00 excess back which i think a complete insult.

I asked to speak to a manager who also confirmed that was all they are willing to offer. I have been informed by L&G that the way forward is to continue with my complaint with FOS.

Dam insurance companies.

Hi

You might consider taken action through the small claims court, I am sure many experienced forum members can advise, on the process, and chances of success.

Regards

andy

Another update:

I have now recieved £2,200 for l&G for removal and laying of my new flooring. I will be refunded the cost i paid for my independent inspection.

I have also have a letter stating they will be issuing a cheque for £250.00 which is £200 comp plus excess which i have clearly stated that i will not be accepting.

I have had confirmation that the FOS has assigned my complaint to a caseworker. I guess a waiting game now.

I have again phoned L&G to see what is going on with our personal injury claim and also they have now informed me that my claim is no longer being handled by Claims @ Ipswich but @ Customer Management Birmingam who have no idea about the claim. I have now contacted CM Birminghamand they have informed me that the FOS has requested my file.

I am going to see my solicitor about the personal injury claim and see what i can do.

I would intrested to hearing from other who have gone through something similar.

Thanks

:o

any news

UPDATE:

I have finally had the responce from Ombudsman to say my complaint has been handed over to a adjudicator (almost 8 months).

I am very happy that it has finally gone through to a adjudicator and hopefully this can all be resolved because it is causing me problems getting home insurance because of this ongoing complaint.

I will come back when I have more news - good news hopefully.

Anyways just thought I would update the posting.

Hi Everyone,

I am desperate for some advise, I have recieved the response from FOS which is upholding £400 compensation but I am very unhappy with this and think it is an insulting offer.

Does anyone know were I can go from here ?

Do I need to take them to court and if so how ?

What did the FOS say in their letter? I'd be interested in hearing their views on this complaint.

Towards the end of the FOS decision letter, it probably says that if you have any further evidence which may support your complaint, you can submit it to them and they will review your complaint again.

I think that if you are unhappy with the £400 compensation offer, you would have to justify the reasons for this, for example by sending evidence of the costs you incurred as a result of the claim - if you had to take unpaid time off work, you could ask your employer to write a letter confirming this (that is just one example).

If you are still unhappy, then the final option is to go to court. However, I have to admit I have no idea what your chances of winning would be. How often does the FOS get things wrong, I wonder? Does anyone here have any statistics about the number of FOS decisions which are overturned by a court?

I am attending CAB tommorrow to get advise about takeing Legal & General to court.

I have now issued court action against Legal & General, lets wait and see what happens fingers crossed.

All the best with your claim

Legal and issued a defence and I have now recieved my allocation questionaire to complete and return.

Ihave now completed my allocation questionnaire and sent a copy to the other side and yesterday i recieved a copy of there allocation questionnaire and will wait and see what happens.

Hi I thought you may like to know of my experience with Legal and General Insurance, after part of my wall was blown down during the storms in November 2010, I still have had no satisfaction and the efforts taken by Legal and General to deny liability have been most impressive, the tardiness of their service was a wonder to behold and one just wonders how anything gets done. I have produced a website detailing the circumstances the address is legalandgeneral-warning.co.uk the purpose is to allow consumers to assess Legal and General's methods for themselves and am adding to the details regularly. The very least it can do is highlight how vulnerable consumers are when parts of their property are damaged and how wise it would be to confirm specifics prior to effecting insurance.

Hi, many thanks for your postings.

brasenose_road: What happened re your court case?

NinasWall: Could not find your website - did they threaten you?

I had a problem with a leak which they initially admitted liability for but then sent someone round who said that anything I do will be at my risk.

The property was rented so I cant afford to lose income. So they took advantage of this fact.

Their promise to not make a crisis out of a drama was not fulfilled (They say that they would manage all aspects of the repair and rectify any damage - this management cost, stress etc was placed on me) and they played the delay as much as possible and for whatever reason as possible game: we must write postal letters to the over worked loss adjusters who in turn write back so it is a brilliant way of doing what could be done in hours or days by email into a best of 4 or 5 weeks per communication - Apparently the brainchild of director's gang - But the lossadjuster had an email so I could respond quickly to them.

They also played youve lied to us and the we suspect your being fradulent with us game cards so we need to investigate and you must explain your answers. Of course their investigations and insinuations take their time toll and stress toll and as they knew from the outset came to nothing. But it did maximise my costs and distress and after the complaints which were largely ignored - although when it was clear that they were obvioulsy persistently being obstructive they relented.

The most interesting thing was that the loss adjuster had no interest in sorting the matter out, wasnt interested in the actual damage was very interested in other matters such as precise nature of previous claims, precise dates etc and wanted answers to irrelevent matters - this was to have an excuse for multiple delaying letters to improve its understanding of the problem.

The cost of repairs was around £30,000 but they only want to pay £8,000 claiming that had they done the work that is what it would of cost them.

Its a brilliant strategy of stressing out their clients and by not having to pay their staff to do the work it means they can make more people redundant and so reduce their head count and of course their Chairman and directors get another substantial bonus and shareoptions for achieving their objectives.

What should I do? Court or Ombudsman?

Hi, many thanks for your postings.

brasenose_road: What happened re your court case?

NinasWall: Could not find your website - did they threaten you?

 

I had a problem with a leak which they initially admitted liability for but then sent someone round who said that anything I do will be at my risk.

 

The property was rented so I cant afford to lose income. So they took advantage of this fact.

 

Their promise to not make a crisis out of a drama was not fulfilled (They say that they would manage all aspects of the repair and rectify any damage - this management cost, stress etc was placed on me) and they played the delay as much as possible and for whatever reason as possible game: we must write postal letters to the over worked loss adjusters who in turn write back so it is a brilliant way of doing what could be done in hours or days by email into a best of 4 or 5 weeks per communication - Apparently the brainchild of director's gang - But the lossadjuster had an email so I could respond quickly to them.

 

They also played youve lied to us and the we suspect your being fradulent with us game cards so we need to investigate and you must explain your answers. Of course their investigations and insinuations take their time toll and stress toll and as they knew from the outset came to nothing. But it did maximise my costs and distress and after the complaints which were largely ignored - although when it was clear that they were obvioulsy persistently being obstructive they relented.

 

The most interesting thing was that the loss adjuster had no interest in sorting the matter out, wasnt interested in the actual damage was very interested in other matters such as precise nature of previous claims, precise dates etc and wanted answers to irrelevent matters - this was to have an excuse for multiple delaying letters to improve its understanding of the problem.

 

The cost of repairs was around £30,000 but they only want to pay £8,000 claiming that had they done the work that is what it would of cost them.

 

Its a brilliant strategy of stressing out their clients and by not having to pay their staff to do the work it means they can make more people redundant and so reduce their head count and of course their Chairman and directors get another substantial bonus and shareoptions for achieving their objectives.

 

What should I do? Court or Ombudsman?

I would always suggest the ombudsman first as they work on a fairness basis rather than a strict legal basis - in addition if you're not happy with the FOS decision you can go to court but once it's been to court, you can't go to the ombudsman - and finally, the ombudsman is free.