Hi

Recently had a house flood due to flash floods and overflowing sewers, approx a foot deep throught the entire ground floor of my house!

I've got a few questions, if anyone could shed any light on any of these I'd much appreciate it!!

1)My kitchen units are damaged, loss adjuster has agreed to have them replaced but only the damaged ones i.e the base units. I don't want to be left with a mis match of units, and don't feel i should be as it's not what I have now. Does anyone have any experience in anything like this?

2)The insurance company are going to rent a house for us until we can move back into the house, which is good of them, but...in the meantime they have said they would provide an allowance for the time we are haveing to spend on friends sofas etc...any idea how much this is likley to be?

And lasty..., some of my neighbours who also got flooded have had any electrical appliances that got even the litlest bit wet, even just the plugs, even if they still work, replaced. Tv's, fridge freezers, washing machines. Does anyone know if this is common practice?

At a stressfull time (with a 3 week old baby too!) some info on these subjects would put my mind at ease that the insurance company aren't trying to rip me off and are paying out everything that they should do, and that they are paying to others without being pushed.

One last thing...should I just accpect what the loss adjusters say, or should I challenge it if I feel it is unfair - and will it get me anywhere? Are they open to neogotiation?

Thanks to anyone who reads this!!

Hi blueduck,

1) This depends on the policy, typically it would be 50% contribution towards non damaged cupboards. The policy may have a "Matching Item Clause" where stipulates they will pay nothing towards them - discuss this with the Loss Adjuster dealing.

2) Normal pricing is £10 per adult per day for when the property doesn't have cooking facility so most likely above this seeing as you are having to sleep elsewhere but again discuss with L/A.

3) Normal practice is that the Insurance Company would only replace items that are beyond economical repair. They would seek to repair the rest of items plus confirm they are safe for use.

4) L/A's will negotiate pricing on the Insurance Companies behalf. If you are not happy with their offer, challenge it. If that fails and you feel it is justified to complain then do just that, complain - ensure it is in writing.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Andy

Thanks Andy, thats really helpful. I've always got the feeling that the loss adjuster is probably getting a bonus for the amount of money that he saves the insurance company

Thanks Andy, thats really helpful. I've always got the feeling that the loss adjuster is probably getting a bonus for the amount of money that he saves the insurance company

Fortunately, I don't think that's true. Loss adjusters are supposed to be impartial and independent. They are not usually direct employees of insurance companies - they are usually employed by specialist loss adjusting companies. They may work on behalf of several insurance companies. The loss adjusting company is paid for its services by the insurance companies, and then the individual loss adjusters are paid an annual salary by the loss adjusting company. So they are not paid directly by the insurance companies. I think that if a bonus was paid, this would cause a conflict of interest.

When you say your neighbours have been paid for things that you haven't, are they all with the same landlord as you (if you live in a rented house)? Is there a block buildings insurance policy covering all the houses in the street, or did you buy your own policy? If it's a block policy, then you should be treated consistently with your neighbours and the terms and conditions should be the same. If you bought your policy yourself then there's a strong possibility your policy is underwritten by a different insurer than your neighbours, in which case the terms and conditions may be different.

I agree with LemonTwist.

With regard to an L/A getting a bonus from "adjusting" the loss, this is misconception from the wrongly titled name. The name should be Loss Assessor. A Loss Adjusting firm is paid per hour for their services. Although they maybe expensive to use, they can handle all aspects of a claim (i.e Legal, Recovery (Subrogation), Fraud etc.) and thus end up being more beneficial then training and putting a whole claims unit through courses (i.e. CII and ACII).

There's an easy to way to remember this:

Loss assessors work for the insured because they're asses.

Yep! That's what insurers think of us.

I've now spoke to a friend who claims to previously have a loss assesor as a next door neighbour. He confirmed my thoughts about them being paid bonuses for keeping the payouts below a certain threshold. He was often quite smug about his tactics which he used to keep the claims as low as possible. Obviously you can't tarnish all LA's with this type of behaviour but where there is money involved.....