My insurance company have recently started work on an insurance clain that resulted from a flood I had in my house. As part of this they had to remove the ceiling in my kitchen (which I had no idea was false) and above it discovered not only the true ceiling, but also that the false ceiling was hiding where the original end wall of the house - a load bearing wall - had been removed and the bathroom above it is being held up by just one thin short wooden beam - no steel or concrete structures present. They have put a steel prop under it at the moment as it is bowed under the weight of the floor above it, and have told me that they won't pay for this and are charging me a lot to do the work. They are saying (quite rightly, I'm sure) that no other work can be done until this is done (there is a lot of work that needs doing), but I was under the impression that if there was a problem with the building the insurance company would pay for it, but they say no. I have no experience of this kind of thing, so may be wrong. Am I completely wrong?

Thanks anyone for replying.

My insurance company have recently started work on an insurance clain that resulted from a flood I had in my house. As part of this they had to remove the ceiling in my kitchen (which I had no idea was false) and above it discovered not only the true ceiling, but also that the false ceiling was hiding where the original end wall of the house - a load bearing wall - had been removed and the bathroom above it is being held up by just one thin short wooden beam - no steel or concrete structures present. They have put a steel prop under it at the moment as it is bowed under the weight of the floor above it, and have told me that they won't pay for this and are charging me a lot to do the work. They are saying (quite rightly, I'm sure) that no other work can be done until this is done (there is a lot of work that needs doing), but I was under the impression that if there was a problem with the building the insurance company would pay for it, but they say no. I have no experience of this kind of thing, so may be wrong. Am I completely wrong?

 

Thanks anyone for replying.

Insurance only covers damage relevant to an Insured peril. It will specifically exclude anything to do with building defects.

Sometimes where you need to have defects sorted out first, the contractors won't necessarily quote their best price. I suppose they think you don't have much choice but to use them, as they are on site. You could therefore get another builder in quickly to provide an alternative quote and see how it compares.