Good afternoon all,

Wondered if any out there could offer me some guidance as i've got a household claim for water damage being processed currently and i'm not sure if i'm being told the right things or should be looking to protect myself differently.

There seems to be no problem with the claim as such and Natwest have assigned Cunningham&Lindsey as the claims management company.

Thing is, they have assigned Forshaws from Liverpool as the builder and we wanted to get our own quotes in from companies that we have had good feedback from etc.

The Forshaws sureveyor is visiting next week and we asked C&L if we could have a scope of work being quoted upon so we could get alternative quotes.

They have said they will not supply this as it would make them liable to something or other and that we had to get our own company to come in and quote blind.

How can we get a like for like comparison if we cannot see what should be quoted for.

They have also said we will not get to see the work listed from Forshaws, which for us to move out and let a company come in and just "fix" everything seems bizzare. I am a project manager by trade and it's grating me to move out and not even have an understanding of what work is planned to be undertaken. We have some quite specialist home automation and av/cinema equipment fitted that jo-builder just wouldn't understand without guidance.

Any thoughts please.

Kind Regards

Geraint

Speak to NatWest claim dept about this, as I think it is unreasonable for you not to be provided with more details about the work they plan to do. How can you have any confidence, that they will put the house back in the same condition as it was before the claim event. It is not unknown for contractors used by Insurers to take short cuts with the works, as they get squeezed on price. Some Insurers actually don't receive individual quotes, as they have an annual contract with the contractors. i.e they have a contract that basically covers x hours of Labour and x amount for materials over the year or a contract based on average price per job. That is what I am led to believe.

In regard to getting alternative quotes, I agree that your preferred contractors don't need to see the other companies scope of works. All they need to do, is carefully inspect the damage and then provide a quote that includes a full breakdown of the work and costs. It will then be up to NatWest and C/L to make sure that when they make a comparison it is done on a fair basis. Remember that NatWest hold the purse strings, as they use their own underwriters and not an external Insurers.

Yep get your own quote, but make sure everything is included.

Submit that to your insurers and if they say OK, you instruct your builder to get on with it.

The insurers pay you and you pay the builder. if anything is found subsequently, it may be difficult to get them to pay any extra.