Hi Everyone,

Could someone please give me some advice on how i stand with an insurance i took out with Anglian Water, called Homeserve on my internal/external drains and pipework.

We had a extreamly bad smell of sewarage all over the house and outside so we called them out, they sent this guy, (that had an obvious attitude from the minute he walked in the door) maybe he was having a bad day? i don't know.

I offered him a cuppa as i do with anyone thats a guest in my house, and he abruptly said NO.

To cut a very long story short, he proceeded with the job in hand and tried to lift the internal manhole cover lid in my utillity room, but even though he had brought with him the correct key's for the job, he used first, a large screwdriver to put down the lip of the manhole to try and lift it, he then was leevering this back and forth, damageing the inset and lid of the drain and also damageing and chipping all of my tiles on the floor and snapping the end off of his screwdriver.

At this point, im thinking oh my god!! my OH is gonna be so unhappy at this as we had only had the floor laid the end of last year.

He then got his keys and proceeded to try one key at a time in each lug hole to try and lift this extreamly heavy lid from the manhole,(this man is suppose to be a proffessional drain engineer/plumber??) im stood there, still not saying anything at this point, although i wanted to scream at him. (im merely a housewife but common sence provails here,) even i know that you have to use both keys at the same time in a diagonal fashion, one in each corner and stand over it to lift directly upwards to take an even weight lift on these things, but no, he did'nt,"he was kneeling down" he proceeded again to put just one key at a time in one by one holes trying to lift it, on the last hole he snapped the end off the key, still never trying both keys?? well at this stage i felt i had to say something, so i started to say, look luv i don't mean to show you to suck eggs and all that but in my oppinion this is how i have seen this done.

well!!! that did it for him, he started screaming and shouting at me (i got the impression he did not like a woman telling him wot to do) he was extreamly aggressive and completely unaproachable at this stage although i did try and calm him down but to no avail, he then walked out of my front door slamming it that hard the wall shook.

My daughter and a friend was here with me all the time and they were totally shocked at this guy's behaviour.

As soon as he went, i got straight on the phone to Homeserve, (i was shaking all over in diss-belief) "I said i was gonna cut this short and my apollogies for this thread being so long but there was no other way of explaining this"..

Anyway!! the way it has been left is... Homeserve have told me that the company are obviously denying it, and they "being Homeserve" were being really nice at first saying that they will look into it and one way or another they will sort it out. (i forgot to say erlier that within 20 mins of that engineer leaving, they sent out another plumber and asked him to write a report and take photo's of the damage) We also took lots of photo's for refference with all the debrie of the broken tiles still on the floor.

Now they have had oppotunity to look into this complaint, they have put another guy in charge of it, cos the other guy was too nice.

The guy now dealing with it is being "bully like" and talks down and over me and has said i now have two ways of dealing with this?? either i let them replace just the manhole and the lid, of which they will need to break more tiles to get this out and the lid has the tiles inset into it, and he has said point blank that they will not replace all the floor, even though it is a utillity room/kitchen and the tiles run through both and they are now obsaleet, "sorry can't spell" from B&Q and i can't replace or match them up.

And the other choice he said i had if i was'nt happy with theirs, was to be in a possition of my word against theirs "this being the engineer company" and take this company to the small claims court.

So what can i do??? i feel im stuck between a rock and a hard place??

I told him, that the situation they were putting me in was very unfair and it was them that employed this company not me through choice, and all i did was take out this insurance in good faith and trusted them to use contractor of a proffessional standard, and this was clearly not the case in this situation...

So could someone on here please give me some sound advice on this as i told them that i was not prepared to give him an answer on this "even though he wanted me to" untill i had spoken with my husband and sought some legal advice.

They will be getting back to me very shortly and wanting my answer, so anyone's help from here would be so,so much appreciated.

Also is there anyone that would be able to draught any letters up for me if needed?? as im terrible at putting a letter together, as i can only write as i speak.

APOLLIGIES ONCE AGAIN FOR THIS BEING SO LONG....

Huge Thankyou in advance of any advice...

MLP...X

Hi,

I think you need to get proper legal advice, there are a lot of solicitors that give a free half hour or try citizens advice or your local trading standards. My parents had a similar problem with an insurance company a few years ago and were told that they had a contract with the insurance company and not the person they sent (he walked across a flat roof and put a hole in it, and worst of all he didn't tell them. They only found out when it rained). They had to use the ombudsman

Financial Ombudsman Service The insurance company sent a contractor who replaced the whole roof within a week of being informed of the complaint.

Hope this helps and good luck

Thanks for your reply Darren,

I was begining to think everyone on here gets sunday's off...lol.lol

if anyone else would like to add their thoughts too, it would be very much appreciated, it's the letter writing i get stuck with...

thanks!!!

MLP...

wooooah.....

Right, let's try this, MLP (my initials! )

(Before you send this, get a proper estimate for the repair costs ASAP)

Dear Homeserve manager wotsisname,

Please be advised that you have had x days to resolve the matter of the incident xxx (insert relevant details), and that to date, you have totally failed to come up with a satisfactory response to my concerns.

Please note that as of now, any communications from you MUST be in writing, I am not prepared to be subjected to any more verbal intimidation from Mr X, and as this claim may well now subject to a County Court claim, I do not feel that verbal communications are appropriate anyway.

Please find enclosed the estimate for £xxx, which is the cost to put my floor back to the state it was in before your abusive and incompetent employee came.

I expect the following from you within 7 days, as you have had more than enough time now to rectify the problem, and seem to have no interest in doing so:

1 - That you send someone to replace the lid/cover [sorry, hun, you'll have to put in the right words, i don't know what it is that needs doing!] within 7 days of this letter.

2 - That you confirm in writing that you will cover the cost (material + labour) of replacing/repairing the damaged floor, also within 7 days.

Please note that failure to do so will result in County Court proceedings to be raised against your company for the total cost of the repairs.

Yours truly,

MLP.

Awwww!!!

Thank you so much for your reply, you can't imagine how much i appreciate you writing this letter for me, it will be a huge problem off my mind, and i will keep you posted on the out-come of this...

Thanks again!!!

YOUR A TRUE DIAMOND...

MLP...

wooooah.....

 

Right, let's try this, MLP (my initials! )

 

 

(Before you send this, get a proper estimate for the repair costs ASAP)

 

 

Dear Homeserve manager wotsisname,

 

Please be advised that you have had x days to resolve the matter of the incident xxx (insert relevant details), and that to date, you have totally failed to come up with a satisfactory response to my concerns.

 

Please note that as of now, any communications from you MUST be in writing, I am not prepared to be subjected to any more verbal intimidation from Mr X, and as this claim may well now subject to a County Court claim, I do not feel that verbal communications are appropriate anyway.

 

Please find enclosed the estimate for £xxx, which is the cost to put my floor back to the state it was in before your abusive and incompetent employee came.

 

I expect the following from you within 7 days, as you have had more than enough time now to rectify the problem, and seem to have no interest in doing so:

 

1 - That you send someone to replace the lid/cover [sorry, hun, you'll have to put in the right words, i don't know what it is that needs doing!] within 7 days of this letter.

 

2 - That you confirm in writing that you will cover the cost (material + labour) of replacing/repairing the damaged floor, also within 7 days.

 

Please note that failure to do so will result in County Court proceedings to be raised against your company for the total cost of the repairs.

 

Yours truly,

 

MLP.

Just thought i would let you know that they have sent out an loss ajuster to take a look at the floor and they came back to me last night to say they are going to replace the whole floor:D hip, hip hoooorrraaaayyyyyyy!!! All thanks to you sweetie... HUGE Thank you!!!...x:)

From Your Namesake MLP...X :)

Yeeee-ahhh!!! You have made my day!

Yeeee-ahhh!!! You have made my day!

 

GOOD!!! I'm real pleased about that...

Thanks for the flowers chuck...

MLP...X

Congratulaions

Another great result!!

Congratulaions

 

Another great result!!

Thank you Darren, for your support too...

Excellent work guys

LOL whats happened about the smell?

You still got it? or has that been fixed?

LOL whats happened about the smell?

You still got it? or has that been fixed?

It comes and goes but we think it's due to some work going on in the street and putting in new drainage system on a new development just up from us but unfortunately we have a downstairs level access shower and cos it's like a wet room and the water drains away on the floor, it's like having an open stack and the smell is drawn up through it, but it's been fine in the five years that we have had it installed.

Anglian water board would not admit they had anything going on in the area, but it's pretty obvious really.

Thanks for your concern!!!...

All of the people on this site are just simply fantastic and since joining i feel i have an extended family that i look in and check on everyday, it's a bit like the old style love thy neighbour/community spirit that seemed to have dissapeared a long time ago from all our neighbourhoods.

(if only people in the street still cared a bit more ehh?)

I feel highly honoured to be a part of this site and love you all...

All give yourselves a Gold star, cos i think you are all little Gems...x

Thanks Again Peeps!!!

MLP...XXX :)

Homeserve have blatantly lied to me today, during a repair, then put the phone down on me.

Do a google search on homeserve and you will see thousands of complaints about them.

Homeserve cannot be trusted!!!!! It is a blatant [problem] homeserve are operating!!!