Had a flood in the house and insurance-provided drying contractor didn't inspect or mention the underfloor space in their scope of works. Asked another drying contractor to look and they actually made holes and inspected the underfloor space. When raised the concern to the insurer about the scope of works they said that drying the room above with dehumidifiers will dry the underfloor space as well. Is that physically possible? The floor is quite thick wood. It also didn't align with the insurance contractor saying that if we want to add underfloor space to the quote it will be for the price of an extra room. The problems with the scope of works made me think that the insurance contractor is incompetent so I went with the non-insurance driers who used the holes in the floor to dry the space underneath and supporting timbers inside it. I couldn't argue with insurance forever while the house is not dry. Now the insurance will of course only pay for their own contractors discounted rate and scope of works which is much below what I paid for drying. I complained but insurance's final reply doesn't contain any statements about the competency of their contractor. I hope that by law I don't have to use insurance contractors if they are incompetent, so insurance should cover the cost of the contractor that I have used. Is that correct? If yes, what is the best way to go about it - should I go to FOS or court? Can I use FOS 92/10 decision in court? Some years ago the insurance contractor dried my house and it wasn't done properly. Also it didn't show much competence that the insurance contractor would only give a time estimate for drying after I complained to insurance about the service being offered on a week-by-week basis with no estimate on when it would be dry.

unclebulgaria67, thank you for the quick reply! Thinking of starting my own insurance company. Will ask preferred contractors to quote the repair cost to be exactly equal to the excess the customer would have to pay. If the customer uses my preferred contractor, then I will pay the actual repair cost to the contractor by some other channels, i.e. "a reliable business partner bonus payment" for every 100 claims repaired. Seriously, what stops the insurance companies from doing that? Do you think it is a good idea to submit a FOI to see the contract negotiated between insurance company and their preferred supplier?

FOS-92 says that it is ok if the insurers discount is deducted from cash settlement for replacements, does the same apply to repairs? " In such instances we will not usually consider it unreasonable for the insurer to deduct from the cash settlement any discount it would otherwise have obtained from the retailer." I had a small flood and obtained 3 quotes for drying works: 1k - from the insurance using their preferred contractor 2k - from the insurance preferred contractor but as a private customer 3.5k - another certified drying specialist but with a wider scope(underfloor space included) Is the insurer allowed to deduct their "bulk discount" with contractor(>50%) from the cash settlement for repairs, i.e. pay me the cash settlement of 1000 even though there is no contractor that would do a private job for that price? Even the insurance preferred contractor doesn't charge that.