Halifax home insurance and Wayletts and Co

[unlucky1971]

Hi I wonder if any of you guys have come across this before, last week we noticed our wooden floor in the kitchen change colour (it went dark) in one corner of the room. This was after 3 days of torrential rain and thought perhaps it was a broken drain or soakaway (1930s) house.

 

I started to investigate by opening the cupboard door by the damp area, went outside and checked there, I put my head to the ground by the air vent on the patio and could clearly hear running water. I called out home serve (after putting Halifax on notice about a potential claim in case it was drains not covered by my homeserve policy)Homeserve located the leak and fixed it after an access hole was created by taking out the kitchen cabinet and cutting a hole in the wooden floor.

 

Homeserve said the ground under the house in the crawlspace was saturated and looked like it had been leaking for some time and may explain why the floor was wet as it was likely the water had saturated the base of the walls and travelled up. Wayletts came today and said they could not validate my claim as they could not prove the water leak under the suspended floor to the damp patch on the wooden floor.He said he could not rule it out, but had to be able to prove to the Halifax that the damage was a result of the broken t junction in the main water supply under the house.

 

I challenged him and suggested that surely it was for him to prove it was not, he then said that I needed to create a further hole to establish that the water had penetrated the floor above the leak. I made the remark that if the water had been escaping under my house for some time it would need to escape or it would settle somewhere. The report said that as the leak was 1 metre from the damaged floor it was not possible as it was too far away and could not see a clear trail, please note he could see all of the foundations or the whole of the crawlspace as there is some kind of a wall running under my house which prevented him from seeing the corner where I believe the water has soaked up the supporting wall.

 

It has been left that it is for me to prove that the water leak (please note it was like a tap was running when homeserve located it) is the cause of the wet floor. Now I am not a housebuilder or engineer (I do have an element of common sense though) but I know water travels and the anount of water under the house was significant.

 

Does anyone know if it is for me to prove the 5amage was caused by the water leak or is it for them to prove its not? BTW this guy didn't come prepared, not even a screwdriver, he stated I live in a mid terrace property WRONG its end terrace, he also got the address WRONG he also said I pointed out damage at the other end of the kitchen WRONG it was the opposite side of the kitchen roughly a metre and a half from where the leak was(clearly doesn't know the difference between opposite and completely the other end).

 

He said he couldn't take damp readings under the house as the access panel made by homesrve was too small in fact I felt a liar as he said he couldn't see how someone could get down the whole. I think he was worried that he would get dirty, hed already said it was not the best of jobs to have on a Friday!

 

He said that the timbers by the access panel were not wet as if to substantiate his reason for declining my claim, why would this area be wet, this hole was purely above the broken pipe and the water was running away from the exterior waLl and towards the centre of the house (under the wet floor above)I should add that he could not give any other reason why the wet patch was there, thoughts appreciated please, Lou

Edited August 12, 2011 by unlucky1971

[unlucky1971]

Agh the pennys dropped, I know what his problem is..........he doesn't know that damp rises!

[rebel11]

Hi unl

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Thread moved. Try to use spaces next time, to create short paragraphs.

[unclebulgaria67]

The only comment to make is that you need to make a complaint and ask the Insurers to send someone else.

 

If your Halifax policy does not cover trace and access to find such problems or some form of emergency cover, you will need to pay for another company to find and fix the leak.

 

I would have thought that you would have noticed a significant reduction in the water pressure in your cold water supply, had it been a leak in the water supply pipe. If there is no reduction in pressure, could it be a drainage problem ?

[unlucky1971]

The only comment to make is that you need to make a complaint and ask the Insurers to send someone else.

 

If your Halifax policy does not cover trace and access to find such problems or some form of emergency cover, you will need to pay for another company to find and fix the leak.

 

I would have thought that you would have noticed a significant reduction in the water pressure in your cold water supply, had it been a leak in the water supply pipe. If there is no reduction in pressure, could it be a drainage problem ?

 

Hi uncleBulgaria, thank you

 

Homeserve have fixed the leak, it was the blue poly water supply pipe running from the internal stop cock connecting to the tank in the loft and to the washing machine and kitchen sink, pressure in the house has never been great since we moved here and we have noticed no further loss of pressure, nor is our water metered so we really don't know how long this has been going on for.

 

I have called my home insurance out to inspect potential damage to the foundations as the water leak was not a dribble it was pretty heavy and am concerned from that perspective, I also want them to assess the damage to the solid wooden floor.

 

We don't know if there is any damage to the joists or worse dry or wet rot which is likely to form if not dried out correctly.

 

I am sure that the water is sitting somewhere in the void under the house and has been soaking up, thus why we have a wet floor. It was like a stream and I don't know if this will cause rot etc. Lou

 

Ps forgot to add, no damp readings were taken in the void under the house and I incorrectly stated the adjustor could see the whole void, in fact he couldn't and its the area he couldn't see which is below the damp patch in the kitchen floor.

 

I told him I would be making a complaint and asked for info on my right to appeal, despite him saying he would, no such literature was forthcoming, thus I rang the halifax as soon as he left to register my dissatisfaction, they obviously need to wait for the report before they make comment, fair play to my claim handler, even she made the remark that water travels.

 

Rant over, feel much better after a good cry, will ask for a 2nd opinion Monday.

Edited August 13, 2011 by unlucky1971

[unlucky1971]

Hi unl

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Thread moved. Try to use spaces next time, to create short paragraphs.

 

Thanks and sorry, just was so annoyed

[unlucky1971]

Phew just spoken to the Halifax or should I say Lloyds and based on the homeserve report and common sense have approved my claim, they were not impressed either with the ambiguous report and the non conducive pictures from the loss adjuster. I feel sorry for other legitimate policy holders who aren't prepared to fight their corner.