Halifax home insurance, claim for damaged flooring from water leak

[surrey_36]

Any advice here would be appreciated, I submitted a claim on my halifax home insurance as a leak under the kitchen sink had caused the kicthen cupboard to rot and the solid wood flooring. The flooring stretches through to the lounge and if you replace the kitchen flooring the whole lot has to be done. The chap came and said that the kitchen base unit needed replacing and the approx 18 sq metres of flooring needed replacing. He said either their company could do the work or they would give me £413 to do the work (thats with the £450 excess taken off) So i suppose that means without excess they are kind of saying the job totals around £900 ish.

 

I think the chap called the wood floor laminate, which it isnt, its 15mm (cant remember the name but its definately not cheap laminate), it cost me about £2000 a while ago to be fitted.

 

I would prefer to to get the work done myself (as i know tons of floor layers) and also dont like the sound of someone doing all this work for such a cheap price, they might bodge it and Id rather get someone in my home that i know and trust.

 

Im just annoyed that they have given me such a low price, I will never be able to find anyone who will be able to replace the floor like for like and replace the kicthen base unit all for £900!

 

Whats the point in having insurance like this if they dont give you a fair price for the work, thus forcing you to use their own companies for the work??

 

thanks for anyone who can help here

[TSx]

Get two quotes from local builders, and at the same time as this, ask the insurance company for the schedule that they have prepared for the repairs.

 

You can then compare the schedule with your builders quotes - if they have not included something (which is necessary), or included an inferior quality product, then ask them to increase their offer.

 

If you're still not happy, you can make a formal complaint - however this will take a long time. If it just comes down to a case of the insurers preferred building company being cheaper, then it's unlikely to be successful, but if you can demonstrate that they have not made an offer of settlement on the basis of replacing everything like for like, then you have a good chance of the complaint being upheld.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes you need a breakdown of the Insurers contractors quote, so you know what materials they are using and what work it includes. Your preferrred contractors can provide a quote for the same and then you can see how they compare. Sometimes the Insurers contractors will obtain the same materials for less than your contractors can obtain them for and are willing to charge less for labour, as they can then get a constant volume of work.

[surrey_36]

Ok brilliant thank you both unclebulgaria and TSx!

cheers will do exactly that

[surrey_36]

Heres an update on this one, did as suggested and contacted them requesting details of materials uoted for and they have uoted for laminate flooring, not 15mm engineered board, cost difference per m2, is laminate £15 - engineered board £45. Massive difference and they have now quoted me a figure of £1400 as opposed to the original £400.

I am now going to obtain quotes as suggested also.

Thanks for your help guys!!!

[surrey_36]

Hi unclebulgaria, what if you dont want to use their preffered contractors, I did this once before and the wortk was terrible plus would rather have a company i know/trust in my house. Can I not use my own people, trouble is the price they have given me for the work is so cheap i would have to pay on top of this to get them to do it!

Yes you need a breakdown of the Insurers contractors quote, so you know what materials they are using and what work it includes. Your preferrred contractors can provide a quote for the same and then you can see how they compare. Sometimes the Insurers contractors will obtain the same materials for less than your contractors can obtain them for and are willing to charge less for labour, as they can then get a constant volume of work.

[unclebulgaria67]

You can use your own contractors, but the Insurers will only fund you the amount of their contractors quote, so you would have to find the difference.

 

I believe what happens with Insurers contractors is that they sometimes supply say 2000 hours of work under a contract. So because they are getting 2000 guaranteed hours of paid work, the rate would be lower that if it were on an individual quote basis. It is good for the contractor as they have guaranteed income coming in.

 

The downside of using your own contractor is that if the work is not done properly, it is your problem to resolve.

[surrey_36]

Ok thats brilliant thank you unlcebulgaria I will gohead with their offer, thank you for all your advice on this and to TSx, I will donate to the CAG site now, cheers

[surrey_36]

Just a fianl thank you for your help, settlement of £1340 received today, they made a mistake on the products that they had included in the quote. Thanks to CAG Consumer action group I managed to identify the wrong products included and got their offer increased from £400 to £1340. thank you so much