Help - Endsleigh Loss adjuster's

[penny1]

Hello, this is my first post on the site and I hope someone can help.

 

I had to take my tenants to court in order for them to leave my property. They caused extensive damage to my new build property - removing boiler, radiator's all the built in goods and smashing through walls.

 

The Police have arrested the ex-tenants due to the extent of the damage and the matter is still pending - although the Police have informed me they are not hopeful of prosecution

 

I submitted a claim in April on my Landlords insurance building cover through Endsleigh. A few days after Endsleigh’s loss adjuster visited and carried out an assessment of the property. He stated that the damage was extensive and that the policy would only cover to the value of £25,000 and that I would have to cover the rest.

 

Over the last couple of months I have been emailing and calling the insurance company chasing up the claim. Endsleigh say they are waiting on the loss adjuster and the loss adjuster says its the contractor company. The contractor says its the loss adjuster. I complained a couple of weeks ago and the loss adjuster contacted me and said everything was now submitted and it would be sorted shortly. He also informed me the costs were over the cover level of £25,000 (but would not tell me the amount) and I would have to cover the rest.

 

I was relived as it was finally getting sorted. The rental of the property is a source of income for me (I am retired), having to find the costs for service charges & council tax etc is having a impact on my finances the longer it takes to sort to out and I cannot recoup these charges.

 

Now to my surprise, today I received a message informing me that AXA will be sending out a loss adjuster from a Crawfords. I am informed Axa are the underwriters and they have said it’s because its over £25,000, although I am not insured for anything over £25000

 

I am now back to square one again. I do not know why they are employing another loss adjuster but this is going to delay matters further. Can I ask Endsleigh

 

1) To base any settlement on their original loss adjuster’s report ? I am confused as to why they are not doing this anyway

as I have waited months for Endsleigh & the loss adjuster to complete their process & report's.

 

2) Request the original loss adjusters report as they seem reluctant to provide me with this - am I entitled to this ?

 

3) Can I, not agree to allow Crawford’s to go through this whole process again?

as I have read complaints about their process, online . Axa say the reason Crawfords is involved is because the

damage to my property is over £25,000 but yet my building cover does not exceed £25,000.

 

I would really appreciate an advice

Many thanks

Edited August 4, 2016 by penny1

[unclebulgaria67]

Confusing !

 

I think you need to get a written complaint off to the Chief Executive of Endsleigh ASAP, asking them to intervene on your behalf, as the claims process is turning into a nightmare.

 

I don't think there is any reason why you should not allow Crawfords to inspect, provided you get assurance that this should not delay the claim further.

 

It may be that Axa have been aware of the claim details and they are not happy. With tenants causing criminal damage to this extent, there may be questions about the vetting process and checking on how they were treating the property.

 

Without checking Endsleighs landlords policies, i would query the £25k limit. Are you happy this is written in the policy and you realised this when taking out the policy ?

 

Insurers are reluctant to provide copes of loss adjuster reports, but you can send a Data Protection Subject Access Request asking for all data held for the claim, incuding all documents, in particular Loss Adjuster reports. Advise them that as you will be a data subject in such a report, they have to provide it under the Data Protection Act.

[dacouc]

Does your policy include Loss of Rent cover for Malicious Damage by a tenant?

[penny1]

Hi unclebulgaria67 .

I had queried the £25,000 limit but was told the claim came under malicious damage and that was the limit, which I did originally see in the policy.

I will send a request for the Data Protection Subject access and see if Axa can tell me how much longer things will be delayed .Thank you for your advice and taking the time to respond.

[penny1]

Hi dacouc

I have gone through back over the policy and see there is a section for loss of rent. Would this mean I can claim for the rent now or would this be to late now .

Thank you for responding

[dacouc]

Generally for an insured peril eg a Fire, a Landlord Policy will cover the loss of rental income, there may be an exclusion for Malicious Damage by Tenants as it's not covered by most Insurers so they might not include LOR.

 

Do you have a link to your Policy wording?

 

I'll have a look for the Policy wording in the meantime

[dacouc]

If it's this Policy https://secure.endsleigh.co.uk/HostDocs/PolicyBooklets/LLDPNL/current.pdf

 

Then this is the relevant wording

 

Malicious Damage "

a) Any payment in excess of £25,000 for malicious damage or vandalism

caused by a Standard or Student Tenant during any one Period of

Insurance

b) occurring after Your Property has been left Unfurnished or

Unoccupied for more than 120 consecutive days, this is lowered to 60

days for properties which are let to Standard Tenants

c) The first £1,000 of any claim for malicious damage or vandalism caused

by a Standard or Student Tenant

d) caused by You or Your family"

 

Note the £1000 excess you will be liable for which means you will receive a maximum of £24k under this section

 

(Page 3)

 

This is the LOR section

 

"Loss of Rent

We will pay up to 30% of the Buildings Sum Insured for loss of rent if the

Property becomes Unoccupied or partly Unoccupied and cannot be let

because of loss damage covered under “Section 1 – Cover for Your

Buildings”."

 

Subject to

 

"We will not pay for

a) loss of rent arising from the tenants leaving the Property without giving

You notice

b) rent the tenants have not paid

c) loss of rent to any Properties that were Unoccupied immediately before

the Insured Event giving rise to a claim

d) any letting agents share of the rent or any other expenses You must

pay to the letting agent

e) loss of rent arising from any part of the Property that is used for

anything other than domestic accommodation

f) loss of rent after the Property is fit to be let out

g) loss of rent for more than 12 months"

 

Page 5

 

Read the definition of the word "Unoccupied" on page 2

 

 

I've not noticed any relevant exclusions to prevent you claiming for LOR and putting a claim in for it will put a rocket up to sort the claim out.

 

Bear in mind you may not have initially lost rent as I assume you did not have tenant lined up to move in straight away, however depending on your local market it may have been the case that you could have moved new tenants in within a few weeks of the old tenants moving out.

 

Endsleigh and / or the Loss Adjuster should have pointed out to you that a claim for LOR was possible.

 

Number 27 under this statue can focus an Insurers mind http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2008/9780110811574/schedule/1

[penny1]

Thank you for the valuble advice neither the loss adjuster or Endsleigh pointed out that I could claim for any loss of rent. I was just advised to forward the locksmiths invoice and Endsleigh wouldn't really provide me with any information and just told me to get in touch with the loss adjuster and he rarely responded to my emails. Thank you I will call them in the morning to investigate claiming for loss of rent. I wondered if I could claim for loss of rent to be kicked in while I am still waiting for them to sort out the actual orignal claim

Thank you

[dacouc]

It's worth bearing in mind, that if any of the delays that are caused by Axa or their agents (The LA) have increased the cost of the claim to you, then this would be unfair and the increased costs such as increases in material costs or further damage has occurred due to the work not being carried out should fall at Axa's doorstep.

 

The LOR is designed to cover your loss of rent for instance if there was a fire and your tenants moved out, your claim is no different according to the policy wording except that you knew the tenants were moving out so there would normally be a gap between the old tenants moving out and you sourcing new tenants. This would be calculated assuming the old tenants had not caused any damage and the property was ready bar your normal in between tenant processes eg cleaning etc.

 

Is the LA Axa are sending our from Crawfords a different Loss Adjusting firm to the original company appointed?

[penny1]

Hi dacouc

 

Endsleigh are the LA who commissioned the Loss adjusters. But now Axa have called to say they are the underwriters and because the claim was over £25,000 pounds they are sending a new loss adjuster called from a new company Crawfords who are a different firm from the original adjuster's by Endsleigh. The thing is the orignal loss adjuster made it clear from the onset that the costs may run over the £25000 so I am not sure why they now have to get a new company to start the process again.

thanks

[dacouc]

A new company could be good news.

 

Loss Adjusters are professionals, whilst they want to get the best deal for the Insurer, they normally want you to get what the contract (The Policy) entitles you too.

 

This should be a good chance to raise the Loss of Rent claim and get the entire claim back on track.

 

I would not recommend slating the old LA too much, keep it civil, raise your concerns about the claim and that you want to get the property repaired and remarketed.

 

A good tip is to buy yourself a diary from the pound shop and start making notes of conversations, what was agreed, by whom and what time scale was given. This can be helpful to aid you on chasing the claim and is also handy if at a late date you want to make a complaint.

 

He should have a copy of the policy wording, so just refer him to the relevant LOR section and that you want to make a claim under this section

[penny1]

Hi Dacouc

Your right this may give me the opportunity to get more clarity on my claim overall along with a timeframe as I just really want to get it back on the market or preferably sell it, as this has been a nightmare and I would not like to go through something like this ever again .I am glad to here your view of loss adjusters as it can be worry, as the perception on forums seems to be quite negitive. I would like to thank you for your input and great advice. I will post an update in the meantime its off to the pound shop I go:-D

 

Many many thanks

[dacouc]

Don't mention to the LA that you want to sell the property as the may say that if that was the case you would not have entered into a new six month AST, just put a claim in for LOR, once the the property is repaired etc you can decide to sell it then

 

Keep us updated

[penny1]

Ok - thank you for that tip

[dacouc]

If you tell him you intended to sell it after the last tenant moved out, he will say that you have not lost any rent