Re: Dispute over buildings insurance.
- From: "Phil Anthropist" <dont_bother@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 06:02:40 +0100
"Dave (from the UK)" wrote:
We have paid what was Woolwich Insurance (now taken over by Barclays) for
buildings and contents insurance for about 15 years. A few years ago we
made a claim as there was subsidence. We are rather getting fed up with
the progress on this. There are numerous things that annoy us, but in
particular.
1) We were thinking of having new PVC windows installed, but were unsure
whether this should have been done before or after some repairs were made
to the outside render. We asked the loss adjuster, who told us to get them
done first. So we spent £12,500 on Windows. When the exterior of the house
was rendered and painted with exterior masonry paint, the windows received
specs of paint. We repeatedly asked for them to be cleaned and was told
the paint could be removed with hot water. We found this rather
implausible for a paint that is supposed to be waterproof, but who were we
to argue. The company have now tried to remove the paint, but succeeded in
scratching the windows, but the paint has still not been removed. The
damage to the windows is not extensive, but annoying after you have just
spent £12,500 having them installed on the advice of the loss adjuster.
I've contacted the company that installed the windows. They advised up the
paint can't be removed without scratching the windows. I've contacted
Dulux (whose paint was used), to get a response from them, but I doubt
they will be able to suggest a method either.
2) A matching bathroom suite has one item damaged, but is no longer
available, so we will end up with a non-matching set. I understand this is
excluded from the insurance policy.
3) We were advised in 2003 that the loss adjuster estimated repairs to
take 12-18 months. It is now 33 months, but still no sign of completion.
4) Some aspects of the work should be able to completed now - for example
an inspection of the drainage system. Despite this being on the work
schedule for more than a year and repeated requests that it is done, it
has not.
5) Despite render repairs being made to all four sides of the detached
property, the whole house was not rerendered. Patches where repairs were
made are clearly viable in our opinion. In the opinion of the loss
adjuster, they are acceptable.
We have now put in a formal complaint to Barclays insurance. They have
offered us 25% of the cost of the bathroom suite, but given all the
hassle, we feel they should do more.
The insurers want the company that rendered and painted the house to have
a second attempt at cleaning the paint from the windows, since the
confident it can be removed. But we feel their confidence is misplaced,
since they were confident it could be removed with hot water, but it could
not. There other attempts at cleaning have scratched windows that have
only been installed a year or so earlier.
On their own, some of these things could be considered an annoying, but
all things considered we are most unhappy.
Any advice? Should be let them have a second attempt to clean them,
despite their earlier attempts caused further damage and the installers of
the windows tell us the paint can't be removed? (I am waiting a response
from Dulux).
--
Dave (from the UK)
Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hitting reply will work for a few months only - later set it manually.
http://witm.sourceforge.net/ (Web based Mathematica front end)
It would be interesting to see the response of the insurance company to a
claim for replacement of the damaged windows and the suggestion that they
seek reimbursement from the company that caused the damage.
.
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