Home insurance Claims (ONLC)

[BiggestNizzy]

Many moons ago I had water ingress from the flat upstairs and it wrecked the ceiling the water was traced to the bloke upstairs poorly sealed bath after lot's of faffing about several contractor changes we are ready to get my ceiling repaired all I have to do is pay the £100 excess and arrange a date for the guys to come fix it.

wait a mo! I have to pay the £100 excess that can't be right ???? if someone crashes into my car their insurance pays to have it fixed! so why not my house? I contacted the useless/robbing git that is my factor and his reply

As it is your property that is subject to the claim, the excess is payable by yourself, although you may wish to approach your neighbour for recompense.

So I go to my neighbour and say hey your bath leaked into my flat last year (thats how useless they are at getting thing sorted) so that will be £100 please for my excess

If someone came to me and asked for £100 I would say "go away" (or words to that effect).

So the question is has anyone had this problem before and what exactly is the deal with it all ? my factor is worse than useless and I am fed up argueing with him.

[tut]

Same situation. Bunch of conniving robbing barsteward.

My next door neighbor had blocked sewage drains, turned out that they actually came through my lawn into the mains, so my Insurance Company was responsible for half the cost. Plus they dug up my front lawn to get to the pipes. If I did not agree then I would be taken to Court.

The twats took it lying down, paid out £3K to his Insurance company, and charged me £100 excess. Renewal came around again and they had upped my excess to £250, and increased the premium.

Silly billys then had to pay out £1300 a few weeks later for my Sony Notebook which was stolen whilst we were having lunch at Tescos.

tut

ps Spare Notebook just about to be advertised in Classifieds.

[BiggestNizzy]

Silly billys then had to pay out £1300 a few weeks later for my Sony Notebook which was stolen whilst we were having lunch at Tescos.

tut

Interesting Idea, although my contents is through someone else, because the deeds require that the buildings insurance goes through a factor and our factor rips us off with the buildings insurance (we have tried to sack them but my neighbours voted against it because the "new" factor charged £5 a year more ! for doing the job (the factor charges £80 a year admin) the rest of the bill is made up of maintenance/gardening/insurance etc. total - £1440 a year! there are 33 flats in the building so total cost - min (some people have bigger flats so more insurance) £47,520 yes you did read that right,

[smitstui]

I had exactly the same thing with a flat upstairs leaking into one that we rent out a few months back. In the end I repaired it myself as it was too much hassle trying to get the money out of the 19yo boy who stays upstairs and I didnt want to involve the rip off insurance companies.

It is really annoying though.


Same thing happens with cars though - last year someone hit my car, totally their fault. They paid everything, including my excess and I thought fine. When the renewal came in my policy had increased due to the fact I had had a non fault claim. That means for the next 5 years my policy had to increase by £50 a year due to the fact someone else hit my car .

[Matelotman]

wait a mo! I have to pay the £100 excess that can't be right ???? if someone crashes into my car their insurance pays to have it fixed! so why not my house? I contacted the useless/robbing git that is my factor and his reply

When someone kindly crashed into my parked car and wrote it off, I had to fork out for the excess and then the lawyers I got through my legal cover had to chase the other insurance company to recover it

[BiggestNizzy]

So the general concensus is pay up, be grumpy and screw the insurance for every penny in the future ?

[Dominic]

So the general concensus is pay up, be grumpy and screw the insurance for every penny in the future ?

If you need any new carpets, Iron Bru will do the trick nicely!!!! ..... not that I condone ripping off insurance companies.

[GregR]

Nizzy,

In the normal course of things, you have water ingress, things are damaged, you put a claim in on your household policy. The Insurance Co. will then appoint a loss adjuster to pop round to check all is kosher, then contractors will be brought in to quote. Their quote will be approved and the work will begin. Either you pay the contractor and get reimbursed by your Insurance Co less the excess, or your Insurance Co will pay and chase you for the excess.

Normally, that's where the layman thinks it all ends. However, Insurance Cos do not let £X,000 worth of repairs go. They will then seek reimbursement from the negligent party. If as you say the chap upstairs was making a mess of his plumbing, there's a claim against him. Your INsurance Co will then get in touch with his household insurer and say, "your policyholder made a mess of our policyholder's house, we paid up - pay us please". They will seek reimbursement of the whole amount, and return your excess to you in much the same way as would happen in your RTA analogy.

In short, call your insurance company, ask them if they've pursued a recovery from the upstairs proprietor. If not - tell them to. That way your upstairs chap will get a letter from your Insurance Co (not you) telling him to pass it to his insurance co. It all happens in the background so there should be as little neighbourhood animosity as possible.

Hope that helps,

Greg

[BiggestNizzy]

Nizzy,

In the normal course of things, you have water ingress, things are damaged, you put a claim in on your household policy. The Insurance Co. will then appoint a loss adjuster to pop round to check all is kosher, then contractors will be brought in to quote. Their quote will be approved and the work will begin. Either you pay the contractor and get reimbursed by your Insurance Co less the excess, or your Insurance Co will pay and chase you for the excess.

Normally, that's where the layman thinks it all ends. However, Insurance Cos do not let £X,000 worth of repairs go. They will then seek reimbursement from the negligent party. If as you say the chap upstairs was making a mess of his plumbing, there's a claim against him. Your INsurance Co will then get in touch with his household insurer and say, "your policyholder made a mess of our policyholder's house, we paid up - pay us please". They will seek reimbursement of the whole amount, and return your excess to you in much the same way as would happen in your RTA analogy.

In short, call your insurance company, ask them if they've pursued a recovery from the upstairs proprietor. If not - tell them to. That way your upstairs chap will get a letter from your Insurance Co (not you) telling him to pass it to his insurance co. It all happens in the background so there should be as little neighbourhood animosity as possible.

Hope that helps,

Greg

Cheers, only thing is it's a single policy for the entire building so it's the same policy , I will phone the insurance company before I phone the contractor.

[Skyenet]

So the general concensus is pay up, be grumpy and screw the insurance for every penny in the future ?

If you need any new carpets, Iron Bru will do the trick nicely!!!! ..... not that I condone ripping off insurance companies.

Did anybody see the programme "Fiddlers, Cheats & Scams" on Tuesday on STV. The insurance companies are using some amazing techniques at sussing out cons. Many now introducing zero tolerance.

One claimant had a minor claim for a TV and Couch damaged from a paint pot falling from a stepladder. From the customer's photos they recreated the scene using identical paint, ladders etc and proved that it couldn't have happened the way the customer claimed so rejected their claim. Had the person told the truth they would have received at least something.

Another guy claimed he had hurt his knee on a council pavement yet in the local paper the week after there was a picture of him in a football team line up taken after they won a football match later the same day. Turns out he hurt his knee in the football match. He was taken to court and ended up with a short jail sentence.

An ex senior policeman also made a similar clam to his local council about a ankle break which he had in fact done on his own drive returning from a party with neighbours. He got a longer stint in jail.

Another guy (taxi driver) who had suffered genuine eye damage claimed it was far worse and got somebody to help him get to the medical as he couldn't see properly to cross the road etc. Video followed him for a couple of streets and then he jumps into his taxi and drives it away.

Even their specialised call centres were using physco analysis of customer's answers to question to determine if there was a possible issue with the claim.

[Dominic]

So the general concensus is pay up, be grumpy and screw the insurance for every penny in the future ?

If you need any new carpets, Iron Bru will do the trick nicely!!!! ..... not that I condone ripping off insurance companies.

Did anybody see the programme "Fiddlers, Cheats & Scams" on Tuesday on STV. The insurance companies are using some amazing techniques at sussing out cons. Many now introducing zero tolerance.

One claimant had a minor claim for a TV and Couch damaged from a paint pot falling from a stepladder. From the customer's photos they recreated the scene using identical paint, ladders etc and proved that it couldn't have happened the way the customer claimed so rejected their claim. Had the person told the truth they would have received at least something.

Another guy claimed he had hurt his knee on a council pavement yet in the local paper the week after there was a picture of him in a football team line up taken after they won a football match later the same day. Turns out he hurt his knee in the football match. He was taken to court and ended up with a short jail sentence.

An ex senior policeman also made a similar clam to his local council about a ankle break which he had in fact done on his own drive returning from a party with neighbours. He got a longer stint in jail.

Another guy (taxi driver) who had suffered genuine eye damage claimed it was far worse and got somebody to help him get to the medical as he couldn't see properly to cross the road etc. Video followed him for a couple of streets and then he jumps into his taxi and drives it away.

Even their specialised call centres were using physco analysis of customer's answers to question to determine if there was a possible issue with the claim.

I was 'tongue in cheek' with my comment... (as usual )

I actually had a conversation with someone a while ago, which turned into a joint rant, about this very subject; false claims on insurance, and false personal injury claims; something I would never do, but something, as a result of other's dishonesty, is pushing up MY premiums

Nizzy, step away from the Iron Bru

[BiggestNizzy]

Unfortunatly I suffer from Honesty and I don't understand half of these "persoal injury claims" I mean if I tripped over something it would be my fault, for not looking where I was going.

[Shug]

Yeah...

"Have you suffered a trip or fall at work?"

"THEN LOOK WHERE THE F*CK YOU ARE GOING YOU DOZY F*CKER AND PUT THESE BLOOD-SUCKING SCUM OUT OF A JOB!"

Different story if it's a case of genuine negligence causing injury to employees, who couldn't have avoided it, but I wonder what percentage of claimants are in that boat?

[GregR]

amen

[BiggestNizzy]

arse!

Now I have a leak and have leaked into the flat downstairs whats worse while investigating I took a chunk out the bath.

it gets worse my iron broke

what a sh1t day