Hello everybody
This is my first post - I joined CAG just for this reason.
I and my mother are both pensioners and we have been with the same home insurer for over 50 years and had never made one claim up until now.
But now we have, and I feel we are being fobbed off with an unacceptable service, and I just don't know what to do.
I'll describe the problem as briefly as possible.
Six weeks ago I discovered that there was a lot of water under the floorboards after noticing a damp patch, and bailed literally gallons out.
This was traced to a cracked drainpipe
when we got the insurers in, they only put a patch on the pipe, even though the pipe might be 70 or more years old and might be cracked elsewhere too.
I wanted the whole pipe either replaced or lined but a patch was all they would do.
the water kept coming, and the electrical wiring was just lying in the water.
I told the insurer how dangerous this was he said it would be OK.
this is really old wiring, probably from when the house was built, and by now in no condition to resist lying in water.
The insurer's representative said it would be OK because if the water did get into the wiring, all that would happen was that it would trip a circuit breaker.
I told him our wiring is so old that there are no circuit breakers, only fuses.
He didn't seem interested.
the worst thing is,
they have just let the situation get worse and worse.
For days we could not wash, bathe or wash clothes because of the cracked drain.
Then when the drain was 'fixed' and the problem still persisted,
the house gradually began to smell horribly of mould - a really overpowering stench.
My mother is old and frail, and I am really worried that she has to breathe this.
I kept phoning and phoning, and not getting anywhere.
Now the whole house stinks and we have to have every single window open, despite the weather.
They have come and put crystals down to take away the smell, these have an acrid smell that is making us both ill.
all the carpets and all the furniture is impregnated with the mould smell - we might have to throw them away.
They have also put in driers (weeks after I asked them to) they are costing a fortune to run.
the water is keeping coming - over 300 gallons have been bailed out so far - so whatever it is, it hasn't been fixed yet.
I am convinced that if I stopped phoning the insurers, I would never hear from them again.
They seem totally uninterested in addressing the problem properly even though we have been exemplary customers.
Is there any kind of independent person I could employ in order to come around and assess things and give a professional opinion on what the insurer should have done and has failed to do?
Someone who could write an expert report that I could show to the insurer and say,
"This is what I want to claim, here is a report from an expert, and I think you should provide what it suggests"?
When you are in any situation where a service provider is giving you a poor service,
you have to find some sort of professional who can give an expert but entirely independent opinion,
just don't know who this might be in the case of an insurer.
Do such people exist?
Thanks.