Action plan to accelerate remediation of private high-rise residential buildings with ACM cladding READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/action-plan-to-accelerate-remediation-of-private-high-rise-residential-buildings-with-acm-cladding

Open Consultation Banning the use of combustible materials in the external walls of high-rise residential buildings READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/banning-the-use-of-combustible-materials-in-the-external-walls-of-high-rise-residential-buildings Important please be aware this consultation closes at 11:45pm on 14 August 2018

Security in our court and tribunal buildings READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/security-in-our-court-and-tribunal-buildings

NHS gets funding green light for new buildings, wards and beds READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-gets-funding-green-light-for-new-buildings-wards-and-beds

Hi We bought a house, last May in Norfolk. We don't live in it. It was bought with our inheritance to retire to one day. In the meantime we rent one 140 miles away that we live in as we can't afford to retire yet. Our house in Norfolk was bought with the intention of renting it out until we can move in about 4 years time. We had some work to do in the house to make it fit for tenants, and we (wrongly as it happens) thought we would be liable for capital gains tax if we rented it in the first 6 months, so knew it wouldn't be tenanted straight away. We have finally got a tenant, with the contracts ready and signed to move in at Easter. When it came to insuring it, it was hard work. Because we didn't live there, but it wasn't a holiday home, and it didn't have a tenant in yet. We went through 'Your Insurance' online and filled in the forms to be given an appropriate policy. They placed our policy with Churchills, who sent us out the paperwork, which we checked through and that was that. The one point that stood out was that the house must NOT be left vacant for more than 14 days. It wasn't an issue though, because of the work and decorating that needed doing we've been there pretty much every other weekend working. Fast forward to the beginning of March and the ball valve in the water tank in the loft snapped. It wasn't the cold weather, it was simply the valve gave up the ghost. My neighbour called me within 2 hours of this happening and I was able to have the water turned off and the rest of the tank drained. Sadly though we lost all the upstairs ceilings, the carpets and the electrics were a mess. We called Your Insurance who had an answer phone message at the time, due to the high level of calls they were receiving because of the cold weather. It instructed people to start interim work and send email copies of bills to them. For us it was simply getting the remains of the wet stuff out to stop any more damage occuring, which we did immediately. A few days later and we finally get though to Your Insurance. Within 3 hours they told us our insurance was invalid because we'd 'told them we had a tenant in place'. Apparently we did this via a phone call. As such, because there was no tenant then our insurance was invalid. Boom. They wouldn't actually go to Churchill with it as they said it wasn't valid. I actually commented on Churchills page about the Brokers they had selling their policies and we were given a number to call them directly, which we did. They went off to investigate, including the phone call and promised to come back to us within 4 days. 4 days later they called, and told us there was no record of this phone call, but we had clicked the wrong button on a drop down menu. They apologise for the mistake and say it may have been date inputted wrongly! Therefore we were still an invalid claim. We have checked and rechecked our policy and there is literally nothing about it being tenanted or us telling them we had a tenant in there. They have now told us they base their policies on 'assumptions' and sent us a list of these 'assumptions'. Again, we've breached none! They claim though that this 'compromises the integrity of the contract of Insurance' and this is sufficient to 'void' the policy. So now it's not 'invalid' it's just 'void' like it never happened! They seem to move the goalposts every time we prove them wrong. I have a £200 electric bill for the last quarter, I have receipts from shops in the immediate vicinity, I have so much evidence that this house was not abandoned, but they don't want to see it. More worrying they have told us have 'voided the policy for both properties from inception' which is odd. We only have one property! The one we live in is rented, however our contents insurance is through them as well on this one. We've always made sure we have insurance and in 20 years we've made 2 claims. 1 in 2005, for a broken front door on the buildings, and 1 this year when our garage was broken into and my partners fishing gear was stolen. Both relatively small claims. It feels now that they're trying to discredit us in anyway possible and I don't quite now when or how to approach the ombudsman or if its worth it?

its not a huge issue yet but i want the CURRENT facts up in case it becomes one We demolished a garage a few weeks ago with the intention of replacing it with a summer house/shed combination after much looking around we found a website called garden buildings direct who offered some fairly priced sheds and summerhouses bit dubious of how cheaply these were offered we decided to order the cheaper of the two (shed) first and then look at summer house if all was ok with that (shed was £500 8'x8', summer house was £950) shed went up perfectly and apart from a slight line where the two roof boards met it was perfect summer house was ordered (pathfinder huntsman - http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/log-cabins/billyoh-pathfinder-huntsman-log-cabin) and here the issues started first off they told us it was to be delivered on a tuesday which was unsuitable so we called the 01636 (newark) number - only to be redirected to the Philippines after 40 minutes on the phone they agreed to re-date the delivery for Thursday unfortunately i got heatstroke building the base for it, although on reflection it was probably a good thing as it was delivered the Tuesday anyway while i was off work ill... chap piled it all on the drive - this is a log cabin style on so was delivered as 200+ separate pieces of wood, he then took a photo of it - to prove it had been delivered. fast forward 3 days later and as it had cooled down and i was starting to feel a bit better we started construction - only to find that the floor beams had been cut at 3002mm instead of 3020mm - although they had delivered 10 instead of 9 being the sort of person that looks for a quick and improved resolution i nipped to the local woodyard and got a 20mmx18mm 2.4m beam and some longer screws and sorted that as the walls would have been unsupported without it. so that fixed we got the floor down (6 extra floor beams sent - which was good as one had to be cut down and took two attempts to get right - again ok as we had been warned of this when ordering) - ran the electrics through the floor built the walls up using the Oh so vague diagram - again not an issue as i love working with my hands and the woodwork was fun. until we got to the last few bits and found that 4 of the wall beams were missing, called the call center and after several rounds of "we wont talk to you as your wife ordered it" which were resolved by passing to the missus first we got the new bits ordered HOWEVER i just found the google reviews, which after 27 reviews they only made 1 star as they apparently have a habit of claiming their drivers photos show all the parts were there and not sending replacements - i doubt it as THIS is a copy of the drivers photo (i took the liberty of photoing what he did) so best advice if they fail to send the parts? i CAN probably get some 20mm tongue and grove wood from the wood merchants and then small claims for the cost - but its unlikely to be the same wood, and they use 19mm T&G - probably so people cant do that is there any easy way to force them to provide the parts if they fail to send them? at the moment this is what we have been left with - you can see the gap from the missing pieces, plus we had to adjust a couple of other parts to fit oh yea and they also have alot of reviews claiming that the warrentie doesnt exist if the summer house is raised off the ground. which might be fun as ours is raised 8" on railway sleepers, which if they can hold a train can hold a summer house - there is only a short distance between them as well

Hi Insurers: Ocaso Management Company - The Davies Group Underwriters - ?? I seem to be involved in a passive aggressive/aggressive aggressive and rather strange encounter with my loss adjuster regarding Alternative Accommodation. I've had a look through all the threads and my Policy Booklet and in desperation, contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service, but seem to have ended up with more questions than answers. My alternative accommodation was originally and begrudgingly booked for 21 days (after proof of a medical condition which would have been further exacerbated if I had been present) whilst works were to be completed at my property. During several (recorded) phone calls and emails, I queried how realistic this was and what would happen if the works took longer than 21 days and was told - verbally and via email that it would just be extended as needed. They have indeed extended the accommodation weekly since this time. During the first 3 weeks of the intended works, the management and coordination of the project was disastrous with either nothing being done, or further damage (with extra costs) being caused by contractors. My relationship hit rock bottom with the Loss Adjuster at this point (week 3, day 17), who was extremely annoyed that he had to sort out the mess and felt it appropriate to aim his irritation at me. I received 2 emails after this asking for the details of my contents insurance so they could share the cost of the alternative accommodation. I am unsure whether I had contents insurance at the time of the incident (Nov 2015) and never thought to make a claim as it was all structural damage (water leak from apartment above). I was never asked to provide details of this in the 5 months I was trying to get them to address the works. Apologies for the back story, but the next part wouldn't make sense if I hadn't laid that out. Last Friday whilst I was away due to a bereavement, I received an email from the Loss Adjuster saying that he would be moving me to a second accommodation closer to my (empty and gutted) property??? I emailed him on Tuesday morning to say that there was no need to move me closer to home. I was asked again for my contents insurance details which I have said that I will look into further. I received an email this evening (sent this morning whilst at work) that they have booked me into a second accommodation (B&B) starting tomorrow, no address, just the name of the hotel and no mention of a reason why I have to move again. The email came from the accommodation part of the Davies-Group. I emailed them to say this wasn't feasible, but received no response. I suspect it may be the cost - which does not exceed the policy exclusions etc - however, this has not been stated. If it is the cost, why don't they just say that they want me to move because it is too expensive? If that is the case, why was I offered it in the first place? Why did the loss adjuster originally approve it? (As a project manager and anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that these projects never run to schedule, at best, you take the time estimated and times it by 2 - I digress). Can they do this? I live in a 1 bedroomed property, am in an alternative 1 bedroomed property and am now being moved into a hotel B&B. The Financial Ombudsman Service can't raise a complaint until they know who the underwriter of my Policy is and the earliest I can get that information will be Monday morning and that is a process I was advised will take months to sort out. Time I clearly don't have. This doesn't solve the immediate problem of being inexplicably ordered to leave a property that was offered to me, to have to move unnecessarily for a second time. No mention was made of how I'm going to get everything from one place to another, or if it's suitable! At a bit of a loss. The bereavement has knocked me for six and I have a horrible feeling that there is nothing I can do and the aggressive bully of a loss adjuster is intent on making things as miserable as possible for me. (I also discovered on Tuesday that due to yet another mess up with a lack of communication from Davies with the sub-contractors, the works will take even longer to complete!) Please advise. Thanks in advance.

This is more of a warning thread, for people having any significant renovations to their homes, to check there is Insurance, should anything go wrong. Here is an article showing a real life example of what could happen. In the article a young couple with small children lost their home and have huge debts after works to create basement living space went seriously wrong. This is just one example of such a situation occuring in the London area. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3484417/Our-1m-nightmare-dream-home-collapsed-shoddy-builders-thought-life-couldn-t-worse-just-start-ordeal.html Before you allow any structural alterations to your homes, please do get advice from your architect and/or surveyors. They will have full knowledge of what Insurance is available and you can then make sure you have adequate cover, whatever happens. DO NOT just take the word of builders, that they have full insurance for the contracted works, your house and all liabilities created. YOU must check any Insurance thoroughly to make sure it fully covers you. People unfortunately are so focused on trying to create a home of their dreams, that Insurance becomes a forgotten aspect. They wrongly assume that between their own Home Insurance and the builders contractors Insurance, that they will be fully covered. This unfortunately may not be the case. Please DO INFORM your Home Buildings Insurers of any structural alterations before any work commences. They can inform you of any requirements, exclusions to cover etc. As a final point, if you are doing any significant structural work as DIY work, don't assume your Home Insurance accidental damage cover will always come to the rescue. I can remember a case years ago, when a husband decided on knocking down a few walls and this led to major damage. The Insurers refused to pay out and it ended up with years of litigation between the wife (joint policyholder) and the Insurers. The husband who created the mess decided to leave his wife and the country, landing her with it to sort out. I did not find out the outcome, as it was dealt with by the Insurers legal team and the policyholder. The advice must be to think about what you are going to do and check that you do have Insurance, if it goes horribly wrong.

This is very much of a general question - does anybody have any knowledge in this area? My wife owns a leasehold flat, part of a block completed about 6 years ago. There is a management company run by the residents, with responsibility for all of the maintenance, etc. that would normally be the landlords responsibility. The landlord collects ground rent, and also charges annually for a (very expensive) building insurance policy. Does the management company have the right to negotiate its own buildings insurance cover in place of that provided by the landlord? On the face of it, they should have this right but I have been advised that there was some change in the law recently that allowed the landlord to impose his own insurance policy on the management company and leaseholders. Can anyone offer any help? Bacon

I am a foster carer and when I began fostering over 3 years ago I took out a new home buildings and contents insurance policy with Nationwide. I specifically told the guy who sold it to me over the phone that I was a foster carer and needed suitable insurance to cover me for potential damage by foster children. He said this policy would be fine. I have been paying it for nearly 4 years and not made any claims but yesterday one of the young people that I foster caused considerable damage to my house during an outburst of temper, including a broken window and internal doors. I called the insurance company today and was told I was not covered because there is an general exclusion concerning damage caused by anyone living in the house. This means that I have been paying for nearly 4 years for a policy which was not what I asked for. Do I have any claim against the Nationwide for selling me a policy which did not meet my clearly stated needs?

Good Evening, I currently have an ongoing thread about my mortgage company and the arrears I have along with other problems http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?398831-Kensington-Mortgages-Assisted-Sale&p=4540089#post4540089 I am currently going through all my paperwork to claim my charges ...looking through got me thinking I have Buildings and Contents insurance with my mortgage provider. At the time they said I had to have hmm buildings with them. We have since got into arrears and have missed several payments. These arrears also include the insurance. Now with my thinking I am paying silly interest on this amount and also it's been added to my grand arrears total which is going to court for eviction. Do we think they can do this? Is this something I can claim back? Thanks Olives xx

Hello all. This is my first time posting so I hope you will bear with me. I recently took out buildings insurance with AXA online, paying an initial credit card fee on completion of the policy form. The next day I was contacted by a member of their Data Team asking questions about my claims history. I notified them that I had previously had two claims- one for car insurance and one for contents insurance- but hadn't included them on my form as I didn't think they were relevant. They said that the car insurance claim wasn't an issue but the contents was so I advised them I would update the policy to include it as it was a previously disclosed claim to my current contents insurer and would pay their increased premium, if any. They notified me that this was taken as a non-disclosure and the policy would be immediately voided with a full refund of my initial credit card fee. After some research I contacted them the next day to discuss opening a dispute with the voidance as it put me in an awkward position for future insurance. I was told that I couldn't open a dispute against it but the voided policy was specifically an internal one and it wouldn't affect me or my premium in future. I find this hard to believe but after contacting the Citizen's Advice, FOS and FCA no-one seems able to give me any information on my position. What I would like to know is; can I open a dispute on the voidance of said policy effectively clearing my name if upheld? Is it at all possible that it would only be AXA that keep this information or do they have to notify the relevant body and can I get access to the notification to confirm it is on my history? And also, with my partner being named on the policy does this affect any future insurance she may try and get? Please understand, I am not trying to hide the voided policy. I merely want to know where I stand in future. Can I have the void revoked or do I have to accept that it will be on my insurance history? I appreciate the negligence on my part but I'm only looking to understand this better. I thank you in advance for any help or advice you can give.

I live in a leasehold flat, purchased in 2003, it is one in a block of eight. The lease is very simple, I pay £50 per annum ground rent to the freeholder, and he has to arrange buildings insurance, divide the premium by 8, and collect the payment, the contents insurance is my responsibility. Eight years ago, the freehold was purchased by a different landlord, there is another block of four, further along the street, and he bought those, too, he owns one flat, in each block, which he rents out. He is now refusing to insure the properties, [which I would think is a breach of the lease], but my question is, can I, and the remainder of the residents, insure our properties? Enquiries at two insurance agencies, reveal that they have conflicting views and are in utter confusion - what is the definitive answer, please? Sam

Hello everyone I will try and be brief. I had a water leak through my kitchen ceiling, called Aviva who said it was covered under the 'tracing' section of my policy and I am covered for anything that is involved to get to the leak, but not fix the leak itself. All seemed easy, called a plumber who took time to trace it, by lifting my Amtico floor in the bathroom and also the bedroom floor as it was right against a floor beam so couldn't bet got at via the kitchen ceiling. The ceiling was originally cut to try that way and this was all approved with Aviva. Anyway, I have had the quotes in and been told they are too high. My bathroom floor, in 2002 was £370 and the quote now is £485,. I have been offered £140! To repair the kitchen ceiling, by cutting out one metre, skimming the whole ceiling, painting and painting the walls of an L shaped room, roughly 20ft long, each side of the L, removing two radiators and relevant electrics and replacing, I have been offered £268.50 and that includes materials. The flooring I have is Amtico in the bathroom and is £70 per square metre and they said it would be £20 per square metre. The glue pack alone for this is £50 and my floor was immaculate before it had to be taken up to get to the leak. I am one of those who prefers to pay a bit more so things last. Does anyone know where I stand with this as I have now been waiting two months and it is just one query after another and I know, living in Surrey, nobody could paint a room, repair and plaster a ceiling for this amount. Thank you all for any advice from a very stressed person. Gillian:mad2:

My mother claimed on her insurance for subsidence. They monitored for a year then redone her outside drains, filled in cracks in a few rooms redone a bit of brickwork outside and redecorated some rooms. (no underpinning done) About 4 yrs later my partner noticed cracks opening up. My mother rang ins company and they wouldn't send anyone out, just told her to get a builder to look at it and let them know. As she is in her 70's she got a builder neighbour/friend to look and he said it looked ok. The ins co sent her a letter saying 'as you haven't contacted us we believe you have no problems and are closing this matter' or words to that affect. She is trying to sell the house now and the survey pulled up a problem and the prospective buyers got a structural engineer out and they said it has subsidence again and should have been underpinned last time! Mother phoned ins co and they say she has to pay £1000 excess again. Surely the ins co are at fault here?

hi all, I purchased a property in 2007 for £105000 which is now in negative equity. More recently properties of the same kind on the street have been sold averaging £80000. The lender had carried out 2 valuations over a period of six months when the original mortgage was taken out. The first valuation report hadthe reinstate value of £87000 and the second at £92500. Recently i been advised the lender is to renew the insurance policy and that sum insured would be £107000. I opposed this figure and told the lender that their original reinstate valuation is wrong and was overvalued to reflect the house price market of the time and believe the reinstate value is approx £70000. I received a letter from the lender stating they inputted the wrong reinstate value at the time of completion and a more upto date reinstate figure is £105000. I called and spoke to their agent who told me that the letter is wrong and no incorrect reinstate value was input on completion but the reinstate value had been indexed linked twice giving the incorrect figure of £107000 rather than £105000. The agent confirmed what was in the letter andwhat she told me was contradictory. Now i have two issues which i need some helpful advice (1) if a property has a sale value of £80000 is it a fair understanding for the reinstate value to be £105000. Is the sale of the property reflective of the cost to rebuild the property? Is the rebuild cost not a factor determining the cost of sale? in other words are properties sold less than the actual cost of its building even when condition is good? (2) The lenders agent was unable to give me further information on the indexed linked figure for me to determine the difference and any over charging on my account. As their is contradictory information but an agreement to some error on their behalf does that equate to a breach and what actions should/can i take? anyone had any experience with their lender with regards to over valuation?