Our client’s kitchen experienced a major water pipe leak that affected the entire ground floor of her home.
After making an insurance claim, the insurance company arranged for their contractors to dry and redecorate her home. Unfortunately, the contractor did not sufficiently dry the house and our client could still see damp on both the walls and floor.
The insurance company rejected our client’s opinion that her home was still damp, so she hired a specialist damp surveyor to conduct a thorough inspection.
The Surveyor found the property still damp due to a leak. However, the insurance company disagreed and suggested the damp was from a building defect.
The insurer refused to share information with our client, claiming it was too technical for her to understand, and began treating her unreasonably.
The insurance company eventually dispatched their own surveyor to evaluate the levels of dampness in the property. As expected, the insurer’s expert disagreed with our client’s assessment, and the insurance company began to pressure our client to agree with their expert and settle the claim.
Sabre Assessing was appointed to represent the client. We reviewed all the information and hired an independent drying contractor to evaluate the drying done by the insurer’s contractor.
We discovered that the contractor hired by the insurer failed to complete the work they promised to do. Additionally, the work they did complete had several issues.
We discussed our findings with the insurance company and found that many of the conclusions reached by their surveyor were based on theory only.
We used standards for drying wet properties and rulings from the Financial Conduct Authority to argue that the property not only needed to be dried again but the entire home should also be treated for mould contamination due to the poor performance of the insurer’s contractors.
The insurance company accepted our findings. Sabre Assessing’s contractor carried out the work and reinstated the property once it was dry.
After being vacant for 18 months, our client could finally return to her home.
