Insurance claim - misled

Soldato
Joined
17 Feb 2009
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2,998
Bit of background on our situation. In November 2015 we bought our flat, but since day 1 we've had issues with the boiler and losing pressure. Over the time we have spent thousands on trying to resolve it. We've had 7+ different plumbers in, we bought a new boiler, we've had leak sealant put in and we even power flushed the system to no avail. In October 2018, I got fed up and enquired to UK Leak Detection to come round and try and locate a leak in our flat since we couldn't see any damage ourselves. They eventually found a leak albeit very small on the joint that splits between our living room radiator to the bedroom radiator.

They suggested using a "middle man" company which at the time was a lot easier for us due to other commitments. However, by far they are the worst company I've ever dealt with. The original claim was back in November 2018, and the work eventually took place in January 2020 and finished in March 2020. At the time we were told the settlement figure from AXA was £25.6k, so our costs of moving out etc. were covered.

However the issue is even worse now, the boiler now loses pressure within minutes which means we have no hot water or heating. The management company of our flats advised getting back in touch with AXA, who have since advised us that we'll need to make a new claim. My issue though; is that AXA have said the original settlement figure was actually £41,670. So there is a difference of circa £16,070. Has the middle man skimmed it? I don't know what to do, do I call him out and ask to explain the difference?
 

Jez

Jez

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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33,073
There must be some massive detail missing as this thread makes absolutely no sense at all, how did a small leak in a heating system end up at the numbers here? Even if you literally gutted the entire flat and started from scratch (heating and water) you’d be nowhere near?
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
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14,107
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Leafy Cheshire
Something is very, very wrong with all of this or you're omitting something important.

Collect every piece of paper, every quote, every breakdown you have and request more detailed information from every company you came into contact with. Keep copies of the letters you send to request this, and send via recorded delivery.

Nothing in your description adds up to being even close to 25k, let alone 40k+, even when factoring in "moving out". It's time to figure out where this money went.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Feb 2009
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15,910
Location
N. Ireland
yea, sadly it looks like every single person in the chain has properly shafted you op
do I call him out and ask to explain the difference?
yea, ask for a receipt showing the breakdown of details and costs. inform your insurance company of the discrepancy. get back on to the company that carried out the work and get them back in pronto to fix the problem. i still for the life of me can't work out how it ever came to 25k never mind 41k and no one, you or the insurers questioned it.

as above there has to be more to this than is in the op, did they need to rehouse everyone in your block of flats while the work was carried out??
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
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90,806
Hmm - we had something similar - got a bit messed around (original company now out of business) - had a 3rd party out they sent 4 guys and had the problem identified in less than 40 minutes and charged just £90! and I think then £180 down the line to fix it.

Someone has definitely seen OP coming :s
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Feb 2009
Posts
2,998
You paid 25k for a leak to be fixed??

you could have replaced the entire heating system and replastered for less.

We didn't pay anything, it was covered through AXA insurance. They had to dig up the concrete floor, and dry the area for a couple of months, this includes covering our alternative accommodation etc as we had to move out.
 
Last edited:
Associate
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21 Jan 2008
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Cotswolds
We didn't pay anything, it was covered through AXA insurance. They had to dig up the concrete floor, and dry the area for a couple of months, this includes covering our alternative accommodation etc as we had to move out.

Where did you move to? Buckingham Palace?

Even at a hotel you'd struggle to get to those figures. This is contractors taking the P out of it being an insurance claim and massively inflating their costs...
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
17 Feb 2009
Posts
2,998
The loss adjuster just got back to me and said the below:

I can confirm that the claim was adjusted and agreed in the total sum of £40,320.00 net of the £250.00 policy excess, as follows:

Buildings - £36,370.00
Alternative Accommodation - £4,200.00
Total - £40,570.00
Less Excess - £250.00
Sub-total - £40,320.00

And the management company we used just replied with the below:

I have just looked into your claim the settlement of claim inclusive of management fees and works totalled to amounting to £32,760 + VAT in the end that’s inclusive of leak detection, intrusive access, repair, drying, strip out, re-instatement, surveyor fees, alternative accommodation – insurers excess’s and all other services to bring property back to pre-leak condition. We would need to look further into the costs to get a breakdown off final invoice. The final invoice to insurers and clearance of final payment from insurers was made on completion report provided to insurers on 05/08/2020.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 Dec 2003
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30,837
Location
Shropshire
Does it matter?

It's been dealt with by AXA from what I can gather so if they were happy to be shafted then that's their problem and nothing to do with the OP, or am I missing something here?
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,585
Location
East Sussex
Just spoke to the other half about this (QS doing highend flats/apartments) - she cannot wrap her head round how the figures are this high with the info provided. Someone in all this has taken the **** big time unless some key bit of info is missing.
 
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