Just wondering at what stage other people are at? (I’m talking from Boxing Day flood time scale).
I’m just going with the flow at the moment, which means that apart from the initial visits, dehumidifiers and moving out into rented accom, not much else has happened. I’m just a bit concerned that I’m not pushing hard enough for action from surveyors, contractors to start ripping out kitchen, skirting, what they’re going to offer me in terms of reinstatement / contents reimbursement etc etc..

Only the squeaky wheels get oiled.

My mate works for a loss adjuster who is working on a lot of the flood claims. Nothing will move quickly, they will have dehumidifiers in there for ages to dry the place out. No point putting a new kitchen in for it to be damaged by the damp.

Yeah, the loss adjuster doesn’t seem to be in any hurry and he’s now told me to extend my rent agreement until June.

Theres not a lot of tradesmen around to do the work either,as the insurance companies just use their own contractors for a cheaper job,

Strip out,

dryout,

send in surveyors to see what needs repairing , replacing,

get contractors on site,order materials,

start work,

Finish work

fit out with replacement furniture etc

Now multiply by a few hundred, with limited accomodation for the trades to stay at.

A mate had a domestic burst pipe type flood, and he was out the house for over 6 months – drying, stripping, electrics, plastering, decorating, flooring, contents etc.

Multiply that by however many people were affected with these floods putting pressure on suppliers and tradesmen, it will be a long journey back to normal I’m afraid. Especially if you and/or the insurers try and flood proof the house as well.

also dont forget the huge costs involved the insurance companies dont have that cash in their pocket its invested so they want /need to drag things out a bit to budget the books.

Trimix has unfortunately had to hear my rants about the the insurance **** and loss adjuster pillocks in respect of a claim after a fire at my parents house. Absolute shower of lying, incompetent two faced shysters. I don’t get it as they’ve blown at least £20k more by mismanagement than if they did it with a bit of diligence. No longer called loss adjusters, we call them the cost inflators. Not our money directly but it all racks up the premiums.

So not a flood but the misfortune to deal with these folk. Hope you have more luck than we have.

sorry for the sidetrack, ive heard a few people mention ‘pressure on supply of tradesmen’. without wanting to sound like im cashing in on a miserable situation, is there a need for tradesmen up north? not just me, i know a few people willing to travel about for work. all skilled and tooled etc.

Depends if we want to work for third party insurance companies and possibility of not being paid on time.

When my parents were flooded out in Carlisle in the January 2005 floods they were out of their house for over 10 months. ~5 feet of water in the house.
There was still work outstanding when they moved back in October. Once they occupied their own house and the rental house wasn’t being paid for by the insurance company, everything pretty much ceased to happen and my parents gave up fighting. My mam nearly had a breakdown because of this

It’s still not right 11 years later.

They’ve been flooded again in December courtesy of Storm Desmond and are in rented accommodation again. ~6 feet of water in the house this time.
Dehumidifiers are in, kitchen, skirtings, door frames, plaster, etc have all been ripped out and they’re just waiting for it to dry before work starts. IIRC it was ~2 months of drying before anything meaningful started happening.

My advice is to be vocal with the insurance company but don’t be in a rush to move out of the rented accommodation that they’re paying for and use it as a big lever to get things done right.

I’m amazed there is enough rented accommodation for everyone to move into given we’re endlessly hearing about a shortage of houses….

My family own a place at Portinscale & flooded countless times & it’s been proven to cumbria water board / utilities that the drains outside back up & flood the cottage, it is low lying & first to get flooded but the Utilities company flatly refuse to accept the situation. A long protracted battle has been going on but as is the case with many others no insurers will touch you, I really feel for the people affected.
Missus & I were seriously looking at moving to Keswick but having doubts now & you can understand property on higher ground will fetch a premium.

As it’s a captive audience, I would urge those refitting after flood damage to consider incorporating resilient measures into their buildings. If the property is flooded again it could drastically reduce the time required to reoccupy.

Loads of links about for ideas.

A friend near Lancaster who got flooded says the insurance company are being utter bastards – tried to claim they were underinsured having had a brief glance at the house, trying to wriggle out of everything possible, taking ages over everything.

Local business owner round here said the insurance company sounded ‘gleeful’ when they informed him they weren’t insured for the flooding.

🙁

I’m amazed there is enough rented accommodation for everyone to move into given we’re endlessly hearing about a shortage of houses….

I saw a stat somewhere that there are 78,000 empty bedrooms in Lancaster (a city not much bigger than that) – dunno if it’s true.

What’s a resilient measure for 6 feet of flood water?

As a building surveyor who spends 90% of their working life getting people back into their houses, offices, shops, pubs, churches after floods, fires etc, most of the problems described above are more often than not simply down to the volumes of claims that arise after big flood events.

For flood victims, as a general rule, I would expect the best case timeline to be something like;

[from date of first notification to insurer]
1-2 days – loss adjuster appointed
3-4 days – loss adjuster visits property. Appoints drying company
1 week – surveyor appointed on larger jobs. Surveyor attends, arranges strip out work, coordinates drying company
2-6 weeks, drying largely complete, surveyor prepares spec for reinstatement, tenders issued to contractors
7-10 weeks, tenders back, contractors appointed, contractors lead time (nobody can start immediately…)
8-11 weeks – reinstatement starts
14-20+ weeks, most people should be choosing their carpets and ordering their new sofas by now.

If you are out for much more than 6 months then either something’s gone wrong with the process, or the house throws a curved ball at you (changes in water table / new rising damp problems etc),

By the way, the old fashioned view of loss adjusters trying to help the insurers wriggle out of claims or cut costs doesn’t ring true with me. All of the ones I have worked with go out of their way to help the insured and get their houses back to normal and genuinely work with them.

PS every flood victim asks me about ‘flood proofing’ their properties. The harsh reality is that if you’ve flooded once you’ll probably flood again inside 5 years, and no amount of self closing air bricks or sump pumps will help. Save the money and spend it on a new bike to cheer yourself up.

PPS when you are considering moving house, if the new house is on a road called Riverside View, Flood Lane, Watermeadow Drive etc etc just stop and think about that for a minute.

Situation with my folks has been getting interesting. Taken 5 weeks to get initial payment to tide them over (from the time of offer) and when they chased it, were told the insurance company were quibbling as they were unaware property had been previously flooded. In 2005!

Loss adjuster seems barely competent too, so they’ve had to escalate complaint to start getting anywhere. Eg walls not stripped before dehumidifiers used, etc.

Today I heard of a friend of theirs where the insurer is trying to turn the claim down as their garden was flooded in 2005 and it wasn’t disclosed (no loss suffered, no claim made)! The 2015 flood affected their building so they have a fairly large loss. Unbelievable from the insurer, whomever they are.

Just 2 samples but I hope there’s not going to be widespread problems with insurance companies trying to not pay…

PS every flood victim asks me about ‘flood proofing’ their properties. The harsh reality is that if you’ve flooded once you’ll probably flood again inside 5 years, and no amount of self closing air bricks or sump pumps will help. Save the money and spend it on a new bike to cheer yourself up.

Industry advice? sigh

Don’t worry, its the Government’s fault anyway.

Marin etc is spot on. As a former claims manager – way back in the 90s, I know – I really had far more important things to do than just create work for myself by pissing off customers deliberately.

Rich_s – depends who knew what about previously floods and whether it should have been disclosed when the policy was taken out. There is often a specific question on the proposal now, as well as it getting picked up on the postcode.

Or are you saying the same insurers dealt with the 2005 flood claim for your parents?

MoreCash
It’s an interesting question though – “has the property ever been flooded etc” is a bloody broad brush stroke right through the Consumer Insurance D&R Act. My folks are in their 70s and have been insured via the same scheme for several years (different insurer to 2005 though) so their insurer will have changed a few times, but I bet they’d not noticed that question if they have been asked it on their auto-renewal. I might keep an eye out for how FOS handle this sort of thing.

The other guy could very easily say it wasn’t his property that was flooded, just the garden. The question is just too vague and should be trumped by whatever GIS kit the insurer has.