Bad start to 2012

[dbicket]

My ridge blew off in the storms this morning and smashed down on the front of the house breaking at least six tiles. So now my roof is open to the elements right down the ridge and where it smashed through the front. Spent most of the day putting up tarpaulin in the loft,( to wild to go onto roof) to make matters worse it smashed into neighbours car. Managed to get roofers out to get a quick look and they recommended dry ridge tile system?? Any comments. The only positive is that it didn't smash any of the panels on the back roof. Although I was convinced the whole array was gonna rip off. Also now have no fence as it sheared every post and is now lying in back garden. Looks like my last few days holidays are a gonna

 

[batty]

Don't you have any house insurance?

 

[dbicket]

Yea, got house insurance although excess is 250. Insurance assessor due out tomorrow afternoon. Heavy rain forecast tomorrow. Better get the buckets ready..

 

[batty]

Surely they should just get somebody out straight away to fix it or cover it after all if rain gets in they will have to pay. Where there a lot of other properties damaged also?

 

[dbicket]

Six houses in my estate. Barrett houses, seven years old, all with ridge damage. No they said assessor would have to come out first??? So if I didn't do all that work today damage would be alot more with rain.

 

[Sidewinder]

Surely they should have allowed a "damage limitation" to be done at their expense?

 

[dbicket]

I was surprised when the wife told me the assessor wouldn't be out till Thursday!! ( later changed to Wednesday afternoon). I don't know how insurance companies work but a first response team sure would be nice. Anyone got similar experience ?? This is the first house insurance claim I've made so ,don't have any past experience ..

 

[Sidewinder]

Dunno dbicket, I have claimed on house insurance but never in this scenario to be honest.

I would personally have pushed them for a damage limitation thing to have been put in place, reminding then that any further damage caused they would be paying for and not your claim, pictures etc. to prove, if they can't sort their act out.

 

[NozSpark]

I've been working in a bungalow that had a burst pipe in the loft last Christmas,,, although the owner didn't have contents cover he did have buildings cover..... the insurance co. had to replace every ceiling, skim nearly every wall, replace the bathroom, remove the kitchen (cupboards not damaged but customer supplied new for them to fit) and they also had to replace nearly very floor (chipboard).

It took the company from December to November to compete the work!

Luckily for the (elderley) owner they put him up in an OAP home as his home was obviously un-inhabitable for the duration.

 

[dbicket]

Yea gonna take lots pictures anyway. Insurance company also said that my neighbour would have to claim her own car insurance?? Surely that's not wright after all it was my roof that landed on her car..??

 

[NozSpark]

He's right, it'll have to be her claim, then maybe the insurance co's will sort it out between themselves

 

[Sidewinder]

She will, then her insurance will claim off yours that way they both make more money out of it by reducing the claim by being able to charge you more in the long run.

 

[sparky b]

Does the claim form not have a field with something like 'works undertaken to make property safe'? We're currently going through a subsidance claim, our form had that question.....

 

[dbicket]

Great!! That's gonna be a interesting conversation with my neighbour tomorrow.!

Sparky b, not got any forms yet it only happened about 8:30 this morning.

 

[sparky b]

We had ours emailed across within 2 hours of reporting problem, phone them tomorrow and find out where you stand. You should be able to do some kind of temp repair....just take lots of pics frst!!!

 

[Sidewinder]

Perhaps you should have asked them about getting someone in immediately to make safe and explaining that if they don't you would be charging them outside your policy for any further damage to either your own or other peoples property as they can't sort themselves out as it were.

 

[ProDave]

Get a roofer out ASAP to at least get a tarp OVER the roof (inside won't do much good, where's it going to drain to?)

The insurance should cover EMERGENCY repairs to protect the property from further damage.

Re dry ridge system, that's what's on my house. It works well, and is easy to fit. Even a DIY job if you have the head for heights. But it needs a length of timber running along the ridge to screw down into, so if that's not there already, there will be some carpentry to do first.

In a case like this, it proves the Scottish system is much better. Up here, building regs insist on solid boarding spanning the roof trusses, then your roof felt, then battens and tiles. So even if tiles blow off, you still have the solid boarding covered in roofing felt, so the roof is still unlikely to leak.

 

[apprentice87]

Hi All,

The insurance people are cretins... There is a principle in insurance [set in law, in quite a famous case i believe] called "mitigating against your own loss"

What this means is, say you are sailing a ship and it is holed below the waterline, then you are expected to take every action you can, to try to prevent the water flowing in. If you just sit back and watch the ship sink, the insurers are liable to not pay out....

So..... they will not let you carry out repairs until the assessor has been....Hmmm, then what about further consequential losses then, further water damage etc...

It is ok for the insurance people to increase premiums every year on the pretext that "costs have risen" The REAL truth is, they are just as much a lot of scammers as the banks..

On the subject of banks, this would have been my solution: Let them go bust, compensate ordinary people that had savings in them, and as for all the people that had mortgages, just inform then that they no longer had one, and that the debt died with the bank. With all their new found wealth, there would have been a spending boom, the economy would be doing very nicely!!! No need for the banks to print money, people would have had their own to spend.

The government could have set up their OWN bank in competition to the "gone bust" ones. People would have flocked to put their money into a bank run by the bank of england.

Instead look what has happened....They have more or less bankrupted half the world... Who has gained???? only the bankers....

In Iceland, they had a referendum. The people voted not to "save the banks" Has not hurt iceland....Seen any shortage of fish fingers????

Rant over!!!!!! Got to go now to collect my new wheels for my 1966 raleigh runabout now...I must have really flipped!!!!!

Glad the wind has gone!!!!!

john..

 

[ProDave]

On the subject of banks, this would have been my solution: Let them go bust, compensate ordinary people that had savings in them, and as for all the people that had mortgages, just inform then that they no longer had one, and that the debt died with the bank. With all their new found wealth, there would have been a spending boom, the economy would be doing very nicely!!! No need for the banks to print money, people would have had their own to spend.The government could have set up their OWN bank in competition to the "gone bust" ones. People would have flocked to put their money into a bank run by the bank of england.

When are you standing for election. You have got my vote.

The only people who would have lost out is people with shares in the banks. So yes, bring on your plan.

That's exactly what I think should happen with the eurozone problems. Default on the debts, let whoever lent the money go bust, then get on with living within your means.

 

[steptoe]

^+1

where do I tick