Building insurance trouble not covered.

A question about : Building insurance trouble not covered.

I wonder if anyone could tell me where they think I stand with this claim, and how to proceed. (quite long winder sorry)

around 4 years ago our house had some flood damage, no water came into the house as such but we got a letter from the building next door saying damp was coming from us and when we called the insurance they said everything had to go, floors, plaster, kitchen the works.

Anyway the insurance brought in their own builder we did not choose them, whilst they were doing the work the builder expressed to us that the houses damp proof course was very old and the insurance would not cover having a new one installed as it will only bring the house back to how it was, fair enough I thought. But he said if they do all of this work and the house gets damp from this we basically wouldn't have a leg to stand on and the it's only a matter of time if we don't have it done the work he was currently doing would be ruined. as the floors were already ripped out, plaster ripped off the walls and the insurance was covering the cost to do this work he said a damp proof course would be very simple as half the work was already done and covered so we opted to pay Ј1000 for the damp proof course this work was apparently guaranteed (for around 20 years i think)

so 4 years down the line there had been a bit of salt coming through the plaster in the kitchen but i was told this may happen initially and i didn't worry (I didn't have the money to redecorate that room at the start after work was first finished) I paid for a painter to come in and fully redecorate the house and it looked great, 3 weeks later is when the problem started, all of the paint in the kitchen in one corner started to come off, the cupbaords at that end are bowing and they stink of mould, this was an external wall but now there is a single bring extension over it for a utility room. I rang the insurance who came to look and basically they said it's not our problem it's a maintenance issue, they very quickly changed their tune when i mentioned they had supplied the builders and we had paid extra for what they recommended BUT whilst he was there i was having a little touch up work done on the paint in the utility room and i mentioned just in passing we had had a leak in the roof (only a couple of days before with heavy rain) I had paid for this to be fixed, all new flashings etc.

This is when he said oh that's where this water is coming from (bearing in mind the leak was NOT on this wall and it was at the other side of what would be an external wall) he said if it was rising damp it would have white powder in it, i said it has look in the cupbaord but he said no no thats not our problem you're not covered. I said I will get an independant expert to say where the damp is coming from, they said if i do this and it comes back the damp is from the kitchen they will reimmburse me so this is what i plan to do. I've been very busy with work and not got round to it this was a few months ago, not to mention this would cost money and money has been tight.

anyway fast forward to yesterday, I was leaving the house when i went to step over the doorstep to leave the floor beneath my feet dropped about 2 inches and it feels like the joists have gone, on the other side of the hallway is the living room and in the same corner the floor feels spongy. This was a total new floor, new joists, new damp course 4 years ago So i'm thinking the floor shouldnt be collapsing now, the previous floor they said was flood damaged had no sag what soever it had been down 100 years.

Now the insurance are saying if they joists have rotted that it is not covered BUT i maintain that THEY supplied the builders, We paid extra for all of the building work they said NEEDED doing but was not covered so these faults should not be happening this soon. The original builder was not from our town and will not answer my clls or reply to messages (he never suplied the certificate for the damp course) But I do have his invoice for all building work that was done stating we paid in full, total extras we paid for on top of what the insurance company paid was around 15k.

am i right in thinking as the work was done and extra work done on recommendation of a builder supplied by the insurance that they are at fault with this and should cover any costs? I do maintain my house as best I can and anyone who could see it would see it is like a show home but i can't maintain what i can't see or get at and I wouldn't if im thinking we have had the work done to prevent any maintenance needed for a good few years.

Any help much appreciated.

Best answers:

• The first issue is that after the assessor came round, you had left it a few months to get your own independent assessor out - thus assuming you didn't do anything to rectify the situation, so it just got worse.
  If anything is rotted, this would have happened gradually over a period of time, something that insurance doesn't cover.
  Although the insurer supplied the builder, they did this to deal with the issues that were covered under the claim. Therefore, the extra work is a separate contract between you and the builders themselves, and nothing to do with the insurers.
  Also, it doesn't sound as if the insurance company 'recommended' the builders to you. They used their network of contractors for the works that were covered only. If you had spoken to the insurers, they would have advised you to get your own contractor out to do the DPC.
  Do you have anything in writing about the guarantee for the DPC? I know our contractors will only guarantee their works for 12 months.
• Sounds like it could be "Secondary Flooding"
• You are right that any claim should be reported but after a while i thought well their guy must know what he is talking about and we can't be covered, it was actually a builder friend that said that isn't from a leak it's rising damp and shouldnt be happening after that short of a period, he said to him it seemed like they just were looking for ways not to pay out but that nobody with any knowledge would think it was the leak in the other room.
  I understand work would usually be guaranteed for 12 months or so but the fact is this should NOT have happened after what we payed for, I have never heard of a damp proof course only being guaranteed for 12 months.
  You're right the builders weren't recommended they were employed by the insurance company to do the job. I spoke to my solicitor today and he seems to think that the builders were under contract to the insurance company and not to us, so technically this makes them employees (or something like that) and as they said this work needed to be done whilst acting on behalf of the insurance company that they are liable. We do not have the damp proof certificate although we asked for it several times over the years but we do have our statement of work carried out, the amount and the fact we have paid for the work, the floors are in worse condition now then when we were supposedly flooded.
  The loss adjuster who came the second time for the kitchen damp said there is no such thing as secondary flooding (even though this is what the insurance company said it was the first time they ripped my house to peices 4 years earlier and forked out 40 grand for repairs)
  I am hoping it is covered as I say it is literally in worse shape now than it was before, we didnt even know it had flood damage and wouldnt have approached the insurance company had we not got a letter from the next door neighbours builder stating he thinks damp was coming from our side into that property and was making it impossible to dry out, that's when we called and they just said yes rip it all out.
• That's correct we had a contract with the building firm for the doc work but whilst working on our property they were apparently legally employed by the insurance company and will be treat as one and the same company. Any advice given by them would be treat the same as if it was given directly by the insurance company.
  The kitchen is rising damp and has ruined part of the kitchen, the hallway is damp that has rotted the joist, I had an independent damp specialist call to the house yesterday evening and they will be preparing a damp surgery which will also prove that their original loss adjuster was wrong about why he stated the damp was in the kitchen.