Making a crisis out of a tiny job (Churchill Insurance Company)

Member Name: eiley123

Product:	Churchill Insurance Company
Date:	05/01/08 (215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None except fairly cheap

Disadvantages: Poor value for money, one department does not know what the other is doing

When we moved home in 1999 a condition of our Nationwide mortgage was that we took out their insurance, which was Churchills. As we were getting a good five year fixed deal for our mortgage, we were happy with that. At that time we had been married 27 years and only ever made one claim against our household insurance, for a broken glass door, so our premiums had always been pretty good.

We were tied into this insurance until 2006 and unfortunately had a flood in our kitchen in 2005 for which we had to make a claim. Basically due to the way the previous home owner had laid the kitchen floor and positioned piping, what should have been a relatively easy job to fix, became something of a nightmare. Churchill's did not help the situation at all.

The company which they use to organise the loss adjuster and agree to the work took for ever. The firm which they used for the work was a well known local firm but not one I would use again. The insurers argued the toss about whether we would just have to have an unsightly patch on our tiles or whether, with some contribution from us, they would re-tile what was needed. Eventually, after calling the insurance ombudsman they finally came up with the goods.

During the wasted time, I had taken holidays from work which I could not cancel, and yet no work was done. The builders then commenced other works and could not come for weeks. We ended up with a Kitchen with nothing at all in it but a tap for months on end. Thankfully it was summer. Having just had a new bathroom fitted in the spring of that year though, it was soul destroying washing up and washing clothes in our new bath. Still hey ho.

Although we could have changed insurers by 2006, as we had just had this claim we decided to wait until three years had passed. This way your premium should not be affected too much. So in comes Summer 2007 and we are flooded. In many ways we got off light. We carried pretty much all our furniture upstairs and attempted to bale out water as much as we could. Consequently we ended up with just water through the garden and garage and under the house.

However with some persuasion from friends we decided to have the damage checked as neighbours were starting to have damp problems. So in early July, a couple of weeks after the floods, we contacted our insurers, Churchill, and here we are January 5th 2008 with no work yet started.

Initially we did not shout and push our claim as there were so many people with much worse problems. Afterall one young man died in our city and many people were left out of their homes for probably two years. Still when nothing much other than a letter and a visit from a damp specialist had arrived we decided to contact Repair net re our claim. This firm deals with Churchills repairs. We were going on holiday for a fortnight and thought with our luck someone would come then. We were told that we still had not had the loss adjuster visit and arrangements were made for this to happen as soon as we returned home.

Seotember 17th saw a pleasant young man visit our home. He looked around, measured our rooms took photographs and arranged for the damp man to visit again. This chap arrived one day, earlier than planned ,and Hubby told me that he said we would probably have to live upstairs for a while as we needed two inspection hatches, in our through room floor, some plaster removing, de-humidifying equipment installing and then the work needed would be reassessed. In other words after the house had dried out.

Late October had us receiving a phone call checking that all the work had been completed to our satisfaction. I changed into Victor Meldrew shreeking unbelievable.

November saw a telphone call from the damp people asking if we had had any work done yet. One would assume that they would know seing as they were involved but that's just too simple.

December we had a visit from someone who said that our new concrete floor which had been laid with our 2005 claim was soaked as it had drawn in water sideways, without us knowing, and could possibly be dried out but, more than likely, would need replacing. This would mean all the kitchen units being taken out again and new kick boards or worse. Our builder, who Repair net have arranged, is from Sheffield and yes, you have guessed it, is still so busy with flood claims that he will not be able to come until Februaury or March.

THE LATEST

On Monday 7th January we are having a visit again from Belfor the damp firm. They are reassesing the work to be done. I spoke to the insurers when I was on leave from work on December 21st, 2007 as I knew I would have time to pin them down, that day. Here is some of what I was told:

They have no idea about the kitchen floor, have no notes and do not know who came, which is why Belfor are coming again.
At one point our claim was closed in error.
The guy who was dealing with our claim has left and I guess information has been lost.
All flood claims have now been moved to the companies Birmingham office.

Now you may think that this review is more about repair net than Churchills but you would be wrong. Churchills are the people that my hard earned money goes to. They choose to use repair net who also choose to use Belfor. When you pay good money to your insurers for your house , or any insurance, you expect a well established firm such as Churchills to work well and ease your worries a little.

The premiums for our insurance are not bad but of course they will probably go up after this claim. As I said to the chap on the phone at Christmas what looked like being a small job looks like being huge now. Our neighbours who join onto us have just noticed black mould on there wall. They contacted there insurers just before Christmas and they already have a caravan in their garden, de-humidifiers in their home and the work about to start. The guy next door though was appalled at our sorry tale, when I told him as a couple of months ago, as he had swapped to Churchills, and it is his old insurers who are doing the flood work. Obviously we will all be a bit trapped with our insurers as swapping may mean a large increase in premiums since the floods. However we will be changing come Hell or High water, pardon the pun.

One point to note is that all the council tenants and the many people who do not have insurance have received a lot of help from the council so it makes you wonder if insurance is worth the effort after all.

Hopefully we will finally get some firm and definite plans after Monday's visit. Hubby and I are both at home to try and pin the chap down but it is only the damp man. Our kitchen flood saw us putting kitchen furniture and white goods all over our the house and garage whilst the work was done, however after all this palver I am going to ask for storage of our goods to prevent damage. As I told Repair net if nothing is resolved after Monday I shall be contacting the ombudsman, but you really should not have to do this.

My recommendation overall is stay well clear of Churchills home insurance unless you want to chance a litany of disasters like this and if you have need to claim scream and kick up a fuss as you will get a quicker response than biding your time.

My biggest worry is that it will be summer before our work may be done and there is always the chance of flooding again.

Thanke for reading
(C) Eiley 2008

Rating should be no stars
Note: I know the floods were exceptional circumstances but insurers should be able to cope or what is the point.

Summary: One cock-up after another