Home Insurance Legal Cover

[Peanutte]

I am completely new to claiming on a home insurance policy. Please don't shoot me down in flames over this if I've done it all wrong -

In 2021/2022 I had an architect design a front extension to my home. Planning permission and building regs were obtained.

October 2022: Building work started.

February 2023: Work finished. I do not have a problem with the quality of the work.

But after they had finished and the dust had settled, I realised that the builders had not followed the plans accurately.

I really did not want to get the builder back and have an argument with him.

Anyway, the entire thing kept on bugging me. In the end I decided that I either have to let it go or do something about it so I contacted my home insurance provider – with whom I have Legal Cover - for advice.

August: I rang the insurance company 'Legal Helpline' three times during August and spoke to different people - and received very differing information. Was told to write to the builder. This was all very new to me and I was not sure what I was supposed to be doing.

3 September: As instructed I wrote to the builder outlining my issues. I had initially thought I would claim £3,000 but after speaking to the Helpline, I increased this to £25,000 which I understood would be negotiated down.

6 September: After my third call to the Helpline, they sent me a claim form which I completed and returned.

6 September: I was immediately contacted by another company who had to decide if my claim was suitable to go forward.

13 September: They emailed again asking for copy contract, photographs, any correspondence. Full details of claim etc.

13 September: I responded immediately giving all the information, plans, photographs etc.

18 September: Letter from builder (by email) dismissing all my complaints.

19 September: I rang the this second company and told them my builder had dismissed my complaints. My contact said he will assess if my claim is suitable for funding, and if so it will be passed to a legal firm.

21 September: Letter saying my claim could go forward.

3 October: Email from legal company with instructions how to log into their secure pages.

5 October: Received Client Engagement Letter, Terms and Conditions etc from legal firm – total of 31 pages.

Several emails passed between us – I always replied promptly and provided all the documents requested.

8 November: Letter received saying they could not take up my claim, but that I could get a surveyor's report for her to study - which I did (at my own expense). She also asked for three estimates to rectify the problem. I obtained one – I sent it to her and said if the claim had some chance of going though I would get one or two more, but if not, I won't waste the time of local builders.

My surveyor attended on 17 November and I received his report on 3 December and sent it to legal lady on 6 December.

She has now emailed me (Monday) to say their help would extend to 'limited assistance' helping me write to the contractor before I complete a form and submit a claim to the 'Small Claims Court'?   (nb:  I have already written to the contractor as directed in my first phone call to the Legal Helpline on 1 August – he has dismissed my claim).

And possibly  'off the record' assistance if I then have to issue proceedings'.

I have emailed and very politely said I regard that as a very poor outcome. I have also asked if someone else could look at my claim.

I am very fed up with this whole thing. This has taken five months from my first call to the Legal Helpline (1 August).

My only experience of insurance claims was a car accident many years ago when I was not at fault. My motor insurer (with legal cover) dealt with absolutely everything from start to finish including providing a barrister to come to Court with me.

So I assumed that my house insurance/legal cover would be similar. I still think that if you employ a builder and he doesn't do what the plans say, you should have a pretty good case against him. Makes me wonder what you have to do to use their legal cover.

I am not happy with the outcome. But also I am not happy that it has taken five months from my first phone call for them to come to their conclusion. If they could not help, did it really take five months to work that out? Could they not have told me earlier? And also I think the initial information from the Insurers Legal Helpline was incorrect - it was certainly conflicting.

I apologise for the tediously long post but could anyone comment on this please? Obviously I have skipped a lot of the detail – but have I misunderstood what legal cover is for?

Assuming I have reached the end with the legal firm, I will raise my concerns with my insurance provider. Two fold – their 'Legal Helpline' gave me conflicting advice, and also the time taken for the whole thing to be sorted.

Is there any point approaching the Legal Ombudsman? Or the Insurance Ombudsman?

Apologies for long post – thank you for reading.

[monabri]

"Not following plans " sounds serious and potentially could cause issues if you decide to sell. You think it's a £3k problem but it might be much bigger! This £3k to £25k claim sounds iffy, though! You haven't specified what the issue actually is but to increase the cost to resolve it by a factor of 8? Any builder would try to wriggle out of this or may simply be incredulous at a £25k claim and think you are trying it on!

"8 November: Letter received saying they could not take up my claim, but that I could get a surveyor's report for her to study"....err, they say they can't take up the claim but want you to send a report? Why would she do this?

[Dicky99]

I don't have direct experience of using the insurer's legal cover but I assume, because you haven't said otherwise, that your Surveyor agrees with you that there has been a breach and possibly quantified the claim.

If so why not ask your insurer whether there is a sum to which they'll fund the cost of you procuring independent legal advice.

[didds]

... to increase the cost to resolve it by a factor of 8? Any builder would try to wriggle out of this or may simply be incredulous at a £25k claim and think you are trying it on!

" I had initially thought I would claim £3,000 but after speaking to the Helpline, I increased this to £25,000 which I understood would be negotiated down."

The OP is trying it on, by admission. { this isnt an attack on the OP. Just interpreting what was written ]

didds

[Peanutte]

Thank you for your thoughts.

I did leave a lot of stuff out of my post as it was long enough already.

Not following plans:
My kitchen is at the front of the house adjacent to the hallway. The extension lengthened the hall and increased the size of the kitchen. I had some issues with the size of the two new areas and with damage to the oak floor. My main problem is that the plans showed one Velux window over the hallway extension – nearer to the house to provide light – the only other source of light being the glazed front door. The kitchen extension did not need a Velux window as there are two windows already. Instead, the builder put two Velux windows – one in each extension – and instead of putting them centrally between the walls – they are both right up against the dividing wall – which is just so odd. And the plans show the roof lights nearer to the house where extra light is needed – but these are close to the front. I do not know why he chose to put one in the kitchen ceiling – but the positioning of these is not right – either side of the shared wall and nearer to the front. It was just such a peculiar thing to do.

My surveyor said the plans are not specific enough to make an issue of new 'room' sizes (which I think make the hall too wide and the kitchen too narrow) and although there are some minor irritations, and I'm not going to pursue damage to the floor as I intend to have the whole floor replaced.

With regard the my prices.
During the first call to the Legal Helpline, the lady asked how much I wanted to claim – I thought perhaps £3,000 as that was the cost of some built-in cupboards I had installed to use some of the wasted space. She asked how much I paid the builder and when I said over £45,000, she said “He's got off lightly.”

She also said that if the insurer could not agree a figure with the builder, the case would be passed to a 'local solicitor' who would mediate.

My policy says value of claim up to £50,000. During the second phone call I said to the man that I thought that would be the entire cost to the insurer – he said 'no' – it would be the maximum amount I could claim. So I asked if I could claim (say) £25,000 and then it would be negotiated down. Man said yes.

The £5,000 is the amount a local builder has quoted to remedy the position of the Velux windows, reconstruct the roof, make good the ceilings etc.

It was only when I made the third call to the Helpline that I was even sent a claim form.

So now I am not only disappointed with the roof/window positions – but also with the way the claim was handled and ultimately turned down. The 'Helpline' information was different with each call, and I think the whole thing took too long.

[88V8]

....the plans showed one Velux window over the hallway extension – nearer to the house to provide light – the only other source of light being the glazed front door... Instead, the builder put two Velux windows – one in each extension – and instead of putting them centrally between the walls – they are both right up against the dividing wall – which is just so odd. And the plans show the roof lights nearer to the house where extra light is needed – but these are close to the front. I do not know why he chose to put one in the kitchen ceiling – but the positioning of these is not right – either side of the shared wall and nearer to the front.
My surveyor said the plans are not specific enough to make an issue of new 'room' sizes...

This is rather bizarre.
Where were you while this was going on? Did you not look what the builder was doing?
When we had an extension built I was out there every evening despite always getting home later than 1930h, looking what they had been up to.

The thing is, you had every opportunity to correct matters while the works were ongoing but it seems you chose not to.

Room sizes.... what sort of plans are these that do not have dimensions? You agreed to them? Did you not measure your existing rooms and make comparisons?

This is not obscure stuff, such as using the wrong cement mix or defective wiring. This is stuff that is clearly visible to the naked eye.

The legal support will not fund hopeless cases. Not that that excuses dilatoriness or contrary advice. But it seems to me from what you have said that you are to a significant degree the author of your own misfortune and the builder would have no difficulty in rebutting your claim....

Sorry.

V8

[Steveam]

Did you sign-off the works at the end of February? Did you have a retention? Who was managing the works? (It seems as if the builder was rather left to his own devices).

February to August seems a longish period before deciding to contact the insurer - these were not hidden “defects” but, rather, plain as a pikestaff. The builder finally receives a letter in September (6 months after completion) and might well view the elapsed time as some sort of acceptance - especially if full payment has been made and the “defects” been entirely visible.

Best wishes, Steve