Insurance Claim

FreeCheese4All

we had some water damage to our house a while ago and engaged the insurance company immediately.
they sent out an assessor and we were then advised to also get our own independent assessor which we did.

long story short, our assesor put in a claim for about €7000 for various repair work and between them and the insurance company they eventually agreed to pay out €5500.
In the end we spent around €2000 on repairs and painting and didnt do all the work recommended by our assesor (replacing kitchen units etc). We may do this in time.

My question is, as someone who has never claimed on insurance before, how should we handle this?
Are we allowed to claim the full €5500 with the intention of eventually getting the recommended repair work done. Or are we only supposed to claim for the €2000 that we spent, and potentially be out of pocket in a years time when we finally go ahead and get some or all of the recommended work done?

Thanks

Otis Driftwood

Why wouldnt you get the repairs done now?

If you claim and accept payment for it then you are supposed to use whatever the settlement fee is for re-instatment of your property - ie getting it back to the same condition it was in before the incident.

FreeCheese4All

Because the work would require us to move out of the house and that's not feasible at the moment.

Is there a time limit as such to getting the work done?

oldyouth

You are fine as long as you only claimed for damage that was actually caused. You property is deemed to have incurred damage to the extent you claimed and, as such, you are financially out of pocket for the repairs which will eventually need to be carried out.

Word of warning though, if the fact that you have not yet carried out repairs leads to another loss, you could be in a whole heap of trouble. e.g. not replacing a leaking pipe

FreeCheese4All

oldyouth wrote: »

You are fine as long as you only claimed for damage that was actually caused. You property is deemed to have incurred damage to the extent you claimed and, as such, you are financially out of pocket for the repairs which will eventually need to be carried out.

Word of warning though, if the fact that you have not yet carried out repairs leads to another loss, you could be in a whole heap of trouble. e.g. not replacing a leaking pipe

Thanks.
The pipe work was the first to be done so that should be ok.
The rest is damaged units, flooring etc.

john kinsella

You dont have to carry out all the repairs. The settlement you got was an indemnity settlement. If you do not intend on doing all the works you just cant claim the retention that they have held. But the monies you have received already are all yours! No following up will be done

FreeCheese4All

Thanks but we haven't received any money yet. The money spent so far has been out of our own pocket as we needed to carry out the work to make he house liveable.

Theo_Paphitis

Your Loss Assessor should advise you on this subject. Ours did! There may be a time limit on repairing the property.