flood /storm damage

[weas]

I have just had a flooded dinning room!! i rang the insurance ,could not help as it was the weekend .so i rang broker ,told them i had water penatrating the side of the house and down the chimmey stack what should i do that the insurance would pay for !! she said i was duty bound to protect the buliding from further damage i said the only thing i could think of was to call out a scaffold company and scaffold and box in i did this and they will not pay the the scaffold bill !!! help it is �2000

[buildersmate]

I don't know the full answer, but you can start by querying �2000 for scaffolding. You get an awful lot of scaffolding done on a house for that. On what basis did you accept the offer for this service.

[weas]

I called the scaffold company on the Saturday morning and they came out within 2 hours. I guess you have to pay a premium for that!

[themas]

Most insurers have a 24/7 service for this sort of emergency. I'm surprised you have one that hasn't - seems they are not very efficient.

You need to query this further with the insurer - point out to them that you have saved money which they would have had to pay because the dammage would have been much worse if you had waited till Monday morning; also that you did what the broker advised. Iif necessary make a formal complaint and then go to the ombudsman if you can't resolve it with the company.

Put everything in writing and keep a copy, & send by recorded delivery. If you have any phone calls with them (try to avoid this), keep a detailed note of the date & time, name of person you spoke to & summary of what was said.