He told us that the surveyor’s job would be to prepare a specification of works, get competitive quotes and oversee the works to completion. The loss adjuster said that we could appoint our own surveyor. The report confirmed that the west wall sole plate needed to be repaired. It wasn’t until the 19th December that we finally got our answer. What was happening? In the end, I chased up the Loss Adjuster. Waiting to Hear BackĪ month passed and we’d heard nothing about these first investigations. He also stated that another company would be attending to inspect the internal damage. They could provide an expert opinion in a report which would let us know where we stood. He told us that a local building consultant firm would be coming to inspect the damage. This would have been due to the area having been painted over. However, there is the possibility that this damage may be historic and not have been seen by the surveyor who undertook the purchase survey. The sole plate does appear to have rotted away in the area that has been identified. But would this be enough for NFU Mutual to accept the claim? The Loss Adjuster wasn’t sure. Obviously, we had no idea what was going on underneath the flaking paint or for how long – who would? The only thing we had was the original purchase survey which said the cottage was ‘remarkably dry’. It is, after all, a Loss Adjuster’s job to save insurance companies from paying out if they can.

The loss adjuster came to see what was going on. They said he would: ‘…be able to meet with you at your home and investigate the causes for the damage and provide hands-on guidance and resolution to the claim.’ If only that were true… The First Loss AdjusterĪ few days later on 14 November 2017, the first investigations began. They said they would send along a Loss Adjuster from a firm based in Ipswich. We approached NFU Mutual, by email, through their Lavenham Agency on 9 November. It was after pulling out my wheelie bin in November 2017 and discovering the hole, detailed in my first post, that we knew it was time to go to our insurance company. Here, I’m talking about the first investigations. If you’re following the timeline, you’ll know that my last post related to the original flood.

Resolution by Kim Loraine