House Insurance claim - can anyone help!

[xkikix]

Hi girls,

A month ago we had an accident in our living room and our carpet was stained. I've been hiding the mark under a rug but my mum said we should claim on our house insurance for it. I do have accident cover.

Now my questions are -

1) does it matter that I have tried to scrub the stain and possibly made it worse
2) I'd rather have it replaced with laminate rather than carpet as I think it'll be more hygenic with a baby - Do I get this option
and finally 3) Do they fit the new carpet/laminate or do you do this yourself.


I'm with legal and general if that helps xxxxx

 

[Noor~ul~Usman]

I work in commerical property not residentail (and for a different company) but we do deal rented houses and flats

From the way we work (which may be slightly different) answers are as follows:

1) does it matter that I have tried to scrub the stain and possibly made it worse
You don't admit you might have made it worse - you point out you have tried to remove it but it aint happening

They might have a company specialising in cleaning carpets that they want to offer you - or they may ask you to get your own contractor to quote/comment on it...just to prove that it can't be rectified and will need replacing because obviously replacing it will cost more.


2) I'd rather have it replaced with laminate rather than carpet as I think it'll be more hygenic with a baby - Do I get this option

I'd be very surprised if you did! Policy wording is usually either like-for-like or new-for-old....in the residential scetor it's usually new-for-old but this still means a new carpet the same as your old one to replace it (like-for-like is more common in commercial and means we consider and calculate deprciation of an item based on age and use ).

If you want laminate you will have to actually state this to them and be prepaired to accept their cash offer for what your carpet WOULD have cost them to replace..and then pay any extra yourself to get the laminate from somewhere.


and finally 3) Do they fit the new carpet/laminate or do you do this yourself.

Depends if they have a preferred contractor that is going to supply the carpet or if they have told you to find your own company to do it. Either way the costs of removing the old carpet and fitting the new carpet should be included in the costs they agree with you

[Edit] Don't forget there'll be an excess to pay! I'd be very surprised of any accidental damage cover that doesn't carry one! So check the amount out because if it turns out that the carpet can be cleaned for this amount or less then basically there's no claim to be had because you are responcible for that first amount of money. However if it needs replacing and/or if cleaning costs are well over your excess then you have no worries

 

[chickadee1976]

When i got my hall carpet replaced a couple of years ago after burning a hole in it with my straightners(more upset about them to be honest)

The guy came out and had a look so id probably tell him you thought it would clean out but didnt. I think that would only null and void your insurance if you were claiming on Scotchguard protection or something similar).

He then went away and i got a call saying that i could go to Carpet world or where ever it was and choose a replacement.

At the carpet shop they just said to pick anything up to the value the insurance company had stated and then they would come fit it. I could even add more money to it if i wanted, the insurance company probably wont know what you buy they just pay out the cash

 

[foxymum]

a friend of mine claimed on her home insurance last year due to a big stain of her hall (cream) carpet, she had it replaced with dark wooden ( very expensive!) wooden flooring, so it must be possible to get it changed from carpet to laminate, maybe it varies from company to company.
or you could reason with them & offer to pay the difference, that is if there is any difference in price.
let us know what happens

 

[xkikix]

Thanks for your replies ladies!

I called them and put the claim in, they have arranged an appointment with a case manager to call me for an interview at 2.30pm on monday. Sounds very official and scary!

 

[Noor~ul~Usman]

Never heard of that before having said that if you rang them on a sat this may be their out of hours routine?

We have a company takes calls on our behalf over the weekend and then steadily rings through the claims throughout the day on monday to us - they only take minimum details as they don't have access to the cover details on their system so we have to set the claim up and call the client back