My house burnt down – landlord insurance question?

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 17/10/2023 - 14:58
Mike.
I like your approach -basically self insured. However are you a big enough operation to deliver that. It would scare me!
Also what about the third party risks that are also covered such as tenant re location costs?

Dear Phil,
Undervaluation can be a problem. Can I suggest next time you re-insure approach the NFU. I have several claims over 20 years including a full burn down of a block of flats and most recently a ground floor flat being turned into a paddling pool by a concealed mains pressure leak. I am fair with the insurers and they are good to me.
Make sure you have loss of income insurance too.
You will pay a little more but no hassle like you are now suffering.

Speaking from experience of dealing with an insurer- I would say that these people will lie, cheat, bully and threaten to try to avoid paying out. However- after 2 years of fighting them via the ombudsman system- the ombudsman gave them a thorough kicking for their dishonesty.
I'd suggest keeping a written record of every single thing the insurance company says- you'll need this at the ombudsman stage. Refuse to talk to anyone on the phone- insist it's all done by email- so they leave all the evidence. To some extent, this is rather like handing them a shotgun, aiming it at their feet and putting their finger on the trigger.
If you're meeting up with loss adjusters or any representative from the insurance company- record the conversations. They WILL lie and try to twist everything they see and everything you say into evidence against you.
Once you've reached the end of the insurance company's own process, ie when they have offered a derisory sum to try to fob you off, and refused to go any further- the first stage of the ombudsman process is when your case is assessed by someone with no experience, fresh out of an art course at Uni. They will side 100% with the insurance company- after all, that's the easiest way of fobbing you off. At this stage, you can put together all your legal arguments to try to win them over (you won't- because the person you're dealing with will have no idea what they're doing.)
BUT finally you get access to the "senior ombudsman" level- where you stand a chance of getting a reasonable resolution.
In our case, even at this stage, they were far too happy to accept the lies in clear contradiction of the evidence we put forwards- and for 2 years trying to make my friend homeless, she received no more than £950 compensation.
The whole system is utterly corrupt. Good luck

Reply to the comment left by Fiona Wilks at 17/10/2023 - 09:49
Thank you Fiona, I appreciate your suggestion

Reply to the comment left by at 18/10/2023 - 08:28
Thank you all for your very helpful comments and suggestions. Although a LL for many years this experience has totally knocked me for six.

Reply to the comment left by at 18/10/2023 - 08:28
I agree NFU are good, I've used them in the past. However, in recent years their quotes have been about 3 times higher than available elsewhere.

Rebuild cost assessment do desktop revaluation at a cost of around a third of the traditional measured valuation yet are remarkably accurate. Owners should obtain a revaluation periodically . If you have such a valuation on file insurers will accept if three or less years old even of the valuation is not actually correct. Don't forget to add VAT especially if your risk is residential as VAT is payable for all repairs and rebuilds even if all that is left is the foundations

In my experience insurers always pay fire claimes. Incidentally the insurers appoint loss adjusters who although appointed by the insurer are bound to be fair to both parties however if the insured appoints a loss assessor they are entitled to take a position that is not impartial. I have rarely used loss assessors and have found loss adjusters to be fair