Damage to home - Insurance payout?

[iDrive]

Hi

The WaterMeter in our home recently "failed" causing a significant flood to a room 6m x 4m.

Anglian Water came within 24 hours and confirmed that it was a fault with the meter (rather than damage caused by us) and that they would be liable for damage caused.

I spent a day emptying the room, removing the carpet etc, and the carpet and underlay were beyond repair.

I have a "like for like" quote to replace the carpet of £1400, and a lower quality (bargain basement) carpet is £893.

The only item of furniture I have not been able to dry-out is probably worth £40.

Given how quick Anglian were to visit and accept responsibility (they also removed the damaged carpet, which I had taken out of the house), their insurer seems to have boots of lead.

I have provided the carpet quote and been told that they "deal with claims in date order and it will probably be another week before we get to yours"

The floor is concrete and we can manage without using the room for a few weeks.

My question is;

What can I reasonably expect to receive and can I expect to receive a payment rather than an offer to settle an invoice for a new carpet? (I would like to take the opportunity to tile the floor rather than re-carpet, and so will pay the difference)

Any advice gratefully received - I have never made an insurance claim before.

Thanks!

[Nickyboy]

Firstly as the room is empty i'd get a dehumidifier in there and let it run, you don't know how much water had been absorbed by the concrete

[ShortShift811]

You should also speak to your own home insurers. Assuming you have cover, they may well take the claim on and sort things out more quickly for you, then recover their costs from the water company.

[oop north]

We made an insurance claim 5 years ago - Rayburn set alight - scary. £20k damage - insurers sued the installer / servicer / manufacturer (known problem with a part fitted that caused the fire) - we got the excess on out policies (contents and structural) last month - so nearly 5 years before it was finally settled in full! I also worked for loss adjusters for a few months (as accountant assisting loss adjustors, not on domestic stuff - usually business loss of profits).

Should also say we had to claim on insurance for daughter's lost flute a few weeks ago - oddly they wanted to see receipt for original purchase and the replacement too - not sure if I should have let them get away with requiring both as seems excessive

If you can sort without your own insurer then do - will save you paying out the excess and then waiting for it to come back. But don't leave it too long - might be worth informing them of what has happened but say you are trying to sort out direct and the other guys have admitted liability so just informing them so that you don't lose the right to claim with them by leaving too long.

I think you should be able to get a like for like replacement paid for - hopefully getting the cheque without having to buy the replacement, suiting what you want. That might if anything be less likely with your own insurer - they might have policy of replacing an item, so they would pay the supplier direct

The company if using insurance may be subject to the involvement of loss adjustors. May be painless may not - they can be entirely reasonable or a nightmare.