Insurance repair

[Skyedriver]

Following a burst frozen pipe in January, where the house was flooded quite badly, damaging a number of rooms, should the repair still be ongoing 8 months later?
Is there some sort of time limit?

[Dr_Rick]

Skyedriver said:

Following a burst frozen pipe in January, where the house was flooded quite badly, damaging a number of rooms, should the repair still be ongoing 8 months later?
Is there some sort of time limit?

Depends on how much of the fabric of the house got saturated during the burst, also the actual makeup of the areas damaged.

We had 5 bursts this last winter cause by the -20C temps, but htey just leaked rather than soaked. The repair work for that one didn't take more than a couple of weeks and that was due to phasing the trades.

Later this year we had a burst hot water pipe that ran for 7hrs or so and completely destroyed some original 150yr old lath and plaster wall / ceiling and cornice work in 3 rooms. The claims management people were too slow for our liking so we effectively took charge of communications.

The slowest bit is the drying out. We had dehmidifiers running 24/7 for about 2months before it was deemed dry enough to issue a certificate and start remedials. The drying company had to be pressed to confirm it was dry as they were wanting another few weeks of drying, but according to the figures it was good to go. Plus, we were wanting to sell the house anyway and wanted to get on.

All in all, we were 3 months from start to finish; first phone call through to final furnishing by us. But we had to push VERY hard to keep it rolling.

Counter situation, a colleague had a significant leak from the flat above his before Christmas last year. He was still waiting for his drying certificate in the summer of this year. Not sure about current status though.

I don't think there is a time limit, but for insurance purposes, I don't think they can start putting stuff back until the walls / ceiling / floor are dry enough to issue a drying certificate.

Dr Rick