House Insurance - Cash Settlement

[Danm1les]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of house insurance and cash settlements? We have a central heating leak under our new wood floor, under the parquet.The insurance assessor is round at the moment and saying they would look to settle it as a cash offer?

Has anyone got any experience of this? we've never claimed on the house before.

Thanks,

Dan

[Danm1les]

paulrockliffe said:

Not my area and no experience, so this is just a layman's view, but I would think that a cash settlement favours you if you're going to fix the issue yourself DIY, eg £10k job to get a man in, buy the materials for £2k and spend your weekends doing the work = £8k in your bank account rather than someone elses.

But, it favours the insurance company because it passes the risk on to you if the job is more involved than they think it is. Eg, costs £10k to get a man in to do it, but you've already settled with the insurers for £8k. Costs you £2k.

Plus they won't be finding the man to come and sort it for you either. Which might be good or bad depending on whether you'd rather it was done by someone you've vetted or by whoever the insurers could find that was dirt cheap.

Well this is the thing, i can do most of the prep (exposing the pipe) in an evening and then we have a plumber who we have used for years and i can just let him have keys and leave him to it. Which I wouldn't be comfortable with with a random the insurance company appoints? They've said we should know by Friday so we shall see!

[Danm1les]

Well we managed to find the leak, may tell the insurance not to worry and get the plumber round to fix it either tomorrow or Friday.

Currently patched with some sealant, bit of hose and a jubilee clip!