Do any of you know the answer to this scenario - if you are offered an insurance payout sum for you to arrange for works to be completed rather than the insurance company completing all the works needing to be done - how easy would it be to get insured again?

Depends on what the works are for. Please expand.

My house was flooded. The roof over the lounge has dropped by 2 inches and a new roof is needed. All drywall, ceilings, insulation and flooring throughout the house needs replacing. New electrics and lots of other bits.

What caused the flood?

Rain.

You would probably be covered for future claims so long as you actually carried out the works (some people take the cash and run) but not knowing the full details I would recommend that you get the insurance company to carry out the works - if there are any additional works they meet them or if the builder goes bust they have to find another builder. Unless you have experience in dealing with builders, they are difficult to control. It will be a full time job and you won't recover your own cost of managing them.

The reason for considering it is more because now they have all the drywall etc off, it has become apparant that the roof over the kitchen and bedrooms is not up to todays code.

Nothing has happened to those bits of the roof but the contractor is saying we have to take these roofs off and build new as well. We cannot understand why we need to do this as they haven't failed structurally - they just aren't to today's code.

No one will give us a straight answer and we cannot afford to pay for these roofs to be rebuild - we would have to cover the cost as they were not damaged by the rain so the insurance won't pay for them.

I spoke to the local Building Inspector (over the phone) and he said as long as they haven't failed structurally then we don't need to touch them. The insurance contractor won't have this and is still saying that as his engineer says they are not to code, we need to take them down.

He also tells me we can't get a building inspector out until they START the work on taking the roofs down - which seems crazy as the work probably doesn't need doing anyway!

If we took the payout we could have the lounge roof sorted and leave the otherbits as they are. We are so confused I do not know what to do about it.

Sorry to hear this Amy, would the local inspector not come and have a look ? the one you spoke to, i don't know how it works there i am just going by here in the UK.

That seems tough and to me they are getting you to spend money probably to make there job easier if the roof is ok ? we had this with the Barn roof recently and added ££££££££ to the build, have you contacted the insurers to tell them what is going on if they are there contractors ?
would the building inspector put that in writing ?

It sounds like the contractor is trying to blackmail you - is it too late to change the contractor?

Amy, I will look into this today for you at work and come back to you

Thanks Nikki your an angel :0)

Insurance company have to indemnify (look the word up if you don't know what it means) you- not fix the fact your house is not up to code.

Contractor is just looking to make as much money as possible. Restoration contractors have been ripping off Insurers for years like this.

I have just spoken with a city planner and that would appear to be the exact thing they are doing.

We have reached the conclusion that yes the roof over the lounge needs replacing (paid for by insurers) but the roof over bedrooms and kitchen do NOT and as they are not being paid for by the insurance anyway we can just say NO to the proposed works and that's that.

As long as the work being paid for by the insurance company is done as they
(the insurance company) want it done, that is fine. The rest is for us to say yes or no as to whether we want it touching.

Make sure you are involving the adjuster in all of this. Don't let the contractor run away with the claim.

Who is your Insurer?

The adjustor has been fully involved - I think he is as confused as the rest of us. He is away today but I will be on the phone with him first thing monday to talk about this...again!

It is RBC