We’ve been watching with some alarm as the gable wall of the cottage damaged in the car accident two weeks ago has continued to shift outwards and threaten to fall on the adjacent road.
When I inspected the wall this morning, I noticed one of the major corner stones is now protruding from the wall by three finger widths - it was only one finger width out of alignment after the crash.
The top of the gable wall has also moved much further away from the roof, with the gap now being a handspan and a half wide.
It’s not just my opinion that the wall is unstable either - a loss assessor told us it needed stabilisation, a stonemason warned us the wall was in danger of collapse and yesterday a senior manager from Aberdeenshire Council’s Transportation Department observed that if the wall fell onto the road and caused an accident, then we would be responsible.
To cap it off, we’ve had a stonemason and structural engineer out today who was so concerned that the building was unsafe that she’s sending someone out on Monday to jack the roof up and take some of the strain off the walls.
But can we do anything else?
No, because we’re still waiting on the insurance company.
Despite sending them one estimate already and pointing out on the phone and in writing that the wall is deteriorating, I’m still waiting for the claim to be processed.
I don’t want the walls repaired today, tomorrow or the next day, but I would like the go-ahead to properly stabilise the wall.
If we had the cash, I would organise and pay for stabilisation work myself, then bill the driver and let her sort things out with her insurer.
But we don’t have the cash so we have to wait for the insurance company to get its act together and authorise the work.
I find this ludicrous. We are the inconvenienced party, it’s our building that’s been damaged and is in a dangerous state, and yet we have to wait for the driver’s insurer to get its act together.
At the very least, we should be able to pay someone to stabilise the wall, send the bill to the driver or her insurer, and be fairly confident the bill would be paid.
But we can’t and so we wait to see what will happen first - the insurer to act or the wall to fall down.
In the meantime, I dash off emails to the insurer (that way I have a copy of what’s been said) and follow them up with phone calls and letters.
That means another few hours spent on accident-related work today instead of croft-related work.
I wonder if this email sent to the insurer’s quality control email will spur some action:
I’ve been dealing with Diamond as the result of an accident on 4 October 2007 in which Amy McRitchie, who is insured by your company, crashed her VW Golf into the back wall of a cottage on our croft (claim reference 702381440).
I was initially going to make a claim through our buildings insurer, Lloyds TSB. Their loss adjusters Cunningham Lindsay sent an assessor out on 8 October 2007 and she agreed the building needed urgent stablilisation and major structural repairs. Further, she agreed the work would require the services of stonemasons skilled in working on rubble stone walls built with lime mortar.
However, I was then contacted by Emma Bryant of Diamond who said it would simplify things if we dealt direct with Diamond so we cancelled our claimed with Lloyds and arranged to deal directly with yourselves.
However, contact has been intermittent and unsatisfactory, especially in view of the state of the wall, which has been deteriorating since the accident and is in danger of collapsing onto the adjacent road. As I’ve explained to Ms Bryant, stones in the wall have been moving noticeably since the accident because of vibrations from heavy traffic, particularly logging trucks and large tractors towing loaded cattle trailers or tonnes of straw.
We have now had two stonemasons (one is also a structural engineer) inspect the wall, and they have confirmed the wall needs urgent stabilisation. We have also had a senior manager out from Aberdeenshire Council’s Transportation Department to inspect the site of the accident and, in passing, he told us we should have the wall stablised as we would be responsible if it fell on the road.
We have submitted one estimate to your claims department already and the second stonemason will provide one as well, but she has already offered to install jacks in the building immediately as she believes it to be too unsafe as it is. We have given her the go-ahead to put these in on Monday as an interim stabilisation measure but more will need to be done.
I am doing this as I have not heard from your representatives in the past week and would like this matter to be expedited urgently given the serious implications should part or all of the gable wall fall on the road and cause an accident.
Could this claim please be processed much faster so we can at least have the wall made safe. Repairs do not have to be made immediately, but given the dangerous state of the building - as evidenced by a loss assessor, two stonemasons and a senior council transportation department manager - I believe something needs to be done with great urgency.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yes, that’s right. The insurer is Diamond - “A Girl’s Best Friend”, part of the large Admiral group.
They might be large, but they’re definitely not my best friend.
eeekkk, I don’t like the look of that! you wouldn’t want the weight of couple of inches of snow on the top would you? time is of the essence.
Wise move keeping records, when I make phone calls like yours I always ask for the name of the person I am speaking to and then make sure, they know I am writing the name, by spelling it out and I also make sure they know i am noting the exact time as well as date I spoke to them.
It seems to give a bit of ‘weight’ when you ring back and say ‘I spoke to your
Mr Couldn’tcareless at 10:20 on the 23rd……’
Would you like to check your recording of the call??
Good luck
Hi Good luck with your claim I wonder if you would not be better of contacting your own insurance company on monday as if the wall is that dangerous and does cause an accident, its you who will be sued not diamond insurance so your insurance company should perhaps deal with this , then claim all costs from the other party , This looks like a specialist job which means expensive so dont be fobed off with an cheap alternative repair Ilan
Do you have legal cover with your insurer? If so may be prudent to use it to prevent another accident and possible fatality
Our buildings insurer? While they were quick to get an assessor out, they won’t allow any work to start until they have three estimates with them.
As it has taken 20 days to get two stonemasons out and one estimate (with one promised), how much longer would it take?
This was one of the points of my post.
If we had cash available, we could get the work started and send the bill to the driver, knowing we could pay the bill in the short term should they or their insurer not pay. That’s because the driver is liable for the damage they caused, while the insurers indemnify them.
However, the system is twisted so that the insurance companies actually dictate who does the work and to what standard - unless you have the money to take control yourself and risk not getting it paid back.
It’s enough to make me bloody minded!
hmmmm would consider changing insurers at the next renewal.
It’s enough to make me bloody minded
That’s the first sign of being a grumpy old man!!!
Ah yes, just change insurers… again and again and again and again and again.
Been there, done that and they’re all the same.
That wall doesn’t look good. Keep hounding them and eventually the’ll do something just to shut you up.
can I recommend Zurric…last claim I made with them they had the situation assessed within the week and had temporary remedial equipment put in place on first request, 3 days after reporting the incident BEFORE the assessor came. Also as the insurance is buildings your mortgage company have a vested interested and if they find out that interest is in jepordy because of an insurance company dragging it’s feet they may well step in a chuck their weight about, one reason investors say never completely pay off your mortgage. Worth a try?
Susie, you wouldn’t be talking from experience would you?
I learnt my lessons well, Oh Master!
But I would have thought this has become an emergency repair to prevent further damage and liability on behalf of the insurance comany ! You may even find the local council will class it as a dangerous structure and do some emergency repairs at great expense to you so make sure the insurance companies are aware of this ! You may be lucky in so far as this is a specialist building job I had an subsidence claim and the insurance company used polish builders who did not even speak english .
sorry I don’t understand. Surely if the builder has the expertise then the nationality is immaterial?
They did not have the experience - just were subbed contractors
You know, I recently reversed into someone else’s car, and caused quite a bit of damage. I phoned my insurance company, told them the details of the other vehicle, admitted responsibilty, and within the week the other party’s vehicle had been repaired and returned. No paperwork to fill in. The other party were given an equivalent courtesy car and I am told the damaged vehicle doesn’t appear any different to how it was previously.
My insurer? Norwich Union, and I wouldn’t change them for the earth. Not cheap, not as dear as Diamond (I checked!), and 100% courteous and efficient service.
once again what has being subcontracted got to do with nationality? The council were in the wrong if they employed people (sub contractors are employed by their clients) to do a job they are not qualified to do , not the sub contractor.
You don’t employ a road sweeper to rewire a house unless they are qualified to do it!
Let’s keep it civil and bigotry free, please.
There can be an issue with some builders who do not speak English, are not familiar with building methods used in the UK and don’t know building regulations (although there a lot of British builders who also fit into the latter category).
I know of a couple of building stuff-ups that basically occurred because of misunderstandings that were down to the lack of a shared language between the builder and the sub-contractors, or because of different methods.
The other problem for immigrant workers who speak little or no English is that they are ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous employers - the sort of people who rip off both the client and the sub-contractors.
But as far as we, and other people we know are concerned, the best thing about the present wave of East European carpenters, bricklayers, general builders, plumbers and electricians is that they will happily do small jobs that most of their Scots and English equivalents will not touch.
I can’t recall the number of times we’ve been told by Scots and English building contractors that they won’t do a job because it’s too small, to complex, too fiddly or not a new build or major extension. There are even plumbers and electricians who won’t touch a job unless it’s either a new build or a house they’ve always worked on.
One of the masons who has quoted on the job is a bit of a tough cookie (and as she reads this blog, I hope that’s a reasonable description).
She also contacted Diamond and, while I don’t know what was said, I do know that the insurers are now groveling, pledging daily contact and authorising immediate stabilisation works. They also acknowledged the need to use masons who know how to repair rubble stone and lime-mortared walls.
The insurers also confessed that our details were lost somewhere between them and their loss adjusters, Questgates - although they do claim the loss adjusters are very efficient. Hmmm.
Anyway, I’m just waiting for the masons to show to put in Accro jacks and bracing, which will buy us the time to get the repairs authorised.
Thanks, Tracy!