We have a property that has suffered a leak in a pipe and the Insurance have agreed to pay out (yay)
the first builder assigned to assess the damage provided an extensive scope of works, essentially a full strip out of impacted area, then a deep clean to remove mould and resinstate the area, however, they siad they will not warrant the work due to existig movement in the building and so only a cash settlement was offered. I didnt want to manage a multi trade project from interstate and requested a different builder also quote. The Insurer assigned a second builder and advised them to just scope the work as the claim had already been accepted. Second builder has taken 5 weeks and turned in a report that is a full reassessment that basically says just patch and paint some of the area covered in the first report and no mould cleaning etc, a substantially smaller scope of works that I dont believe will adequately rectify the issues.
The insurance has said we can get our own report created and submit that if we want to dispute it further.
A few questions I'm trying to answer are:
1) If we do get an independent report does the builder need any specific qualifications? The impacted area is a bathroom/laundry and our property manager has advised they do a lot of work with a buiding maintenance company of qualified trades people that refit a lot of bathrooms etc but they are not a fully registered bulilder as they dont do structural work.
2) Because there is now a second buliders report does this nullify the first? eg can we revert to the original cash settlement and engage the maintenance company direcly to just get it fixed?
this matter has dragged on for 4+ months. The tenants have now moved out because of the state of the property and we can't lease it again until its fixed up. The delay is ultimately the fault of the insurer who never contacts us, we have contacted them at least 30 times to date, we always have to chase them each time consumes about an hour of my life. We are covered for loss of rent during repairs but are trying to demand they pay rent from the loss of the tennants as the loss of rent/tenants is as a result of their negligence (complete lack of commuicaiton leading to extensive and unessary delays in repairs) which has failed to restore the property in a timely manner resulting on the loss of the tennants. We are threatening to go to the ombudsman but ultimately just want the issues fixed, ideally with warranted work and new tenants in the property.
3) Any similar experiences or advise on the insurers liability or how the ombusman may percieve this matter woudl also be appreciated.
Who was the insurer?