Freezing temperatures nationwide leading to thousands of burst pipes with subsequent water damage have occurred a number of times during my 42 years claims handling career.
However the chaos currently experienced by the insurance claims world is, I believe, unprecedented.
When this last occurred, loss adjusting firms were paid reasonable fees by insurance companies and had adequate staff resources to cope. In the early 1990’s, insurers cut fees drastically and adjusting companies had by necessity to cut their cloth accordingly and ended up with fewer, less experienced staff.
The insurance claims industry is thus at the best of times, in normal circumstances, creaking at the seams because of cutbacks at insurers and adjusters – there are simply not enough people to go round coupled with reduction in skill and experience levels.
When, for example last year, Cumbria flooded, it creaked even more at the seams – but adjusting firms had the resources to minimise the problem at least a little, by bringing in adjusters from other regions of the British Isles.
However, this time the problem is nationwide and extra adjusters could not be imported from other regions because the problem was nationwide– hence the most extreme chaos that has ever hit the insurance claims industry. In addition, the demand for professional insurance assessor services became more and more acute also.
Policyholders have been waiting for up to a month for adjusters to visit their homes and business premises. There has been total confusion with some insurers telling policyholders not to touch anything until the adjuster gets there – what? – in a month’s time?
On the other hand, we at Cherry and Griffiths as expert loss assessors knew what mitigation measures needed to be taken. We knew what a policyholder should and could do to mitigate a claim and thus save the insurers money – in other words do their job for them. We knew what evidence needed to be gathered so as not to prejudice a policyholder’s position with their insurers. We knew how to help policyholders deal with matters whilst awaiting the insurer’s loss adjuster. We took the lead and did nothing which could ever be criticised by the insurer because we were looking after their interests as well as those of our clients. We are ready to start reinstating damage at many clients’ premises already.
Over the next few weeks and months frustration levels of policyholders who are not receiving the service and attention they deserve and are indeed entitled to expect will rocket. We can help you, your friends and business contacts to get through their problems.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for free advice, free review of your case – as a highly professional and very experienced loss assessor, we can get involved at any stage during the course of the claim and look after the policyholder’s interests – it’s never too late to ask for our help.