Client Testimonials

Water damage at a construction site

Our client reported a major water damage incident on their construction site which caused damage estimated at £50,000.

The investigation of the damage found that there were approximately 300 holes, which were too small for the eye to see, in the roof of the building. The water had penetrated the building via these small holes and flooded the property below.

The insurers took the view that each of these holes constituted a separate leak so they would apply a separate excess to each. As the client’s excess was £2,500 they would not have been able to claim since the excess would exceed the claim.

How Centor Helped
We negotiated with the insurers on our clients behalf to get them the best possible settlement. We were able to show that the there were only 4 incidents rather than 300 which meant the client was able to claim £40,000 from their insurers.

Theft from a flat

The managing agent of a large property portfolio reported a theft from a flat occupied by the freeholder’s daughter. In total the value of the items stolen were almost £7,000.

The insurance policy for the property only covered the building itself and the landlords fixtures and fittings but not the contents of any of the flats. The insurers turned the claim down which caused a problem for the managing agent as their client’s daughter was out of pocket.

How Centor Helped
At the request of the managing agent we agreed to use our influence with the insurer to have some of the claim paid despite there not, technically, being cover. By careful negotiation we were able to secure a contribution of 75% of the claim from the insurers. The result was that the managing agent was able to keep their client happy with this generous contribution.

Leaking pipes at home

Our client was unfortunate enough to suffer seven incidents of water damage in a short period of time which caused considerable damage to her home. As she wanted to get the property back to normal quickly she hired a local contracting company to make the repairs and then submitted the invoice to us for approximately £300,000.

When the claim was submitted to the insurers there felt the need to investigate as the claim was so large and there was some concern that the client had over paid. Normally in these situations the insurers would have investigated before the work took place and made sure the costs were reasonable but unfortunately in this case the client had not notified us in advance.

Following the investigation the insurers found that our client had been overcharged by £100,000 by her contractors. Given the size of the overcharging the insurers were not willing to pay the full amount of the claim and so would only offer the client £200,000, which is what the insurers could have had the work done for if they had been notified sooner.

How Centor Helped
We knew that it was not realistic to expect the insurers to pay this difference but we wanted to get the best possible settlement for our client. We started by examining each separate claim in detail so see what the costs were and which parts the insurers had declined to pay. After examining the case we were able to negotiate almost £45,000 extra payment for our client which went to long way to making up the shortfall.