My wife and I have had our House and separate small holding insured with the NFU Mutual for over 30 years, we are 84 and 74 years old. Sadly, our
Detached House suffered subsidence in 2016 when suddenly the whole
plot collapsed breaking the Piles and completely wrecking the house. The
NFU Mutual engaged Crawford & Co to deal with our claim who then brought in various experts to dig into the ground and then inspect the Piles. Going on to accept the claim and promise to re build the entire house. They then demolished the old structure and the fun began. Except it has not been funny and now looks like it could be going to the Police after my wife and I have outlined our complaints to several Care Organisations who have identified abuse of elderly persons in spades. Criminal offences
identified by both the Safe Guarding Unit and the National Care Line as
breaches of both The Care Act 2014 and The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
Before I go into our several complaints concerning our home I must also tell you about another claim we had to make concerning a fire we had in the very hot summer last year involving our Stable Yard when 12 of our
22 Large Horse Stables perished and our Clock Tower was destroyed. We
we're treated vey badly with this claim also by the NFU Mutual and again
we had kept this property insured with them for circa 30 years with only one small claim for storm damage amounting to less than £3,000.
I shall carry on with this one first and come back to the House Claim.
Again the NFU Mutual engaged Crawford & Co who after sending in a
Forensic Expert to examine the sight on his hands and knees for hours declared the fire had been spontaneous and unfortunate. In fact it had taken the Fire Brigade some 40 minutes to arrive after our 999 call and
they spent another 35 minutes trying to find a source of water after their
tanker supply ran out. Some 25 minutes of that was wasted by trying to
throw pipes into dry ditches! Thus the fire went unchallenged for over I hour and just raged on. It could have been halted within two Stables had
enough water been available.
The Claim: Our Policy provided for the Stables to be replaced as was. Then
Crawford came along and decided to bring in Property Experts to value the
Stables cost of replacement. They spent the best part of the day measuring the buildings and taking note of the materials needed to rebuild
the various structures and restore the Yard to its original condition.
It then followed a valuation was arrived at of circa £160,000 to rebuild them. We were then told that we had under insured them and that we would have to pay some £60,000 towards the cost of replacement and that we would have to find that money up front. We refused to accept that
valuation and accused Crawfords of grossly over valuing our claim for the very purpose of reducing our claim. We asked is this what you do to people
who make a claim, over value items to then accuse them of being under
insured in order to pay them less than they are entitled to?
It then came to the NFU Mutual via Crawfords offering us a cash settlement
of £17,500 to settle our claim which we refused. Then after seeking out a number of prices from Stable Manufacturers we reluctantly accepted the sum of £27,200 which was not nearly enough making us having to find
another £11,000 adding to our already overdraft. We were just fed up with
the arguments and coming and goings between this young Crawfords
agent and we were anxious to get the premises back up and running.
They are now up and we still need to install electricity and power and a
toilet and washing facility and our several floodlights lost in the fire.
We expect the cost of these to run into £2,000. In all then we are very
displeased with our experience with Crawfords and the NFU Mutual and
we shall not deal with them again, although they have just renewed the
Policy automatically and we have not yet cancelled it due to our state of health. My wife has recently suffered serious Heart Failure and is very
dangerously ill at present having been rushed back into Hospital three
times during the last four weeks. I put this down to the NFU Mutual and
Crawfords 75% to blame.
Back to the House: We have been living in a 32’ Static Caravan now for over 7 years awaiting the re building of our home. It was our choice because we refused to be moved into a rental property the NFU offered
us at the time of claim because we did not want to leave our animals. We
have many and amongst them are some 50 Doves which would never
stop returning to their home. There was also a further delay which was caused by a fraudulent property dealer who claimed to have an Option
to Purchase our land which needed a Court Case to dismiss. He wanted
to build some 30/40 high value homes on our land and claimed he had
a written agreement to this effect. The High Court dismissed this as a
Forgery in no uncertain terms eventually. That took some 3 years to get
to Court. The NFU Mutual did not believe us when we told them it was
absolute nonsence and there was no such agreement.
We were then asked to pick a design for our new home. We chose one
which was a very modern structure and it was accepted by Crawfords and the NFU Mutual. It covered the same footprint and would have cost a lot less than a brick built house similar to the one we lost. It seems the local
Council rejected it at first try and so the design was altered very much
downward and re submitted. This, the NFU Mutual tell us,was also rejected as being too modern for the surrounding district???
We have now asked Crawfords to just replace our home exactly as was and
get on with it please in the hope that my wife will even see it before she dies.
We have done with carrying water and struggling with the electricity supply
and paying huge prices for gas cylinders and living like travelling gypsies
in cold winters and heavy winds which almost lift this caravan off its plot.
It is also very embarrassing having to live behind the dreadful flattened site
left by the contractors after they demolished our home. People keep asking: when is this mess going to be put right, it is devaluing our properties. So much stress it really has impacted upon our health, especially my wife. I, by the way, have been through 9 hours of surgery
for the removal of my Prostate Gland which was Advanced Aggressive Cancer of the Prostate Gland which had spread. The usual operation is about 3/4 hours for a Prostatectomy. I was given 5 years to live. I am now on borrowed time!
I have mentioned above that I have now asked for the simple replacement of our original home. But no, it isn't going to happen. Our home was a simple square building detached with an extra L shaped kitchen off the back. This extra kitchen was installed some 30 plus years ago for the benefit of workers who farmed our land to the rear. Crawfords say it will
not be allowed by the planning people and so you shall have to have the simple square building. OK, we have said, but in return please give us an extra window to the front of the house and instead of just one large protruding window to the rear upper floor give us two smaller ones. No
they say we are not going to entertain any more alterations to our planned
design.
We now have a further huge problem and that is the sewage drainage. They say that we shall need to have either a septic tank in our rear garden or a pump in our front garden to take away the sewage.We have explained that never did we have any trouble over the 30 plus years we have occupied the house with the sewage drainage going in the conventionable
way to the road side main drain.We asked them could they higher the base
of the house then if it is going to be piled in order to give them the fall we previously enjoyed. No, they say, it would involve extra cost and in any event the Council would not allow it because there would need to be ramps installed in order to satisfy the invalid rules etc. What they are avoiding is the fact that the entire area the house stood on collapsed by
over one metre when the piles gave way as a result. This is clearly evidenced by the rear back garden level which shows exactly where the
fall occurred. They have failed to recognise that, or have they to save expense? What this amounts to is we are constantly worried that we are being had. We have on several occasions accused Crawfords of Penny Pinching and this is occurring all to often, take another look at the Stables
Fiasco above. We are also very worried about how they shall deal with all of our internal fittings and built in furniture and especially our gardens which were our pride and joy. Thank goodness we have taken photos over
the years of both. We expect arguments on both accounts which we do not need at present because we have enough problems with our health.
Another complaint we have is concerning the extra cost we are having to find by living in this Caravan. At first the NFU Mutual decided to pay us a small sum each month in return for the saving of their money in the renting of a similar property which would have cost them around £400 per week at least. Crawfords stopped that payment after about three months.
I am about to do two things at present. The first shall be to invite them to call here to view the evidence that the whole area the house stood upon
collapsed, not just the drainage pipe which no longer shall have the fall required to properly drain our sewage into the main drain on the street.
The second shall be to talk to another Loss Assessor to explore if they are prepared to intervene on our behalf, which we should have done from the outset instead of allowing the NFU Mutual to select their own to look after our interests. Putting it very simply: We are not happy at present with the way we are being treated and not only do we believe this so too do the
several Care Associations we have been speaking to.
Alan Campbell the Claimant.
Detached House suffered subsidence in 2016 when suddenly the whole
plot collapsed breaking the Piles and completely wrecking the house. The
NFU Mutual engaged Crawford & Co to deal with our claim who then brought in various experts to dig into the ground and then inspect the Piles. Going on to accept the claim and promise to re build the entire house. They then demolished the old structure and the fun began. Except it has not been funny and now looks like it could be going to the Police after my wife and I have outlined our complaints to several Care Organisations who have identified abuse of elderly persons in spades. Criminal offences
identified by both the Safe Guarding Unit and the National Care Line as
breaches of both The Care Act 2014 and The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
Before I go into our several complaints concerning our home I must also tell you about another claim we had to make concerning a fire we had in the very hot summer last year involving our Stable Yard when 12 of our
22 Large Horse Stables perished and our Clock Tower was destroyed. We
we're treated vey badly with this claim also by the NFU Mutual and again
we had kept this property insured with them for circa 30 years with only one small claim for storm damage amounting to less than £3,000.
I shall carry on with this one first and come back to the House Claim.
Again the NFU Mutual engaged Crawford & Co who after sending in a
Forensic Expert to examine the sight on his hands and knees for hours declared the fire had been spontaneous and unfortunate. In fact it had taken the Fire Brigade some 40 minutes to arrive after our 999 call and
they spent another 35 minutes trying to find a source of water after their
tanker supply ran out. Some 25 minutes of that was wasted by trying to
throw pipes into dry ditches! Thus the fire went unchallenged for over I hour and just raged on. It could have been halted within two Stables had
enough water been available.
The Claim: Our Policy provided for the Stables to be replaced as was. Then
Crawford came along and decided to bring in Property Experts to value the
Stables cost of replacement. They spent the best part of the day measuring the buildings and taking note of the materials needed to rebuild
the various structures and restore the Yard to its original condition.
It then followed a valuation was arrived at of circa £160,000 to rebuild them. We were then told that we had under insured them and that we would have to pay some £60,000 towards the cost of replacement and that we would have to find that money up front. We refused to accept that
valuation and accused Crawfords of grossly over valuing our claim for the very purpose of reducing our claim. We asked is this what you do to people
who make a claim, over value items to then accuse them of being under
insured in order to pay them less than they are entitled to?
It then came to the NFU Mutual via Crawfords offering us a cash settlement
of £17,500 to settle our claim which we refused. Then after seeking out a number of prices from Stable Manufacturers we reluctantly accepted the sum of £27,200 which was not nearly enough making us having to find
another £11,000 adding to our already overdraft. We were just fed up with
the arguments and coming and goings between this young Crawfords
agent and we were anxious to get the premises back up and running.
They are now up and we still need to install electricity and power and a
toilet and washing facility and our several floodlights lost in the fire.
We expect the cost of these to run into £2,000. In all then we are very
displeased with our experience with Crawfords and the NFU Mutual and
we shall not deal with them again, although they have just renewed the
Policy automatically and we have not yet cancelled it due to our state of health. My wife has recently suffered serious Heart Failure and is very
dangerously ill at present having been rushed back into Hospital three
times during the last four weeks. I put this down to the NFU Mutual and
Crawfords 75% to blame.
Back to the House: We have been living in a 32’ Static Caravan now for over 7 years awaiting the re building of our home. It was our choice because we refused to be moved into a rental property the NFU offered
us at the time of claim because we did not want to leave our animals. We
have many and amongst them are some 50 Doves which would never
stop returning to their home. There was also a further delay which was caused by a fraudulent property dealer who claimed to have an Option
to Purchase our land which needed a Court Case to dismiss. He wanted
to build some 30/40 high value homes on our land and claimed he had
a written agreement to this effect. The High Court dismissed this as a
Forgery in no uncertain terms eventually. That took some 3 years to get
to Court. The NFU Mutual did not believe us when we told them it was
absolute nonsence and there was no such agreement.
We were then asked to pick a design for our new home. We chose one
which was a very modern structure and it was accepted by Crawfords and the NFU Mutual. It covered the same footprint and would have cost a lot less than a brick built house similar to the one we lost. It seems the local
Council rejected it at first try and so the design was altered very much
downward and re submitted. This, the NFU Mutual tell us,was also rejected as being too modern for the surrounding district???
We have now asked Crawfords to just replace our home exactly as was and
get on with it please in the hope that my wife will even see it before she dies.
We have done with carrying water and struggling with the electricity supply
and paying huge prices for gas cylinders and living like travelling gypsies
in cold winters and heavy winds which almost lift this caravan off its plot.
It is also very embarrassing having to live behind the dreadful flattened site
left by the contractors after they demolished our home. People keep asking: when is this mess going to be put right, it is devaluing our properties. So much stress it really has impacted upon our health, especially my wife. I, by the way, have been through 9 hours of surgery
for the removal of my Prostate Gland which was Advanced Aggressive Cancer of the Prostate Gland which had spread. The usual operation is about 3/4 hours for a Prostatectomy. I was given 5 years to live. I am now on borrowed time!
I have mentioned above that I have now asked for the simple replacement of our original home. But no, it isn't going to happen. Our home was a simple square building detached with an extra L shaped kitchen off the back. This extra kitchen was installed some 30 plus years ago for the benefit of workers who farmed our land to the rear. Crawfords say it will
not be allowed by the planning people and so you shall have to have the simple square building. OK, we have said, but in return please give us an extra window to the front of the house and instead of just one large protruding window to the rear upper floor give us two smaller ones. No
they say we are not going to entertain any more alterations to our planned
design.
We now have a further huge problem and that is the sewage drainage. They say that we shall need to have either a septic tank in our rear garden or a pump in our front garden to take away the sewage.We have explained that never did we have any trouble over the 30 plus years we have occupied the house with the sewage drainage going in the conventionable
way to the road side main drain.We asked them could they higher the base
of the house then if it is going to be piled in order to give them the fall we previously enjoyed. No, they say, it would involve extra cost and in any event the Council would not allow it because there would need to be ramps installed in order to satisfy the invalid rules etc. What they are avoiding is the fact that the entire area the house stood on collapsed by
over one metre when the piles gave way as a result. This is clearly evidenced by the rear back garden level which shows exactly where the
fall occurred. They have failed to recognise that, or have they to save expense? What this amounts to is we are constantly worried that we are being had. We have on several occasions accused Crawfords of Penny Pinching and this is occurring all to often, take another look at the Stables
Fiasco above. We are also very worried about how they shall deal with all of our internal fittings and built in furniture and especially our gardens which were our pride and joy. Thank goodness we have taken photos over
the years of both. We expect arguments on both accounts which we do not need at present because we have enough problems with our health.
Another complaint we have is concerning the extra cost we are having to find by living in this Caravan. At first the NFU Mutual decided to pay us a small sum each month in return for the saving of their money in the renting of a similar property which would have cost them around £400 per week at least. Crawfords stopped that payment after about three months.
I am about to do two things at present. The first shall be to invite them to call here to view the evidence that the whole area the house stood upon
collapsed, not just the drainage pipe which no longer shall have the fall required to properly drain our sewage into the main drain on the street.
The second shall be to talk to another Loss Assessor to explore if they are prepared to intervene on our behalf, which we should have done from the outset instead of allowing the NFU Mutual to select their own to look after our interests. Putting it very simply: We are not happy at present with the way we are being treated and not only do we believe this so too do the
several Care Associations we have been speaking to.
Alan Campbell the Claimant.