Successful Claim on Italian House Insurance

[Aretina]

Hi

As promised feedback on my claim with AXA italy for broken pipe/damage to unrestored bathroom on our ground floor.

1. Nov. 07 Very old pipe sprung a leak. Water escaping from outside wall (1 metre+ thick!!)
2. Reported immediately to local AXA office where I pay premiums etc.
3. Loss adjustor arrived next day. Gave permission to start work. No paperwork except signing a declaration at AXA.
4. Excellent, recommended Plumber and builder couldn't start work until end Feb. No problem as don't use this bathroom in winter.
5.April 07 Work completed and all bills taken down to Loss Adjustor.
6." I'll look at these next week." and get back in touch.
7. He did!
8. He called and said he had reached a decision. I suggested a meeting.. 20 mins. later.
9. At meeting he offered a sum I felt was too low. ok there was a lot of betterment...
10. After 30 mins. discussion and four jumps in the amount he was offering, I was just about to suggest another 200 euros as a compromiise when he turned the computer screen around and said "Signora,, 'this is the maximum I can go to...see ... it was another 200 euros over the amount I almost suggested. (Was I glad I kept my mouth firmly shut at that stage) - he then hit a key on the keyboard .....
Signora, the money is on its way to your bank

Italy and the Italians they make Pragmatism an artform and I love them for it!!

[pigro]

Did you have to pay the bills out of your own pocket first and then reclaim the acceptable portion of the total cost from the insurers afterwards, or did you get the bills, present them to the insurers, get the cash and then pay the bills after?

Also, I'd normally have expected any debate re. the proportion of the works to be covered by your insurance to have been done prior to works commencing?

[Aretina]

Hi Pigro

We paid first, retaining all the bills and then presented them to the insurers. There was no discussion as to proportion of bill to be covered by insurance prior to the work being done.

We have gone for some serious betterment and are delighted with the amount we received which we feel is a very fair amount. We hardly expected them to pay for lovely taps, mirrors etc.

This claim has been dealt with quickly and fairly which is more than can be said for the claim we made 4 years ago to Copelands (UK). Loss Adjuster made three visits from Milan in his very large 4x4 and then the claim was disallowed because we had delayed 1 week before informing them of the problem.

[pigro]

so what if the works had been major and cost more than you could shell out?

[juliancoll]

Shhhhh Pigro, don't rock the boat - this is Italy.

[Aretina]

Hi Pigro,

There is a limit that I did know about. This is our fourth !!! bathroom here, the last thank God,, so we had a very good idea of costs and knew suppliers, builders etc. Also we wouldn't have gone ahead if we didn't have the funds.....

But we now have a lovely new bathroom, we hadn't planned on refurbing just yet that the insurance company has mostly paid for.

I call that a result!!


ps. Also got hot and cold water for the ground floor linked up with the rest of the house. Before separate systems. So instead of the ugly,expensive, huge ' electric boiler' on the wall the hot and cold water now comes ..... through the base of the 1.5 metre thick 11th century tower wall to the new downstairs bathroom from the main boiler.

pps Don't know if this is the same for all Italian insurance companies but our claim with AXA was 'open' for one year after the first declaration. So the delay in reporting the work and getting it down was not a problem.