Day 12 - 20th October 2010

I receive a call from someone at Asprea.  For Narrative purposes I will call her Alison. She tells me she will be handling my claim. I tell her that whilst it is not urgent that the lounge and hallway are sorted out, it is vital that the bathroom be sorted out before Christmas as my mother and her partner are coming to visit.  My mother has recently retired due to ill health and this will be the first time we have been able to spend Christmas together in over 10 years as she lives 260 miles away and has had to work at Christmas every year. Alison tells me not to worry.  A company called Rainbow has been appointed to carry out the drying out process and another company, Safeguard has been appointed to carry out the contract work. The companies will ring me within 2 working days to arrange appointments. Both companies phone later that day and appointments are made.  When I speak to Safeguard they tell me that I will need to pick out wallpaper and tiles. I tell them that I can’t pick tiles at the moment as I don’t know what the position is in respect of paying for the undamaged tiles.  They tell me that what normally happens is that the insurance company share the cost of replacing the undamaged tiles on a 50/50 basis with the policyholder.   We discuss the allowance made for wallpaper and I express my concern that the insurance company have only allowed £7 per roll for wallpaper.  I tell them that I am worried that this won’t be enough to get a wall paper that I like.  I tell them that I am thinking that it might be better to skim and paint instead and ask if this is possible.  They tell me that it is possible to do this and that in fact people often do, but I need to speak to the Contracts Manager to discuss it.  I ask if I can speak to him but they tell me he is not there.  I ask if he can ring me and they say they will ask him to do so.  I do not however get a call from the Contracts Manager.