Day 160 - 23rd March 2011

I email Alison at Asprea to say that further to our email conversations yesterday, I trust she is in the process of arranging for the queries I raised in my email to Mark at Aviva on the 2nd Feb to be dealt with.  I tell her that in the meantime my husband and I have discussed the matter and we would be grateful if she could send us a copy of the schedule of works that details what needs to be done so that we can make investigations into the cost of appointing an alternative contractor to undertake the work.  In addition, I ask if she can please confirm whether the figure of £2848.33 is inclusive of VAT. If VAT is not included and they don’t intend to include it, this will mean that effectively we are bearing the cost of VAT ourselves as we will have to pay it to whoever carries out the work.

I receive a reply from Alison later in the day.  She encloses a copy of the schedule of works.  Alison advises me that with regards to the queries I raised with Mark, she believes that these were addressed in January of this year. She tells me that if I still have any outstanding queries, I will have to address them to Mark.  Am I ever going to deal with anyone that will not fob me off as having to speak to someone else?  Mark says Nadine answers questions, Alison says Mark answers the questions and Nadine says Alison answers the questions.  Its a wonder I haven't gone insane - I probably have and just don't realise it yet. 

With regards to the settlement figure and VAT, Alison advises me that the figure offered does not include VAT. They will only add VAT if they have a valid VAT registration number from my builder. If I wish to approach another contractor to complete the works, I should be advised that if the quote obtained is more than the figure of £2848.33 + VAT, the Insurer will not pay above the offer. If I wish for VAT to be added to the sum, I will need to submit quotations to them.

I reply to Alison to say that it’s a good job I thought to ask about the VAT because if I hadn't, I would have had to pay it myself and be even more out of pocket. 

I tell her that I will state again, categorically, that I have NOT received answers to the questions I raised in my email to Mark Scales on the 2nd February.  I tell her that if she takes the time to properly read and understand the schedule of events that I sent to her, she will see this for herself.  I tell her that if she maintains that the questions have been answered (I tell her that I include Mark in this since he is copied in on this email) then please by all means she can show me how and when this was done and I will be more than happy to apologise and admit that I was wrong.

With regard to the schedule of works, I ask Alison if she remembers a conversation we had on the 3rd of November where I voiced my concern that having been out to look at wallpapers it was virtually impossible to find any wall paper for £7 a roll.  I tell her that she immediately said that she would increase the allowance to £11 +VAT per roll, however the schedule of works she sent me still has an allowance of only £7 a roll. I point out that the £11 a roll isn't really much better as when I did some research into the cost of wallpaper I found that of the wall papers for sale on the Homebase website, the average cost per roll was £14.30.  With a cost allocation of £11 a roll, less than 25% of the wall papers on sale are available to me. With a cost allocation of the original £7 a roll, less than 4% would have been available to me.

So that I can understand the schedule of works, I ask Alison if she can please explain what *A* and *B* mean on the Schedule as its rather confusing.  In addition I tell her that I can't see from the scope where the allowance is for rebuilding the stud wall.   I add that advice from three separate professional tradesmen has been that the stud wall will need to be entirely replaced as the plaster is crumbling away, the timbers are black and smelly and the tile adhesive will have been compromised as all tiles in the area where the leak occurred will now be susceptible to working loose and falling off in the near future.