http://www.francethisway.com/wp/writing-about-your-hobby-for-a-meagre-living/2009/08/ Living in France and daily life for a UK expat in the French blog! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:42:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/writing-about-your-hobby-for-a-meagre-living/2009/08/comment-page-1/#comment-15777 Lynda Williams Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:39:29 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/?p=1177#comment-15777 Why Insure? For 9 years I have owned my house in the Charente, and in May on arriving back to France I found a "catastrophe" as they say in France. During the cold snap in January I suffered two burst pipes, the damage quite extensive. Which was more than a surprise as I had turned the off water supply and drained down the system myself before leaving the property before winter. When I arrived to find such damage I checked the stop cock to find the meter reader open and the tap was only a half turn 'on'. We notified our insurers and they acted immediately BUT as I instructed my new insurers to take over at the end of my previous insurance the claim had to be send to the previous insurance company. This is where the problem lies my previous insurer miffed at my moving on "for a better cheaper deal" has now refused to pay out for the damage. They state I left the water on so I was negligent. I now have to fight them through the courts. But the delay in their getting an "expert" to the property has made the damage worse, I now have dry rot which is spreading and in a bid to save my house I have to act quickly. Sadly I didn't move my insurance sooner as my new insurers would have dealt with the claim immediately. I will be publishing a press release shortly as a warning to other expats who may have insurance with the company concerned. Why Insure?
For 9 years I have owned my house in the Charente, and in May on arriving back to France I found a “catastrophe” as they say in France. During the cold snap in January I suffered two burst pipes, the damage quite extensive. Which was more than a surprise as I had turned the off water supply and drained down the system myself before leaving the property before winter.
When I arrived to find such damage I checked the stop cock to find the meter reader open and the tap was only a half turn ‘on’. We notified our insurers and they acted immediately BUT as I instructed my new insurers to take over at the end of my previous insurance the claim had to be send to the previous insurance company. This is where the problem lies my previous insurer miffed at my moving on “for a better cheaper deal” has now refused to pay out for the damage. They state I left the water on so I was negligent. I now have to fight them through the courts.
But the delay in their getting an “expert” to the property has made the damage worse, I now have dry rot which is spreading and in a bid to save my house I have to act quickly. Sadly I didn’t move my insurance sooner as my new insurers would have dealt with the claim immediately. I will be publishing a press release shortly as a warning to other expats who may have insurance with the company concerned.

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