Case Study Archive: Archives: Case Studies

test

Using Morgan Clark a second time for flood insurance claim

When the river Eden flooded in Carlisle in 2005, water poured through David Allen’s substantial five-bedroomed semi-detached home. There was extensive damage throughout the downstairs which was likely to result in an insurance claim of around £100,000.

As a senior police officer, Mr Allen felt he would be able to handle the insurance claim himself and started the process for both buildings and contents. While both of these had been taken out with the same insurer, different loss adjusters were appointed for the two separate claims.

The contents claim progressed smoothly and it was obvious from the start that Mr Allen would receive his full entitlement. The same could not be said of the buildings claim.

 

Buildings claim issues

Mr Allen’s Victorian home had some rare and high-quality original features, including beautiful tiled fireplaces and hearths; he also had a very expensive fitted kitchen. All of this had been completely ruined by the flood and needed to be replaced. According to Mr Allen, “All we wanted was like-for-like replacements which we were entitled to under our policy, but the adjuster argued with us and wanted to put a lot of the original damaged material back.”

The adjuster then sent in a building contractor to start the reinstatement but, according to Mr Allen, “it was all so shoddy – I could see the fireplaces falling apart as soon as they were put back. And the electrical work they did looked dangerous. So I threw them out – and then nothing happened for two months.”

It was at this point that Mr Allen realised he needed professional help. So he turned to professional loss assessors Morgan Clark “and that changed everything and made all the difference. We were able to step back from an emotionally-charged relationship with the loss adjuster where we’d reached an impasse and couldn’t communicate. Morgan Clark had the technical knowledge and experience to make sure the right things were done.”

Once Morgan Clark took over the claim, the loss adjuster agreed that Mr Allen was entitled to like-for-like replacements throughout: “That’s all we wanted; we weren’t trying to rip anyone off. Morgan Clark put everything back on a professional footing and achieved what was needed to restore the house to how it was before.”

 

Second flood in 2015

So when the river flooded again in 2015, Mr Allen immediately contacted Morgan Clark: “As soon as it happened I was on the phone to them again. I had no idea if we would have the same bad experience but I couldn’t take the risk. Morgan Clark did such a fantastic job last time and it’s a godsend having them do it all for us again.

“And I’d say to anyone else who is in a similar position: don’t hesitate to use a loss assessor such as Morgan Clark. What you face is inordinately complicated but Morgan Clark does this for a living. It simplifies everything and in our case it ensured we received what we were entitled to.”

Flooding – £630,000 business interruption claim

In 2007, the town of Doncaster was hit by two floods in very quick succession. A large trading estate was very badly affected, including a successful steel processing and stockholding company. Three of its industrial units on the estate were contaminated by flood water and most of its stock damaged. This had a significant impact on its trading operations.

The claim

The company turned to Morgan Clark’s team of commercial loss assessors to manage its claim for business interruption. Morgan Clark’s business interruption specialists worked with them to ensure they received their full entitlement: in short, what was needed to re-start trading and to secure the future of the business.

In particular, Morgan Clark and the company’s management worked together to draw up imaginative plan which did not mirror operations prior to the disaster. This would not only enable a quicker resumption of trade but would also rationalise the company’s operations.

The results

With the help of Morgan Clark, the company successfully claimed £630,000 under the terms of its business interruption policy, covering:

  • The cost of rationalising its warehousing structure. Rather than re-instate and move back into the three existing warehouses, the company moved all its operations into one warehouse on another site.
  • Compensation for the theoretical period it would have taken to re-instate the existing warehouses and move back in.

A very favourable settlement for loss of turnover: despite an increase in turnover in the immediate aftermath of the incident, Morgan Clark successfully argued that this growth would have been even greater without the flood.

Residential college fire – £1.5m buildings and contents claim

When an electrical fault caused a major fire at the UWC Atlantic College in South Wales, one of the school’s boarding houses was almost completely destroyed. The College’s immediate priority was to re-house the 52 students who lived there, so it decided it needed professional help not only to make what was inevitably going to be a substantial insurance claim but also to manage the re-building project.

According to Nicholas Marten, Business Manager at the College, “We did some research into loss assessors and, after meeting them, we chose Morgan Clark. We were impressed by their speed of response, what they said they would do and how they would deal with our claim.”

The claim

Once they had been appointed to handle the claim and to manage the re-building project, Morgan Clark immediately appointed a specialist company to carry out emergency safety and protection works to the damaged boarding house. They also arranged for the construction of a temporary pre-fabricated accommodation block for the students.

Hiring this alternative accommodation was very expensive for the insurer as well as disruptive to the students’ lives. The College therefore was under pressure to complete the re-building of the original block as quickly as possible. This was a significant project which included replacing the roof, external cladding, mechanical and electrical services, plasterwork, sanitary ware, fixtures and fittings, as well as complete redecoration.

Morgan Clark arranged for specialist contractors, under the supervision of chartered surveyors, to reinstate the property within a very tight contract programme. At the same time, it prepared, presented and negotiated settlement of the substantial and complicated building and contents claim.

The results

Morgan Clark agreed a final settlement with the insurers of just over £1.5 million, covering the re-building of the accommodation block, temporary accommodation for the students and all contents lost or damaged. More importantly, however, through careful management and close liaison with the surveyors and contractors, it ensured that the reinstatement work was completed ahead of schedule, saving significantly on the cost to the insurer and disruption to the students.

According to Nicholas Marten, “Morgan Clark kept us fully informed at every stage, and they took away the headache of organising repairs as well as making the claim itself. We were busy with the aftermath of the fire, and particularly with re-housing our students, so it was great that we could just leave them to it. It meant that we could be much more effective in our response to what was a major incident.”