Anyone been on the receiving end of a false insurance claim?

[ndsmith]

Although this is not directly to do with gas, I put this in here as its a non public area.

I have been working on a job, 2 simple cottage renovations, 1 for a lad and 1 for his mum. Halfway through the job things started to get very suspect, they had paid a little bit of money but didnt like the mention of it. I had to order £4k worth of material in 1 go for the job, £2k for each cottage, so I asked the m for the money and they wondered why they had to pay. Diplomatically I avoided saying I dont trust you, however when they realised it would hold the job up, I received the money. I carried on doing the job and a couple of weeks later, I asked for some more money for radiators and more pipework, 1 cottage came to £850ish and the other £450ish, the reply I got was "I've already paid for the boiler and stuff", the same day my suppliers rang and said the customer was trying to get stuff delivered for their job off my account, luckily I am good friends with a lad who works there and he didnt release anything and rung me. Instantly alarm bells started ringing, so I said I wouldnt return until I had recieved payments.

Another firm then come in and finish the job, from other trades I heard they had problems, they had 1 or 2 leaks and the customer was messing them around also.

Still no money received so I sent out reminders, and a intention of action letter using the small claims court.

I then receive an email from 1 of them stating my pipework has leaked, claiming i hadnt pressure tested it and I am entirely to blame for this and she hopes I have the insurance to cover the huge costs incurred and she will be going to her solicitor about it.

I had carried out full pressure testing of all pipework as always, especially as the majority was hidden, I also have other tradesmen who were there at the time who can back this up, I even have 1 or 2 pictures of doing it.

I replied saying I had acknowledged the email, and could I point out that payments still had not been recieved.

Then I get told of another leak in the other cottage, the same leak the electrician had told me the new plumbers had caused when changing pipework positions!

So I feel I am waiting for a false insurance claim, however I dont want to be caught out, I'd rather be ready for when sopmething happens. So I was wondering if anyone had some advice on people or companies to see or contact. The only time I have had to use my insurance it was my fault so that was straight forward!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Millsy 82]

The last company I worked for had a claim put in against them for an oil boiler which we installed had ran out of oil even though the watchman said half a tank of fuel. Our company replaced the watchman and we said it was faulty even though the person who installed and commissioned it didn't set it up correctly. Any way this was during a really cold spell 2 years ago and the heating and hot water pipes froze up in the loft and split bringing down a ceiling the bloke said this is all due to the faulty watchman and tried to claim the money back off them for the repairs. Anyway they turned to him and said a watchman is only for rough guide not a precised measuring device and that he should of checked the tank manually. So then the bloke came for us. This bloke had the pipes repaired and ceiling repaired by someone else and refused to allow us access to see the problem. It all went to court and it got thrown out within 5 minutes due to the customer not allowing us access to repair the pipe work and ceiling.

With this person I would turn around and say as the job was not complete you cannot be held responsible for any leaks that have occurred as you have no proof that the new company have not altered the pipe work and it is only there word against yours and if you had of been there you would have repaired any leak caused by yourself and dealt with any matters regarding extra work needed for claims then. Explain you did pressure test and have photos as proof. Hopefully this would stop them but if not the best thing to do is speak to your insurance company as we all know they never want to pay out and they might advise you what to do next.

Make sure that you only deal them in writing though so you have proof of what is said as if its on the phone it is your word against theirs.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Going by what I have read your problems started early on. Why are you frightened about asking for money up front?
No plumber should be buying big stuff out of his own pocket and then hoping the customer will pay at a later date. Deposits and part payments/ stage payments are normal.
AND why haven't you agreed the payment arrangements before you started the job? If you just ask for bits of money suddenly when the job is in progress no one costumer finds that a bit odd.
I may have misunderstood what you are saying of course - sorry!

What we do.
The quote is in writing, itemised and tells customer we want 40% deposit.
If the job is big and going to take ages then we may discuss stage payments.
The customer knows what these will be and when before we start.

If you leave a job half done it will be hard to get paid because the customer has had to pay someone else - that should be a last resort because it is almost bound to hit you in the pocket.

 

[REDSAW]

if you still get grief, tell them you are going to report them for trying to obtain goods by deception from the merchants also.

 

[leelister6]

I always tell the customer I will require payment for materials when they are delivered to site. Only had one person said they weren't happy with it so told em to get someone else in. Getting goosed for labour is bad enough but to get stung for a couple of grands worth of tackle aint happenin to me!

 

[deandive]

they are trying to take you for a fool, start small claims proceedings

 

[AWheating]

how do they think they could ever claim against your insurance for work they have not even paid you to do? or work that was commissioned by others? they are trying to worry you into going away imo.

tell them to **** off and your insurance has a non payout to knobs clause and you will see them in court. Then if it was me id need to decide either to follow the claim up or smash something expensive.

 

[ed209]

I had a situation once where a claim was made against me that was not justified I informed my insurance company for advise and they just said they would pay out claim as its cheaper than investigating it and I had to pay out the first £500.
Was not happy as these people openly boasted about how much they have managed to get out of insurance claims.