Chesterfield family trapped in home insurance stand-off after Storm Babet flood

Hospital nurse Helen Ward, 42, her two sons, 18 and one, and their dog have been unable to return home to Chatsworth Road ever since they escaped the waist-high-and-rising flood waters on October 20.

While it has now been dried out, Helen fears the property will never be restored to previous living conditions, or that she may be left with a bill for thousands of pounds, due to her disagreement with Trinity Claims.

She said: “We went back the day after the storm and there was sewage all through the house. The garden looked like a tornado had blown through. Everything downstairs was damaged – the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, were all covered in sewage. Everything was destroyed downstairs.

“It all needs re-plastering, redecorating, a new kitchen and bathroom. The insurer told me to get quotes from builders, and the first two came in at £48,000 and £54,000. Trinity say some of the damage wasn’t caused by the flood, so their initial settlement offer was £14,500, in the last couple of weeks they’ve offered £18,000.”

A survey of the house commissioned by Trinity identified a number of building issues which appeared to pre-date the flood, such as flawed rendering, plumbing leaks and tree roots intruding into an outbuilding.

Though Helen accepts some of that to be the case, and has already fixed some of those pre-existing issues, she insists it was exacerbated by the flood and considers most relatively minor compared to the overall scale of work required.

Her current options are to accept limited remedial work done by Trinity contractors, or to take the money and try to address the situation herself.

She said: “All the quotes I’ve had were broken down into labour and materials, but Trinity won’t tell me how their price list has been worked out. I just don’t believe you can get builders in and do everything needed for £18,000.

“They’ve said they won’t send in their own builders until all the other issues and fixed, and they’ve told me this week that I have to accept the offer or get nothing.”

Helen has held a gold-standard home and contents policy with Trinity Claims for several years, but the disagreement over the cost of work is not the first problem that has arisen since the flood.

She said: “From the start they’ve been not very good at all. It’s been a constant stand-off. They took the driers out just before Christmas and the house was still wet through, they’ve said the garden furniture isn’t covered by my policy, they’ve just sent electricians in and they’ve take down half the dining room ceiling and I wasn’t informed.

“We’re staying in a rental property they’re paying for, but that runs out in two weeks. I don’t know what we’re going to do then.”

The experience has led Helen to initiate a complaint via the Financial Ombudsman Service.

She said: “I just want to get the building works done and go home. If we could settle the claim it could all be fixed in three months. I wish I could take the £18,000 and go home, but I’ve been told that’s not going to happen. It’s impossible.

“It’s been our home for 15 years, I’ve worked long and hard to buy the house, and I don’t want any more than I’m entitled to. I just want my home put back to a liveable state.”

When the Derbyshire Times contacted Trinity regarding Helen’s situation, a spokesperson insisted the company was doing everything possible to resolve the situation.

They said: “We understand how distressing an event of this nature has been for Ms Ward and her family. However, we have explained to her that we can only pay for damage caused by the flood, not for the pre-existing damage on her house, which is not covered by the policy.

“We will be offering her a choice of our contractors to do the flood repairs, to which she is entitled, or offering a cash settlement to do this with her own contractors in accordance with the policy terms. By applying the policy terms, we are treating all customers fairly.

“We will be offering to extend her alternative accommodation for a further three months. If any unwitting damage has been done by our electricians, then we will make good the damage or offer a cash settlement . We look forward to working closely with Ms Ward to get her and her family back into their own home, as swiftly as possible.”

As Helen and other Derbyshire residents continue to pick up the pieces from last year’s storms, many more could face similar situations in years to come and increasing insurance costs.

A report published this week by monitoring organisation PERILS estimated insurance industry losses of 691million (£593m) across the the British Isles and northwestern Europe as a result of Storms Babet and and Aline, October 18-22, 2023, with the majority (£474m) in the UK and mainly flood-related.

Luzi Hitz, product manager at PERILS, said: “It has been six months since the Babet-Aline floods and during that period many parts of Europe and particularly the UK and Ireland, have continued to experience persistent extreme wind and rainfall events.

“The British Isles witnessed a record number of named storm systems, many bringing extensive rainfall leading to flooding. While the region has seen major winter floods in the past, such as the Desmond and Eva-Frank floods in December 2015, given milder autumn and winter temperatures there is a greater capacity for water storage in the atmosphere which tends to precipitate as rain rather than snow. It is therefore likely the warming climate will drive a rise in the frequency of winter flood events.”

Support your Derbyshire Times by becoming a digital subscriber. You will see 70 per cent fewer ads on stories, meaning faster load times and an overall enhanced user experience. Click here to subscribe.