Insurance assessor.

Belongamick

Hi,

Had an oil leak in a rented house.

Contacted insurance company and was recommended a loss assessor to act on my behalf.

He engaged the services of a company to access the damage - both did a good job.

Insurance company paid out. In the meantime the assessor has left the company he was working with and is not answering his phone.

Who provides guidance to complete the works or am I on my own in this regard?

i would have though the assessor would be available to supervise the project to completion.

Is it up to me to engage a builder, specialist environmental company etc to complete the works with scant knowledge of the building trade?

Gilly43

This is an odd one.

An insurance company would never advise appointment of a public loss assessor - under regulation they are obliged to advise that you have the right to appoint a PLA at your own expense provided they’re registered with the Central Bank. But PLAs are the devil to insurance companies! They’d likely never recommend unless you found a rogue agent!

If assessor was with a company as opposed to self employed, call the company and follow up.

If insurers have paid out, that will have been off the back of a report completed by an oil remediation firm (either their appointment or one selected by the PLA). Depending on who appointed them, you can get a copy (if insurers, request copy through them as is your right). This report should confirm extent of oil contamination and required scope of work along with cost. It will have formed the basis of any offer - when sum accepted the PLA should have advised you of the scope/cost. And most importantly scheduled the work to commence!

Oil remediation firms are thorough, sometimes overso, but they can be SLOW depending on who’s doing the job. Would be overly concerned about supervision, the challenge will be keeping them going….

Hope this helps