snow storm and flood damaged home-insurance neglect leaves us stranded.

Hi Folks,

Thank you for reading this.

My name is Tony 73 in March, live in a small town in the Manawatu/Rangitikei district.

We have a full comprehensive insurance Policy with AMI on the house, unfortunately have not come to the party with enough money to cover the full repair.

Damaged roof tiles and timber supports - water damaged ceilings walls to all rooms and carpet.

The snow event happened in early July 2017 and was quite devasting for the whole region with major power outages and damage. No power or road access for a week in a flooded house.

An assessor was sent out in August. The first assessment came in so short that the builders and other trades wouldn’t even consider the repair.

The roof was severely damaged and the costs to roof alone are in excess of 30,000.

Deemed dangerous by the council and had to have remedial work done to avoid a red sticker in December 2017. We undertook the work ourselves with council help to stay in the house as moving out was not an option. Especially less than a week until Christmas.

Right from day 1 the Insurance company failed to do proper checks including carpets and not sending in an electrician, which we did eventually after electrical faults appeared, we arranged electrician come in, he said it was a miracle the house didn’t burn down. They neither securer the roof to stop water or help stop the mould forming, help us secure roof when the council deemed house unsafe, the list is long.

The carpets were stained from wall to wall with mould forming.

There were many disturbing things that happened with this claim.

After battling for nearly 2 years we have made some progress. They have backed down on the Dog piddle theory and added some extra repairs.

Not one of the reports from there own engineers or experts has been implemented fully even the recommendations and costings. Have accepted to replace carpet but will not pay for the lifting, removal and clean up.

We have to do all that our selves including sanitizing.

Insurance rang and offered us a roofer who would fix the house a week before Christmas 2017 if we accepted the offer could get roof fixed immediately. We contacted roofer to find out one hour later that there “had to have been some mistake” they were not going to fix the roof.

With buckets and silicon went into roof space every day after the storm for months to stop leaks and get the house dry, even got onto the roof to repair where we could and safely do so, we were successful in drying the house over summer and appear to have halted the leaks.

As part of the hot water system couldn’t be used, we installed gas and had the roof strengthened with council help. But the house is in dire straits. We are looking to take it to court as we have a solid case with reports but at what cost?

Our plan is to raise the funds to help assist us repair house permanently and professionally. There is a sleep out at rear of property which has also suffered damage and again the offer does not cover the repair. Not even close.

Fix the sleep out which has small bathroom (with toilet / shower) and kitchen, rent a caravan to place near as power can be supplied from sleep out.

Put furniture into storage- small garage is now full.

Have carpets and ceilings removed along with anything else that needs fixing.

Then with help fix the house. Starting with the roof. There is still a lot of broken timber up there.

Then follow the process until we move back in.

Willing hard workers but not physically capable of taking on the roof or ceilings lifting heavy furniture and carpets and scrubbing mouldy floors without a huge toll.

This is all taking its toll and the house will not see out the battle. The costs are mounting both financially and emotionally. Its unhealthy and cold.

With pride in pocket we genuinely appreciate all your help to get everything fixed with new batts and warm for winter is our goal.

With help we can achieve this.

So thank you again

Tony.