A family hit by a house flood were forced to spend months in a hotel because of delays to repair work.
Birkby resident Jasbant Singh said he was ‘outraged’ by the conduct of Direct Line over a claim made after his house was water damaged, which he says has left himself, his wife and daughter on the cusp of homelessness several times.
And, after living in a hotel for 15 weeks, he was told he must move back into the house despite ongoing building work this Friday .
Jasbant’s issues started when he discovered that his toilet had flooded and damaged his bathroom and lounge of his two-bedroomed terraced house in Scholes Road.
Jasbant, 39, said: “There was water everywhere-it destroyed the lounge ceiling, floors, settee and fridge freezer so Direct Line arranged alternative accommodation for us at the Premier Inn at Ainley Top. I never imagined that we would still be at the hotel three months later.
“They’ve taken such a long time to carry out the repairs and they’re still not finished.
“The worst bit is that now Direct Line think that it’s safe for us to move back in and have said that they will no longer pay for us to stay at the hotel - but I think that it’s completely unliveable.
“Although their contracted workers have replaced the ceiling and removed the damaged floor they haven’t replaced the floorboards, re-painted or bought us a new sofa or fridge freezer. I think that makes it totally impossible for us to move in, especially with a young daughter-it’s dangerous and they’ve simply not finished the job properly, which is outrageous.
Jasbant was due to move back into the house on November 29 but was told at the last minute that his stay had been extended by six days as the insurers said professional cleaning had not yet been carried out.
He said: “I’ve had to pack up our bags six or seven times because they didn’t renew our accommodation stay until after we had to check out of the room, which left my daughter and I standing at the edge of the road until they rang to say they’ve booked us back in.
“They also decided to cancel our food and clothes cleaning allowance on October 17, which we need because we don’t have any such facilities in our room, so we’ve accrued large bills ourselves.”
A spokeswoman for Direct Line, said: “The reason we asked the customer to move back in is because we were told by an external loss adjustor that it was safe and we will clean up the property for them.
“But as this has not yet been done we will extend their accommodation stay until Friday.
“We admit there has been a few delays on the claim, which we believe is due to the customer not being able to provide evidence for the value of the sofa and flooring and stopped the food and clothes cleaning allowance payments after he again failed to provide receipts to prove that he had been using the money for these services.
“But in lieu of this we will pay him £150 as a goodwill gesture”.
