Insurance company games

[karl]

sounds like someone in the insurance office lives next door !!

[Chris at eden]

Couple of issues raised in the previous comments:

 

1. £480 for 18 trees seems a little steep. Mortgage and insurance reports are the second most common type that I do after 5837 and I wouldn't be charging anywhere near that. MWA also advertise their costs and their costs and their mortgage reports start from £240 + VAT. It would take no more than an hour to survey 18 tree for a mortgage report and maybe 2.5 hours to write up. 1/2 a day in total unless there is a lot of travel involved. As I said, seems a bit steep. Maybe there is a finders fee for the insurance company.

 

2. Another point raised is the inclusion of offsite trees. This is a must to be fair. I you have a large offsite tree within the zone of influence for subsidence you cant just ignore it as this would be pretty negligent. It could still cause damage. That said, a dead apple tree has no potential to cause subsidence so they would be talking general risk from failure. The recommendations should be the same for offsite trees. If it needs to be felled then that is what it is, you cant say they are exempt as the are offsite. I always say to refer the works to the owner, if they want to take on the risk then that is their choice. You should also make the distinction if the risk is to users of the garden and not the house as I doubt the mortgage company will be too concerned about this anyway.

 

I've been writing reports like this for some time and have never had a problem from banks or insurers so move on to another insurer would be my advice. I would also shop around for prices in future. It may be that the tree consultant is based miles away which could affect the fee.

 

Cheers