Making a claim on the warranty

[Gus Potter]

Now you need the will to live these days.

 

I don't do this regularly (primarily as an SE) but for one reason or another I end up representing Clients that are making a claim on their warranty. I've done this for the last 15 years or so. I spent some 20 years as a building Contractor before that, cutting my teeth and learning how devious folk can be at times. In some ways I'm a poacher come game keeper. It's not part of my core business, I do it as it's good for my soul and I don't like to see domestic Clients getting taken advantage of. That said, over the last 15 years I've recovered on behalf of Clients a few million quid. The amount of money is less important, for me it's about justice and holding folk to account. 

 

What I've noticed in the last few years is that some of the warranty providers are more and more sub contracting out to Claims handling services. 25 years ago lots of the warranty providers withdrew from the market. At one point there was the NHBC and Zurich pretty much. Now we have lots of new entrants.. and it seems to me that there is a bit of a race to the bottom. The terms and conditions are a bit of a minefield for the unwary. 

 

There is a common case where they initially come over all friendly but then tell the Client they need to employ an SE like me at their own expense to provide a report. This happens even if the Client has provided photographs that clearly show there is a problem.

 

It has come to my attention that they (Claims handling services) are ramping up the; deny, defend and delay tactics.. always been the case but recently I've noticed that they are cherry picking part of my SE reports and trying to fob the Client off. Even to the extent that they will quote part of a paragraph of my report.. which totally changes the context.

 

Often young folk just can't afford this so they throw in the towel. It's a disgrace.

 

Now this may be a genuine lack of understanding .. or a deliberate intent to defraud the Client. 

 

I'm happy for them to dig themselves a hole as often when doing a warranty Claim I'll turn it into an HSE (safety) issue. This makes folk personally liable and risks the HSE getting involved.. a big black mark if you are a warranty provider. 

 

My question is. Are folk finding Claims handling services helpful or not when you think you have a case for making a Claim. 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 22:32 by Gus Potter
Typo

[Bancroft]

I can't comment on your specific question but, more generally:

 

We're in the build phase of our house so have taken out a warranty with a well-known provider.

 

They did their first inspection recently and we were then informed of the outcome.

 

The areas where we were 'non compliant/more information needed' were vaguely worded so I called them up.

 

It took three "I'll just pass you on to my supervisor" discussions until I got to someone who could answer the questions.  Even then they still couldn't actually explain what their own questions actually wanted.

 

So we passed a load of information to them that we thought would cover their queries but then were told we needed a site report.

 

Up until this point, no mention had been made about a site report.  Planners didn't ask for it, the warranty company themselves hadn't asked/mentioned it.

 

We don't have one because no-one has asked for it and nothing untoward came up from the geotechnical reports.

 

But now it seems we're going to need yet another report.

 

I explain all this to demonstrate/support your general point that warranty providers - like all other insurance providers - are both ineptly manned by uninformed people and will do everything in their power to avoid actually paying out a claim.

[Gus Potter]

On 27/06/2026 at 12:50, Bancroft said:

I can't comment on your specific question but, more generally:

Thanks for your comment, much appreciated. 

 

On 27/06/2026 at 12:50, Bancroft said:

with a well-known provider.

Yes, we need to be cautious here. One thing I don't want to do is level false accusation, or identify any specific claim.

 

As I've got a bit of experience with this stuff it's not always the case that the Client has covered themselves in glory. Sometimes they have inadvertently cut corners (just made a genuine mistake), not followed the design drawings, or just don't disclose to me the full facts. While I decidedly don't like the approach some of the warranty providers adopt (deny, delay defend) you need to get to the bottom of how the Claim comes about and the prior communication between the parties. Only then can you see what you have to work with, worts and all. 

 

On 27/06/2026 at 12:50, Bancroft said:

are both ineptly manned by uninformed people and will do everything in their power to avoid actually paying out a claim.

This is a summary I generally agree with. 

 

Now faced with this often the home owner does not often know where to turn to. 

On 27/06/2026 at 12:50, Bancroft said:

But now it seems we're going to need yet another report.

More potential expense. Some warranty providers sub contract out the site inspections and the inspector has to hold a certain amount PI insurance cover. The warranty providers shed as much liability as possible onto the inspectors and their (the inspector's) insurer's know this. This may be prompting the request for additional reporting.. driven by the inspector. You need to ask if the inspector is covered / employed directly by the warranty provider or if the are sub contracted for example. 

 

As a word of encouragement I have come upon this kind of thing before. It often takes few frank phone calls to sort it out and the actual reason given for asking for additional reporting.