Early this morning my insurance company phoned to say I have 3 options for the repairs. They are
1) get one estimate from a contractor of my choice, and forward that to them with photographs of the damage. They will review the estimate and the damage, which will take 7-10 days, and then give me the go ahead to get the work done, and issue a cheque for the full amount minus the £75 excess.
2) do the repairs myself
once I'd stopped laughing she told me option
3) get the insurance inspectors to inspect it, they will do a report for the insurance company, they will review it which will take 7-10 days and then their people will come and repair it.
I phoned Special Care Bathrooms and said look, if you don't want the job, that's fine and I won't mind, so don't say you'll do it if you don't want it, but if you would like to do it, I'd be delighted to offer you the work. They said yes, so that's good.
When I got to work, the owner of the flat above phoned to say he was meeting a plumber here this morning to inspect the damage, and could I give them access so they can inspect my flat too. And he said "I do know a bit about it because I'm an architect." I managed not to say "but you've let a flat with disconnected plumbing so you really can't be that good" and had a soothing herbal tea and went off to meet him back here.
He came in, flashed his torch around my bathroom, muttered a bit and then said something like "my tenant is a plumber and he's repaired the leak and you just need to keep the ceiling uncovered to let it dry and when you think it's dry, let me know and I'll come and make it good." I felt like he was seconds away from patting me on the head and saying "there there dear, don't worry your pretty little head about it, I'll sort it out." I managed not to hit him, and I told him that I really wasn't happy that he'd let the tenant fix it, seeing as the tenant hadn't noticed the disconnected pipes in the first place, and that I was more concerned about the rotting floor/ceiling, and that he would not be making it good himself, my insurance company would be dealing with it through a contractor of my choice. He didn't seem too pleased about that and wouldn't answer my questions about the safety of the floor. I am not at all happy at his patronising attitude and I will not be taking his word for it that the floor is ok. I will also be submitting a request for him to pay the excess on my policy and if he says no, I will go to small claims for it because I should not be left out of pocket by his wanton incompetence and negligence.
When I got back to work I phoned Garry from SCB and told him what had happened, and that I feel the bloke was patronising me because having a uterus renders me incapable of understanding things about building works. Garry couldn't speak for laughing. I freely admit I am not a builder, my side of disability adaptations is the disability bit, but after 10 years of doing them I have picked up some knowledge, and you don't need a plumbing qualification to know that pipes should connect and floors/ceilings should not be soggy. So Alistair is coming round tomorrow morning to take the photos (lots while it's still wet and looks really bad) and do the insurance report and estimate, but it'll probably be mid-January before the work's finished. I'm really not convinced the owner is taking the floor problem seriously, so I am going to encourage the insurance company to follow that up vigilantly.
I could really do without this, you know.