Gateshead residents left with ‘no chance’ to combat flooding
Adjusters and surveyors from LAS Claims Management, the Birmingham-based building claims management service, have been working through the weekend to help homeowners in the North East with flooded properties.
LAS director of professional services Paul Wright has been on the ground in the North East all weekend following the Thursday floods, leading his team of loss adjusters and surveyors.
Wright said: “We dealt with the after effects of hailstones in Leicestershire last week, mostly conservatories, glass and water ingress, but flooding has been the major issue, especially in Belfast and Newcastle.”
Wright said Whitley Bay and Gateshead were especially bad, with a high number of domestic properties flooded after torrential rain last week.
“The speed at which the rain water accumulated and entered properties was remarkable, reaching up to 4 or 5 inches within minutes, leaving residents with no chance to take evasive action.
“One of our customers watched her carpet being lifted by water rising through the floor of her home. This occurred not as a consequence of any river flood, but simply through surface water run-off and the inability of the region’s drains to cope with the deluge,” he said.
“LAS is working on a sub-48-hour turnaround time from first nofitication of loss through to our first site visit, which we undertake alongside our restoration and reinstatement contractors. This integrated approach means we are usually able to begin strip-out and drying before our adjuster or surveyor has left the customer’s property.”
He said that LAS had agreed guaranteed arrangements with a number of Newcastle hotels to ensure families in flooded homes had somewhere to stay.
He added: “We are focused only on supporting our existing customers across both the LAS and Waylett operations and are not going out seeking work from the wider market.”
He said it would be some time before it was possible to give final estimates of the total cost of the flooding.
“We will be providing initial reserves for our insurer clients early this week, but these already range from £2000 to over £100,000. Our top priority has been to start the process of getting our client’s customers back in their homes as soon as possible.”
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