AKA Assisted Claims solve drains nightmare for Littlehampton residents

26/09/2007

Residents of a housing estate in White Horses Way, Littlehampton recently found themselves in tricky situation when the drains on the estate started to back up causing flooding and puddles of foul smelling waste.

The problem occurred when the material used to construct the drains collapsed, and was heightened further when the residents' insurance companies refused to pay for the repairs. In partnership with drainage works company Blockbusters, Insurance loss Assessors AKA Assisted Claims have spent the last four months working with residents and some 200 affective properties to rectify the problem.

The drains being constructed of pitch fibre caused the problem, in the past was commonly used to construct drainage systems. Pitch fibre has a life span of 30-40 years after which it delaminates, deforms and collapses causing the drains to back up.

Adam Barker, Managing Director of AKA Assisted Claims explains "The majority of domestic insurance companies will have a clause in their policies excluding defective materials or poor workmanship and more specifically a gradually operating cause, which would normally exclude collapse of pitch fibre drains. This was the case for the residents of White Horses Way so AKA Assisted Claims were brought in to help"

Working quickly to avoid a massive disaster AKA Assisted Claims have spent the past six months working alongside Blockbusters to identify and replace all the pitch fibre with new plastic pipework. To date, AKA Assisted Claims have successfully prepared the insurance claims for over 70 households, who would otherwise been looking at a bill of between £1,000.00 and £4,000.00.

One resident commented, "I can't thank AKA Assisted Claims enough, without their help I don't how we would have found the money to pay for the repairs".

Without the specific claims management expertise of AKA Assisted Claims, it is unlikely that the claims would have been met by the insurers, which would have left residents severely out of pocket. AKA Assisted Claims and Blockbusters are now working together to identify and rectify other pitch fibre drain problems across the South East of England. For more information call 0845 686 0845.