Insurance Reinstatement and Damage Repair

Two people end up reading this page

One is a homeowner standing in a house that smells of smoke, or that has a ceiling on the floor, holding a claim number they were given an hour ago. The other is a loss adjuster working out whether an unfamiliar contractor can be trusted with a scope of works.

Both want the same document: a written scope, priced line by line, that either of you can check against the actual damage. That is what we produce on every job we quote, claim or no claim.

The building work in a reinstatement is the work we do every week — strip-out, structure, roofs, plaster, joinery, kitchens, decorating. What is different about a claim is the paperwork and who is paying. So this page is mostly about the paperwork, because that is the part nobody explains to you.

Request a quote or call James on 07470 078236. Insured to £2m, Company No. 16870716.

Say the awkward thing first

We are not on any insurer's panel and we are not part of a claims management network. If you want a panel contractor, your insurer will appoint one, and it will not be us.

We are not loss assessors either. We do not negotiate your claim, we do not interpret your policy, and we will not tell you what your insurer owes you. We price the building work, we evidence it, and we stand behind it. That line is deliberate, and a builder who blurs it is doing you no favours.

What we are is a builder a policyholder can appoint, with documentation an adjuster can audit line by line.

What we reinstate

Fire and smoke damage. Smoke goes a great deal further than flame — through voids, up cavities, into rooms that look untouched until you take the plaster off. Reinstatement means stripping back to material that is genuinely sound rather than to material that looks acceptable once it is painted.

Escape of water. The burst pipe, the failed washing machine hose, the slow leak behind a bath that has been running for two years. The largest category by number, and the one most often reinstated too early.

Flood. Tidal, fluvial and surface water, which are three mechanisms with three different consequences and are covered further down.

Storm damage. Lifted coverings, failed flashings, a chimney down, water in through a roof that had been holding on for years.

Impact damage. A vehicle into a boundary wall or a bay window.

Subsidence and heave are their own discipline: the insurer will normally instruct monitoring and an engineer's report first, and the repair follows their design rather than ours.

You are usually allowed to choose your own builder

This is the thing most people do not know, so it goes near the top.

When you claim, your insurer will normally offer you its own approved contractor. That is an offer, not an instruction. Most household policies allow you to propose your own builder instead, and the insurer then settles on the basis of a reasonable cost for the work.

Read your policy wording, because they genuinely differ and we cannot tell you what yours says. Some settle a cash figure and leave you to arrange the work. Some reserve the right to appoint. Some reduce what they pay if you go outside their panel. It is one phone call to find out, and the answer changes what happens next.

Two honest points about it. The insurer's contractor works to a rate agreed with the insurer, and is quick, and is working for the party paying the bill. Your own builder works for you, and the price has to be justified to a third party who has never met you. Neither of those is automatically better. They are different arrangements and you should know which one you are in.

What a loss adjuster does, and what they do not

A loss adjuster is appointed by the insurer to establish what happened, whether the policy responds, and what it will reasonably cost to put right. On a domestic claim of any size, that is usually the person your scope of works has to satisfy.

What they decide: whether the damage is covered, what the scope of reinstatement is, whether a cost is reasonable, and how the claim settles.

What they do not decide: how you run your own house, which builder you appoint where the policy allows a choice, or what standard of workmanship you accept from him.

They are not your enemy and they are not your advocate. They are assessing a claim against a document, and the way to get a good outcome is to hand them evidence rather than opinion. A scope with photographs, measurements, moisture readings and a price against every line is difficult to argue with. A one-page quotation with a total at the bottom invites a negotiation you will lose.

Reinstatement and betterment — the word that costs people money

Reinstatement means putting you back in the position you were in before the damage. Not better. That is the whole basis of an indemnity policy.

Betterment is any improvement on that, and insurers do not pay for it. If a twenty-year-old kitchen is destroyed, you are entitled to a kitchen, not to the kitchen you have been looking at since Christmas. You can very often have the better one by paying the difference, and that arrangement is normal and uncontroversial — as long as it is agreed in writing before it is built rather than argued about at the final account.

Where it gets awkward is when the Building Regulations force the improvement.

Renovate an existing thermal element beyond the trigger point and Approved Document L Table 4.3 applies. A roof triggers at 0.35 and has to come up to 0.16. A cavity wall triggers at 0.70 and improves to 0.55. Insulate a wall internally or externally and the target is 0.30. A floor is 0.25. Rewiring, drainage and structural details can all be caught the same way.

That gap — between what the policy indemnifies and what the law now requires — is a real argument, and it goes far better when it is identified in the scope on day one than when it appears at the end. So we identify it at the start, in writing, and let the two sides settle it while the drying is still running. Some policies carry an extension for exactly this. Yours might. Check.

There is relief where the building is listed or in a conservation area: Approved Document L paragraphs 0.8 and 0.9 accept that full compliance is not required where it would unacceptably alter the character or appearance of the building, but it must be met as far as is reasonably practicable. That gets flagged in the scope too.

Emergency call-out and make-safe

We do emergency make-safe work. Sheeting a roof, boarding a window, propping something that has moved, isolating services, getting water out and getting the house closed up so the damage stops getting worse.

Make-safe is nearly always covered, and most policies require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, so it is work you are expected to arrange rather than work you should be nervous about authorising. Photograph everything before it is touched, keep every invoice, and tell your insurer what you have done as soon as the house is safe.

We do not publish a response time on this page, because we have not committed to one and a promise invented for a website is worth nothing at two in the morning. Call 07470 078236 and you will get an honest answer about when we can be there.

Storm damage to a roof is roofing and roof structure. Impact damage — a vehicle into a bay window or a boundary wall — is nearly always structural before it is cosmetic: steel beams and load-bearing alterations.

Where homeowners get caught out

These are the five that cost people the most, and none of them are obvious at the time.

1. Stripping out before it is photographed. The evidence for the claim is destroyed by the clean-up. Photograph every room, every elevation, every ceiling and every floor before anything moves, including the things you think are undamaged.
2. Accepting a scope that is too narrow. Smoke travels much further than flame, through voids and cavities and into rooms that look untouched. Water tracks along joists and comes out somewhere else entirely. A scope written from what is visible on day one is nearly always short.
3. Reinstating over fabric that has not dried. Covered below, and it is the most expensive mistake on this list.
4. Losing the paper trail. Alternative accommodation receipts, the make-safe invoice, the plumber's report on the failed pipe, the dates. Claims are settled on documents.
5. Agreeing variations verbally. On damage work, things do appear once the strip-out is complete. Every one of them needs pricing and confirming in writing before it is built, or it becomes an argument about memory at final account. Ours are handled that way as a matter of course — see our quotation process.

WhatsApp us photographs of the damage on 07470 078236 and you will get a view back the same working day. Over 100 projects completed.

Drying comes before rebuilding, and it takes longer than anyone wants

The commonest way an escape of water claim gets paid for twice is reinstating over fabric that has not dried.

Moisture readings decide when plaster goes on. Not the calendar, and not the pressure to get the family back into the room. Solid floors, screeds and thick masonry hold water long after the surface feels dry, and the initial drying estimate is an estimate.

Where we are asked to plaster over a wall that is not ready, we will say so, in writing, and keep saying so. It is not the popular answer, and it is a great deal cheaper than the alternative.

What we put in front of an adjuster

• An itemised schedule of works. Over two hundred separately priced lines on a full-scope job, with every assumption and exclusion written down rather than implied.
• Method statements for strip-out, propping and protection of everything that is staying.
• CDM documentation. James acts as principal contractor, which on a domestic project means the contractor's duties and the client's duties both land with him rather than with you. It also means one person is accountable for how the site is run.
• £2m public liability insurance and employers' liability cover, certificates supplied on request.
• A scope photograph record, taken before anything is stripped out. It is the difference between a documented claim and a memory of one.
• Fortnightly valuations against work measured on site, with 5% retained until practical completion, so payment follows work rather than preceding it.
• Variations priced and agreed in writing before they happen.
• One point of contact. James, for the whole job, including the site meeting with the adjuster.

Nobody signs off a scope they cannot check. That is why the documentation is the product here, and it is the same documentation we produce on private work — there is more on the standard behind it in our price match guarantee, which exists for the same reason: two prices for one job are only comparable when both of them are itemised.

Which kind of water, and why it matters on this coast

Three different mechanisms, three different scopes, and a scope written for one does not suit another.

Along the Bognor Regis, Pagham and Elmer frontage the Environment Agency's regime is coastal and tidal. Its "Selsey Bill to Elmer" alert area covers the coastal areas between them, including Pagham, Sidlesham and Bognor.

At Arundel there are two regimes at once. The Agency operates a river flood warning area for the Arun at Arundel, taking in Warningcamp and Burpham, and separately a tidal alert area for River Road, near Tarrant Wharf and Arun Street. Fluvial and tidal, one town.

A great deal of local damage is neither. Arun District Council states that surface water flooding affects a large proportion of the district, and the Environment Agency's catchment plan records that surface water drains at Bognor Regis can be prevented from discharging effectively when the tide is high.

We do not publish a flood zone for any town, because flood zones are drawn parcel by parcel and cannot honestly be summarised at town level. Check your own address on the government service at https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/ — and see the areas we cover for where we work.

Where the mechanism is understood, a resilient reinstatement can be priced alongside the like-for-like one, so both options go in front of the adjuster together rather than the choice being discovered afterwards.

How a claim job runs with us

1. We attend and photograph everything, before anything moves.
2. We write a scope, itemised, with assumptions printed and exclusions named.
3. You put it to your insurer or adjuster. We will attend a site meeting with them where that helps.
4. Strip out and make safe, with protection to the parts of the house that are staying.
5. Drying and monitoring, with readings logged and dated.
6. Reinstatement — structure, first fix, plaster, second fix, finishes. Kitchens are kitchen fitting; whole-house work is building works and renovations.
7. Building Control where the work is notifiable, with certificates.
8. Handover file — photographs, readings, certificates and the final measured account, in a form that closes the claim cleanly.

What is excluded, and said up front

Asbestos survey and licensed removal. Specialist contents cleaning and restoration. Loss assessing and claim negotiation. Alternative accommodation. Anything concealed that only appears once the strip-out is complete, which on damage work is a genuine risk and is why provisional sums exist and are labelled as provisional.

The guarantee

All workmanship guaranteed for 24 months from completion. Manufacturer warranties on all materials and installed products passed to you in full — many run to 10 years or more. Structural work is signed off by Building Control and covered by our £2m public liability insurance. We're working towards an insurance-backed guarantee scheme and will offer it as soon as we're eligible.

Questions

Can I choose my own builder? Usually yes. Most policies let you propose one and the insurer will check the scope and the price against its own. Your policy wording decides it, so read it or ask your insurer directly before you commit to anything.

Will you deal with my insurer for me? We will deal with the adjuster on the building work — scope, price, variations, progress. We will not negotiate the claim itself, because that is not our job and pretending otherwise would not help you.

My insurer's contractor has quoted less than you. Then compare the two schedules line by line, which is what an itemised quotation is for. Sometimes the difference is scope, sometimes it is what has been left out, and occasionally it is neither and theirs is simply a good price.

What if the settlement does not cover the whole scope? Then you decide what happens with the shortfall — reduce the scope, pay the difference, or go back to the insurer with the evidence. We will price the options rather than pick one for you.

Do you charge for producing the scope? Ask us at the site visit. We will tell you before we do the work, not after.

Can we stay in the house? Sometimes. It depends on services, on where the drying equipment has to go, and on whether the damage reaches the kitchen or the only bathroom. You will get an honest answer at the survey rather than an optimistic one.

The damage is to a listed building. Then listed building consent comes before reinstatement, even on a repair, and the scope has to reflect that from day one.

Next step

Send us the claim reference, the loss adjuster's name if you have one, and photographs of every affected room. Request a quote and we will come and scope it.

Rated 5 stars on Yell. Fully insured to £2m. Call 07470 078236 or 01243 256796.

Swanbourne Construction Ltd was formed in 2025 to bring James's building work in West Sussex, which goes back to 2001, under one accountable, fully insured limited company.