Archives for October 2009

Following on from our two Inside Out films following the Hampshire steam car breaking the world's longest standing land speed records, we put together some of the highlights for the team involved.

So, in the words of Dermot O'Leary, steam car team, "Here are your best bits". (We haven't gone for the full X-factor dramatic music - think more along the lines of karaoke!).

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Admittedly this is a longer blog than most, but essential reading if you've got a problem with water pipes and your household insurer.
 
Now, if there's a leak in a water pipe under your property you are normally responsible, not the water company.
 
And that's exactly why most people have insurance: to make sure that if their water happens to leak away, their cash doesn't necessarily follow it down the drain.
 
Well that's all fine and dandy if your insurance company deals with your claim fairly but as our film below shows, Halifax aren't exactly giving customers that 'little bit extra' - and they're not alone - other companies are also refusing to pay up.
 
Essentially, some insurance companies are making a nasty habit of deciding that water leaks are caused by 'wear and tear' without even visiting the address. And why's that? Well, because unlike 'accidental damage', 'wear and tear' is NOT normally covered on insurance.
 
How very, very convenient.
 
And if you argue and say 'hang on, surely this leak is accidental damage' they tend to reply 'prove it'.
 
How very very inconvenient because to prove it you'd have to dig up your drive, garden or even the foundations of your house, and all at YOUR cost.
 
So what can you do?
 
Step one: don't be put off by the first rejection
  
Some insurance companies don't want to pay up for water leaks so they try to put customers off. If they reject a claim saying the leak is 'wear and tear' and not covered by the policy, few people will challenge this. But just because they tell you a leak is 'wear and tear' it doesn't mean it always is. There's still hope but you've got to do the work and put your case forward - don't fall at the first hurdle.
 
Step two: check your policy
 
How does your insurance company define accidental damage? For example Halifax says accidental damage is:
 
'damage which has not been caused on purpose, or which was not inevitable'.
 
So was it inevitable that your pipe would suddenly leak? If it's made from durable plastic it should last for a very long time and it's certainly not inevitable that it will leak. And did you dig up your pipe and deliberately sabotage it? If the answer to that is 'no' then you certainly have a case.
 
Step three: put your argument forward and make your claim
 
Your first claim may have already been rejected because the insurance company said the leak was 'wear and tear'. But don't be deterred, claim again and this time include a note suggesting why you think your leak counts as accidental damage.
 
For example, if you are with Halifax, pay attention to their definition of accidental damage: state why you don't believe it was 'inevitable' that the pipes would leak and declare that the pipes weren't damaged 'on purpose' - I'm innocently assuming they weren't :-)
 
Step four: take it to the bitter end
 
At this point the ball is in the insurance company's court. They may accept your claim and pay up, although I must say that didn't happen at this stage in any of the cases we followed.
 
But importantly at this point the onus is now on the insurance company TO PROVE the damage is wear and tear. You've put your reasons forward arguing it's accidental damage (step 3) so now they have to put up or shut up: they either put up and prove it's 'wear and tear' (by digging up the leak) or shut up by paying you for the claim.
 
So what if they stubbornly refuse to do anything? Well that's quite likely and only leaves one option: you have to take it to the bitter end by writing, explaining your case, to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Ombudsman will then make a decision on whether the insurance company should pay up.
 
This may seem like a lot of work but in all the cases that Jock, the water engineer in our film, has so far put forward (at the time of writing), the Ombudsman has found that the insurance company should pay up in every case (see links below).
 
What if I've already paid for the work - can I claim the money back later?
 
Yes, if you think the insurance company should have paid up then you are absolutely entitled to make your claim and go through the steps outlined above. After all, a water leak is often a serious emergency and you simply can't wait for claims to be rejected or for appeals to the Ombudsman to succeed before you get the problem fixed.
 
So, all in all, don't be afraid to challenge your insurance company - it's quite possible that you are covered and often they should pay to fix a water leak, no matter what they say when you make your initial claim.

Useful info:

Check out this recent decision by the Ombudsman to make the insurance company pay: page1 & page2 (Note the highlighted paragraphs - my emphasis, not the FOS's)
 
Helpful online leaflet from the Financial Ombudsman: 'Your Complaint and the Ombudsman'

The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent body that decides on complaints about general insurance:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SR

Tel: 0300 123 9 123
Tel: 0845 080 1800

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Back on Monday we sprung into action on a story I'd nearly given up on a long time ago: nighthawking.

Basically it's the practise of using a metal detector illegally or without landowners' permission to search for treasure in the ground.

To avoid being caught these renegade metal detectorists normally operate in the dark and I'd heard they had been targeting an important historical site where it's illegal for them to operate.

I'll bore you with all the details when the story finally makes it to air but suffice to say it was VERY eventful night's filming and we got everything we wanted.

However, I'd been feeling slightly dodgy earlier in the day and as the jubilation and adrenaline receded after I finally made it home at 1am I began to feel downright awful.

Certain well-publicised symptoms followed and before I knew it I was in bed for the rest of the week - one of those lucky people to statistically contribute to the recent headline that new swine flu cases have doubled in the last week.

Yep, that's me, doing my best for NHS statisticians.

I'm over it now and it wasn't actually the worst flu I've ever had which I think means I had the weaker strain of the virus (annoyingly this doesn't make me immune to a stronger stain, much to my frustration).

So that explains the slight lack of blogs last week.

A parting piece of advice though: if you end up taking tamiflu this winter, have a glass of water to hand.

The flu that I had may not have been the most deadly but the pill itself tasted absolutely vile.

Please please please don't make my mistake of popping it into your mouth only then to go searching for some water: trust me, nothing will make you feel worse!

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This week we've got the first part of our film following a group of Hampshire engineers determined to set a new land speed record for a steam car.

Although I spent a fair part of my summer with the team I'm still wondering what exactly makes a potential record breaker?

OK, I get the fascination with records because, quite simply, if they are successful you're guaranteed to witness something never seen before.

Although they're not always glamorous: as a nine year old, I stumbled onto Parker's Piece in Cambridge, scratching away on a violin to stake my claim as a member of the world's largest orchestra. (At that point I don't think I'd even been allowed into the school orchestra!)

But why do people do it? My theory is that there's at least one record out there everyone secretly thinks they can break.

Maybe, right now, you're stockpiling enough prawns to challenge for the world's largest paella? And I'm sure if you really put your mind to it you could have stayed on a surf board long enough to take part in this attempt:

Personally I've got my eye on being the first person to eat eight Ferrero Rocher chocolates in a minute.

That said, few of us will ever make it into the record books because while it's easy to imagine doing it, real record breakers have to be obsessive, fanatical and often borderline insane.

As the steam car overheated and micro boilers exploded, the New Forest team knew what they were doing was a tad crazy and success was improbable. But they were still willing to flood the project with their whole-hearted enthusiasm, dedication and energy while sacrificing time with their family and friends.

For me test driver Don Wales - grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell and nephew of Donald Campbell - best sums up that obsession.

Most of the time Don works as a professional photographer taking pictures of semi-naked lingerie models. Yet because of his seemingly magnetic attraction to breaking records, he gave up his day job for nearly two months in favour of getting up every day at 4am and hanging out with hot, sweaty blokes in a desert during a heat wave.

Poor guy, in my book his bloodline's certainly got a lot to answer for!

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Yes, next Monday (19th October) sees the first of two films behind the scenes with the 'Steam Team' in their attempt to break with world's longest standing land speed record with a steam car.

I've got to say it's a story that TOTALLY consumed my summer. We were constantly on tenterhooks waiting for the phone call to say the car was ready to make a record attempt at which point we'd scramble and dash out to California.

Which is what we ended up doing at a moment's notice: best laid plans were cast aside, holidays cancelled and personally I certainly wasn't 'Mr Popular' for missing my girlfriend's leaving do shortly before she got on a plane for four months abroad. Ooops.

But you know what? It was all worth it. Oh yes, what an amazing experience. And I really hope you get a sense of the tension and excitement over the next couple of weeks as our films are broadcast.

And just in case you missed all the news at the time and you don't know what the car looked like, here's a little sense of the action...

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Good to hear from some of you following Monday night's programme. As promised, I've included the details of the charity formed to help soldiers through their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The charity is called Talking2Minds.
It was set up by former SAS soldier Rob (Bob) Paxman and you can find out more on their website: www.talking2minds.co.uk

I'll post a VERY exciting preview of next week's programme shortly... watch this space!

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Welcome to my new blog!

Yes, Inside Out is now back on air and this series we thought we'd experiment with an accompanying blog.

So with that in mind do join in the fun - let me know what you think.

First up, we've got the case of a very unusual fraudster.

The con's simple enough: advertise holiday flats online that don't really exist, take a deposit and then run off with the money into the 'e'-abyss, never to be 'virtually' seen again.

But the man himself, one Erich Kofmel, is a curious fellow because when he's not pocketing other people's hard earned cash, he's an outspoken academic and has even set up his own research centre (where did he get the cash for that I wonder?).

I won't get dragged too far into the mire of his fairly radical thoughts but safe to say he'd regard me, the BBC and this blog as the product of a hugely biased machine, intent on upholding the twin evils of democracy and capitalism.

In fact Erich himself is well established as a blogger and being new to this game, I couldn't help noticing he does his best to 'include' (read: insult) as many people as possible:

The British "stiff upper lip" is an imperial upper-class myth that always hid the fact that Britain is a nation of binge-drinking chavs...

(that's you, dear reader)

...and the venomous media serving them

(ha ha that's me - isn't he thoughtful?)

In its majority, it is a vile people full of spite and bile that enjoys wallowing in the gutter.

Delightful! And I'm sure people enjoy wallowing in the gutter even more knowing the deposit they've paid for one of Erich's non-existent flats is actually funding his jet-set academic lifestyle at various conferences throughout the world.

Now I should say that Mr Kofmel denies these allegations and claims he's had his identity stolen and someone is committing fraud in his name.

Only that doesn't quite wash when you look at the CCTV pictures identifying Erich taking the money in question out of one of his bank accounts.

We tried to track him down and put the allegations and questions to him in person. Believe me we tried - I practically camped outside his flat for three days - but to no avail.

However, Erich if you're reading this, I'd still love the chance to meet face-to-face and I promise if you come to Britain and wallow in the gutter with me long enough to answer a question or two, I'll happily pay your plane fare. Deal?

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