Hastings Direct’s failures forced my family out of our home

Eight months after reporting a leak to our home insurer, Hastings Direct, my husband and I and our two-year-old are still effectively homeless.

Last winter, we discovered that an unnoticed leak beneath our fitted fridge-freezer had caused extensive damage to the floorboards of our kitchen/living room.

Since then we have experienced significant delays, poor communication and conflicting information, and what I believe is a failure by the insurer and its appointed contractors to properly manage the claim.

A promised call-back never materialised because call staff failed to log the claim. Work finally commenced more than five months later.

The contractors removed all the kitchen units, despite the fact that most were undamaged and were not included in the schedule of works, and Hastings now wants us to contribute £8,000 to replace them.

There is still no functioning kitchen in the property, which means we cannot return home.

We initially agreed to move into temporary accommodation for what we were told would be approximately two weeks. It’s now been nearly three months.

The insurer only authorises accommodation in two-week increments, creating uncertainty about where we will stay next. We have had to pay for extra nursery sessions for our daughter since we both have to work from home, and the latest temporary flat is too small to accommodate all of us.

We have also had to keep our two cats in a cattery at our expense and, because the kitchen is ill-equipped, we have to rely on takeaways and ready meals.

We still have no clear timeline for when the work will be finished.

JS, Croydon

Hastings Direct readily admitted to me that on this occasion its service has fallen short. You will be delighted to hear that it is “taking forward learning” to improve things in the light of your ordeal.

It attributes some of the delays to the unexpected extent of the damage, and some to “issues” with the contractors who are managing the claim. The kitchen units and appliances should never have been removed, it acknowledges.

So why were you charged for their reinstatement? It was a “statement” that was issued “prematurely”, it says, adding that it would shoulder the cost of the blunder as a “goodwill gesture”.

You contacted me in mid-June. Under pressure from me, the company has now agreed a programme of repairs and an estimated timescale. It simultaneously extended your accommodation for a month to give you some security.

You hope to be back home in a week’s time, and Hastings has agreed to offer an as-yet-unspecified amount of compensation to reflect the distress caused and to refund your nursery, cattery and other expenses.

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Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.