FAQs

Loss adjusters are claims specialists who validate claims on behalf of insurance companies and help policyholders restore their property to full working order. They investigate the scene of an incident; establish the causes of the damage and whether it’s covered by the insurance policy. They then write reports for the insurers, assessing the claim and recommending appropriate payment.

Richfords Policy Assignment mandate is a form that your Richfords technician will ask you to sign when they first attend your property. The mandate has three main functions. The first is that by signing the mandate you are instructing Richfords to help you by carrying out restoration work in your property. Secondly, the mandate gives Richfords and your insurer permission to discuss your claim. Without a signed mandate the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) prevents Richfords and your insurer from being able to communicate. Finally, the mandate instructs your insurer to pay Richfords invoice directly. Therefore you do not have to worry about paying us and then claiming the money back.

Your insurer calculates your premium each year dependant on the risk they feel that your property represents. Having a claim can cause an increase in premiums, but not always, as insurance premiums are also based on many other factors, unfortunately, your premiums can increase even if you don’t have a claim.

Your insurer insures your property therefore if you suffer damage to the property you should inform your insurer as soon as possible. If someone else, a third party, is to blame for the damage you insurer will recover the money they pay out from that person or their insurer. Therefore your property will be repaired more quickly and your insurer will deal with the hassle of recovering any money.

When damage occurs, your insurer will want to know as much information as possible about the damage to your property. By calling Richfords first, we can provide one of our expert technicians to examine the full extent of the damage, which may be hidden from view. Our technician will hand you a damage report, on site. The damage report will enable you to better communicate, the extent of the damage, with your insurer. Once you have your damage report you should contact your insurer as soon as is possible.

Yes, at Richfords we offer a leak detection service. If you have damp or moisture in your home and you suspect that you have a burst pipe from an unknown source, leak detection will help you locate the source of the water.

As a responsible company, we try to reduce the amount of waste that is disposed to landfill. Therefore where possible items are salvaged for reuse. If this is not possible our streams are segregated, and items made from wood, paper, cardboard, plasterboard and even electronics are recycled.

If an item can be economically restored, but you don’t want it back. Speak to your insurer, they may be willing to agree a cash amount with you for the item. This will often be equal to the cost of restoration, not the full replacement value, but different insurers have different policies on this.

Richfords Technicians are Restoration Specialist and are trained in a wide range of restoration techniques. Often by making a careful assessment of an item, our technician will be able to decide if the item can be economically restored. In more complex cases the technician may carryout a test process to see how the item responds to restoration. Once we have decided that an item can be restored and your insurance company approves the cost of restoration, the final decision is yours. You own the item and therefore you can decide if you want to have it restored. Remember every insurance policy is different and therefore you should read your policy carefully. Commonly, If an item can be restored but you do not want it, your insurer may pay you the cost that would have been incurred in restoration, which is likely to be less than the replacement cost of the item. On a “new for old” policy only items that cannot be restored will be replaced with new items.

If your work is part of an insurance claim then the insurance company will pay all costs of running any equipment we install.

No, by signing our Policy Assignment Mandate you instruct your insurer to pay us directly. Therefore you don’t have to worry about our invoice your insurer will take care of it.

One of our primary roles is to reduce the cost of claims to insurers by providing a quick response to incidents. We also carry out damage limitation on arrival at the scene of an incident, which avoids further damage occurring. Through the use of innovative techniques such as injection drying, we avoid the need for expensive and disruptive demolition and replacement of walls and ceilings. We can restore property and possessions to their pre-incident of the cost of buying replacement goods.

When we first arrive at a property we will carry out vital damage limitation work. This work will reduce and even prevent secondary damage, such as mould growth, staining and corrosion. This could involve pumping out any standing floodwater, removal of wet carpets or treating metal items to avoid acid damage after a fire. Damage limitation work means that more of your treasured possessions can be saved as well as greatly reducing the cost of insurance claims.

The longer our drying equipment is left on, the quicker your property will dry. Therefore it is better if the drying equipment is left on 24hrs a day. However, we do understand that sometimes you will need a quieter environment, like at night when trying to sleep. Therefore it is OK to turn the equipment off if you really need to, but remember to switch is on in the morning to keep the drying going.

Some materials look and even feel dry a long time before they really are. For example, concrete floors can often lighten in colour and look dry within hours of drying equipment being installed. However, the moisture content of the concrete can actually remain very high for some weeks. Only a properly trained technician using modern calibrated moisture measuring equipment will be able to tell if a concrete floor is really dry. If you were to stop drying early and reinstall carpets or a wooden floor you may find that the new floor covering deteriorates quickly and shows evidence of rot or mould growth.

The amount of time it takes a property to dry after water damage depends on the amount of water that affected the property, the dwell time of the water and how long it was in the property and the construction of the building. So, for example, a few litres of water that escapes from a pipe into a brick built home will dry out much more quickly than a 2ft deep flood affecting the entire ground floor of a timber frame property. Your Technician will take moisture readings on each visit and these results will let you know how the drying is progressing.

If the incident caused damage to decorations and fixtures then your insurers will most likely deal these with separately. Our work takes the property back to a safe, stable condition and the other sub-contractors can complete any necessary repair or cosmetic work after we have finished.

We will produce a report detailing what items of contents have been successfully restored and what items are beyond economic restoration (BER). It is these items, which will make up part of your claim.

At Richfords we are happy to take custody of a key to your property and therefore continue with work in your absence. We will even set the alarm if you have one.

Every incident is different so we will provide you and your insurance company with a customised price for our works. Richfords have agreed rates with insurance companies so that you know the cost is appropriate. In the first few hours of your claim our Technician will carry out a survey of the damaged areas and we will then use this to produce a quotation for the required works.

You are welcome to email us anytime at response[@]richfords.com

At Richfords we assign a dedicated claims handler to every project we work on. This means you will always have a named point of contact and they will liaise with you on a regular basis to keep you updated on the progress of your claim. You can contact your claims handler by e-mail using the address response[@]richfords.com between 8am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. In an emergency, you can call us 24 hours a day on 01209 722 522.

At Richfords we are a responsive organisation and we are very often required to respond to emergency situations. Therefore it is not possible for our technicians to know what is in their diary at all times. However, our claims team will be happy to speak to you and agree on a convenient appointment time.

During the first visit, your Technician will have discussed the damage with you, carried out actions to limit the damage and prevent it spreading and produced a damage report which we will use to plan the required restoration. Following the visit, the survey will be turned into a quotation, which we will send to your insurance company. Our claims team will then arrange for your Technician to return to your property and begin the Recovery phase of your claim. This phase may include installing additional drying equipment, removing soot residues or restoring furniture.

Insurers will often send a Loss Adjuster or building surveyor to examine the damage in your property. A Loss Adjusters job is to validate your claim and to understand how much the damage is likely to cost to put right. The building surveyor is used to understand if any structural rebuilding work is needed. Therefore whilst both of these jobs have specific expertise they are not experts in the restoration of buildings and contents, that’s where Richfords comes in. Your insurer tasks us with reducing the disruption caused by your claim by using our expertise to restore items to their original condition to avoid costly and time-consuming replacement.

When your home or business is affected by an incident and you need to make a claim, many insurers are able to assist by offering you the skills and expertise of there preferred suppliers. However, it is important to remember that it is YOUR home or business that has been affected and therefore your choice who carries the work.

Richfords happily work with all of the insurers in the UK and if, you would like us to carry out your work on your claim then call us on 01209 722522. Also, if you would like any further help or advice with this matter then we will be happy to assist. Your insurer may ask to see our costs before we complete all of the works, that is fine we will produce an itemised report so that they are clear on what work we are carrying out.

Your claims handler will liaise with you regularly to keep you updated on the progress of your project. Our BDMA qualified technicians that carry out the work on your property will also be happy to discuss the project with you and answer any queries you may have.

As soon as we receive your call we will begin working on your claim. You will be allocated a dedicated Claims Handler who will be your point of contact through your claim. A Richfords Technician will come to your property at a convenient time to begin the restoration work.

Depending on the size of the incident you may have more than one Technician on site. All of our staff carry ID badges, wear uniform and are trained to British Damage Management Association (BDMA) standards so you can feel confident and secure in the people working in your property.

Following a serious flooding incident, water soaks into building materials and this has to be dealt with quickly. Some companies who are not restoration focused will not have the skills or experience to limit internal demolition. In severe incidents, some materials may have to be removed, but this should be rare. At Richfords our focus is to restore as much as we can, to reduce the disruption and cost for you. Our technicians can carry out specialist cleaning and sanitisation to remove contaminants and then install targeted drying to release trapped moisture from plaster or floors. In this way, Restoration Focused Damage Management helps get you back to normal more quickly.

Our approach to claims follows the guidelines set out in the British Standard for Damage Management, BS12999. Therefore when you first call Richfords one of our Claims Handlers will speak to you about the damage you have suffered so that we can gain a full understanding of the incident.

Once we have gathered all of the information we need and have had the opportunity to fully understand your needs our Claims Handler will then arrange a convenient time for one of our Restoration Technicians to visit the property and carry out the emergency stabilisation work. This Stabilisation work needs to be carried out by an expert Restoration focused technician because their expertise will ensure that the damage is reduced and more of your treasured possessions can be saved.

Our Technicians initial work may include activities such as extracting standing water, removing soot from the air, installing dehumidifiers, cleaning fragile contents items. Richfords rapid response vehicles carry an extensive amount of equipment. So our technician will install any necessary equipment such as dehumidifiers or air scrubbers.

At Richfords we are restoration specialists. That means that our BDMA trained technicians are experts in restoring your property following fire or water damage. We have built up an excellent reputation both locally and nationally with over 30 years of experience at the forefront of the damage restoration industry.

Many insurance companies from all over the UK instruct us to carry out work on their behalf, to help their customers recover from fires, flooding and water damage.

We work on all types of properties from residential to large commercial offices and factories. Many of our previous customers refer us to friends, family and colleagues if they have also been unfortunate enough to suffer a damage-causing incident.

We offer a full range of restoration services to tackle flood, fire and water damage. For example our technicians' carryout:

Building Drying
Water Extraction
Sewage cleanup
Sanitisation and Hygiene testing
Targeted Drying to release trapped moisture
Mould Remediation
Fire Damage Restoration
Soot and smoke removal
Odour remediation
Air Quality Remediation
Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning

Richfords can carry out damage restoration work all over the UK. Please speak to one of our Claims Team on 01209 722 522 if you need assistance or to discuss a claim.

Richfords Technicians and Rapid Response Teams are available 24 hrs a day 365 days a year.

Monday to Friday 8am–9pm (excluding bank holidays).

Richfords Technicians and Rapid Response Teams are available 24 hrs a day 365 days a year. Richfords has three service centres across the South of England. Our depots are located in Bracknell in Berkshire, Cullompton in Devon and our head office, Redruth in Cornwall.

Your claims handlers will be happy to answer any questions you may have about our work and to help guide you through the insurance claims process. Our claims handlers are here to take as much of the stress and work away from you as possible.

If you have suffered an incident in your property and need to make an insurance claim, we offer a free damage assessment and quotation service. To take advantage of this service, call our claims line on 01209 722 522. Our claims team will provide you with a convenient appointment for one of our technicians to visit you. The technicians will ask you to sign a policy assignment mandate, which authorises us to work on your insurance claim.

Yes, at Richfords we want to help as many people as possible. Just call our claims team on 01209 722 522 and one of our Claims Handlers will discuss the damage you need restoring with you and organise a response.

Yes, If your treasured item has been affected by an incident then call us to discuss restoration. At Richfords we are experts in carpet and upholstery cleaning, stain removal and wooden furniture restoration. If you would like us to assess a piece of furniture call us on 01209 722 522 or fill our online instructions form.

At Richfords we are happy to work with all UK based insurers. When our Technicians visit you they will complete a survey and report, which we will send you your insurer so that they know what work is required and what the cost will be. When you sign our Policy Assignment Mandate we will be able to deal directly with your insurer and therefore reduced the hassle of you having to manage your claim.

Richfords is a family owned private company so our staff are directly employed by Richfords. Over our history, we have built up many close relationships with UK insurance companies and have long-term partnerships with them. But ultimately we are separate companies.