First published on September 29, 2014, my AXA INSURANCE blog has been read  over 179,000 times as I update this AXA Insurance story, today. 16 May, 2020.

I am updating today because this blog has been targeted for a spam attack. In the past month I have seen 20,000+ messages posted to this URL. (The picture attached is just one mailbox page from thousands arriving daily.)
Now who would do such a thing? Surely #theaxainsurance would not? Took me hours to clean up this mess. Who would have a motive to cause this nuisance?

And why?

From the 2021 Miami building collapse we see;
“The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.”
“Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.” Full details in this article link to BBC News

In 2014 my property’s waterproofing failed. 7 Riverbank, on the Thames flooded when the Thames burst its banks in February 2014. My Insurer then, for the 25th year since I bought the property and paid for Buildings and Contents cover, was the AXA.

Seven years since that flood the building still stands unrepaired on flood rot foundations. The failed waterproofing was never repaired by the Insurer #TheAxaInsurance.

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In January 2020, I learned that my property, my home since 1986, insured with the AXA for some 25 years up until this claim, the same property the AXA claimed (in 2015) was restored to its pre-flood condition following the flood of 2014, has flooded again.
Why?
In 2015, the named freeholder and sole insured party, Charlotte Adler, a member of family law who was running a highly visible blackmail scheme against me at the time, which the AXA were aware of when they refused to speak to me at the time, swore in a court that the property had been restored to its pre-incident condition. Which I knew then was not the case.

I did notify both the family court running the ‘scam’ with Adler and her lawyer Tom Amlot, as well as #theAxaInsurance that my home since 1986 would flood again because the necessary repair work had not been done after the flood of February 2018.

To be clear. My home flooded in February 2014. I had previously paid for Buildings and contents cover for some 25 years with #theAxaInsurance. I had paid for a valid policy cover, buildings and contents for the period when the property flooded. I requested that my home be restored to its pre-incident condition – exactly as provided for in the policy cover I had paid for for the previous 25 years.

I called the AXA Insurance and disclosed that Adler, the corrupt family lawyer, had phoned the broker and illegally imposed on them to cancel the policy in my name.

It is a fact that I had a policy for Buildings and Contents paid for and accepted by The Axa Insurance 3 Months before the flood. It is a fact that Charlotte Adler called Fairweather Brokers and prevailed on them, by criminal deceit, to cancel the policy in my name.  My multiple efforts to ‘raise the alarm’ with #theAxaInsurance were all deflected on the basis that I was not the named policy holder in February of 2014, when my home flooded.

This was negligent convenience by #theAxaInsurance. I never received on penny. I ended up paying £300,000 in remedial costs making up Insurance shortfall, and Charlotte Adler, the lying family lawyer, won a court claim that she owned my home, based on her word that I had ‘promised it to her‘. That was her motive in cancelling my Policy cover and putting the policy in her name. The unexpected flood claim caught her out. And to avoid accountability, she prevented the AXA from speaking to me and setting the record straight.

In the court hearing for her claim – she assured the Court that the property had been restored to its previous condition. The AXA Insurance accepted her version of events. Obviously because it suited them to NOT pay out on a flood claim they knew would run as much as a Million pounds. So – the AXA Insurance ignored me. And agreed that the flood claim of 2014 had been properly addressed. That the property had been restored to its pre incident condition. But that was a lie. In 2021, as I write now, the property remains flooded and stinking of flood rot sevebn years later.

Related to this claim, although it should not have been, because this has nothing to do with family court, so why? –  Family Court Deputy District Judge Michele O’Leary ruled in favor of her fellow member of family law, Charlotte Adler, and my home was awarded to Charlotte Adler. Larceny. But the problem for the smart family law gang was; my home was all in my name. As was the mortgage. Because the property was never repaired – as I explained at the time – it flooded again. As a result – the value of the property fell below the mortgage amount. hence, successful profitible larceny in family court left Charlotte Adler with a win that was below the value of the debt attached to it.
Whoops.
How could she have guessed it would flood again, after she had sworn in court under oath that it would not. How could Michele O’Leary have been so certain that calling me a ‘Mentally infirm liar’ would prevent the property flooding? After all – she made that a judgment in Family Court. How dare nature ignore her legal authority?

Well. Here we are now. Turns out that;
1.) Charlotte Adler lied under oath, as a member of the Law Society in a court.
2.) Michele O’Leary may have been wrong on a number of levels when calling me a ‘mentally infirm liar‘ and awarding my home to someone who I housed for free, never marrying because I knew her reputation as a Family law liar. Michele is guilty of  making a wrong judgment with consequences that run into multiple millions.
3.) The Axa Insurance were wrong to ignore me. And continue to be wrong to ignore me. The fact is – they are complicit in a significant Insurance fraud while continuing to ignore me to this day.

Throughout this time I have attempted repeatedly to contact the AXA Insurance. Serially rebutted because I am not the named policy holder. A detail arising from a fraud.  I have paid 100% of the Insurance for my building since 1986. The AXA Insurance claim handler in my case must have known this – yet chose to ignore paying out on the policy and ignore any dialogue with me.  As a result – in a direct consequence of this flood making me homeless – and the failure of Insurance to pay – I lost my home completely.  A home I bought in 1986, in my sole name, developed at my expense to be valued at some £2.5 million, with a £500,000 mortgage.

#theAxaInsurance have not paid me one penny to date. 25+ years of paying in-full in-advance counts for nothing.

I remain open to contact to discuss what to do next. The fact is I had a paid up policy with the AXA for the year 2013./2014. The flood damage was covered in full by the Policy.  And YET. The AXA has;
1.) Not restored the property to its pre-incident condition.
And
2.) Has not contacted me about the flood that has occurred because they did not fix the flood damage in 2014 as they assured a British Court that they had. (Via their proxy Charlotte Adler. The Insured party.)

Here is my message to the AXA. Sent to the AXA Twitter feed on 1 February 2020. Which received no reply. As has been the case from the outset of this flood claim.

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The Axa Insurance and me

Chapter one
The first fifteen years of cover.

In 1985 I arrived in the UK as a working musician. I was 24, a graduate fleeing apartheid South Africa after four years of study and two years of conscription in the cold war proxy conflict between racist capitalism and communist resistance, called the Angolan Border War. A pretty harrowing experience that was too, making me determined to start a new life abroad. And England offered more opportunity than my native Greece.  Less than 12 months after arriving I was able to buy my first property. Me and my then girlfriend Catherine both worked like maniacs to barely afford a beautiful 2 bed flat overlooking the River Thames. I worked on average 5 days a week in studios, and 6 nights a week playing live shows. Earning barely enough to pay the astronomical costs of owning a property in the mid to late 80’s.
The second person I met after my arrival in the UK was a financial advisor, Gary Festa, based in Weybridge. Gary would be my IFA for the next 29 years. The first good advice Gary gave me in 1986 was related to the large mortgage I had for my first property acquisition. The leasehold for the 2 bed first floor flat with stunning views over the river Thames and Hampton Court Palace and the Freehold to the building. A three story terrace, divided into three apartments. I was obligated by the terms of the mortgage to name the lender in the policy I was obligated to take out as the freeholder. With good financial advice from Gary used the services of Ferndowne Insurance, with the amiable Ken Quigley ensuring I always had adequate cover for any emergency. Buildings and contents. So began my relationship with #theAXAinsurance.

Every subsequent year followed the same procedure. I was guided  by my broker, Ken Quigley at Ferndowne Insurance in adjusting my policy requirements.  Considering inflation, rising costs to rebuild, growth of contents as I bought more. A ten minute chat, following which  a reviewed policy was renewed annually.  I would pay the annual premium in advance of the reinsurance date and I never missed a payment, nor was I ever even one day late with the renewal payment.  Fifteen years passed in a rinse and repeat. Andrew meets with broker reviewing progress.  Ken consider Andrew’s policy cover needs and advises on adequate insurance cover for the coming year. The broker issues an invoice. Andrew pays the bill in full before the renewal due date. And The Axa Insurance are quids in on the business between us. In return, I am confident that my advice is good and that the Axa Insurance are a reputable Insurer. That my policy cover is  underwritten by an honest, reliable, dependable Insurance company with professional integrity and a reputation to protect. That is what I was paying for, annually for 25 years.

About 7 years after buying the freehold and 1 leasehold, I bought the second leasehold. I now owned 2 of the 3 flats in the building. I rented one out, becoming a landlord, and in that process amended my Insurance cover to reflect my new status. If I lost the rental income through any disaster making my property uninhabitable, I was covered for the amount of the rental contract.

And then came 2001. The fifteenth year in which I had paid up policy cover with the AXA Insurance.

A fire started, forensically determined in origin as old wiring installed in the 1920’s. The wiring overheated. An old bakelite switch cracked without causing he fuse to break the circuit, and a fire started under the floorboards if the middle flat. My two levels burned. I was living in the middle level. tenants in the upper level. I was suddenly homeless and so was my dog. And so were my my tenants.

The Axa paid up from day one. Literally. I received an advance for rehousing and within a day or two I had a 6 month lease on a like for like rental property to live in, with my dog Wallace the schnauzer. The AXA Insurance took care of everything.  More than once I reflected on the good advice I had received to go with this Insurance company. How reassuring to know that when disaster strikes, and you lose your home and all possessions, that the Insurance you paid for wil pay back your loss and restore your life to its pre-incident condition.

Nine Months later my two apartments were fully restored to their previous condition and I moved back in. My rehousing costs were paid in full. My lost rental income was paid in full. The outcome showed I had adequate policy cover and the Axa were in fact worth the money I had been paying all those years. Nine months after the fire, I moved back into my new home. And immediately rented the repaired rental flat. And with a minimum of upheaval, I was back in my home feeling good.

Not well done #THEAXAINSURANCE

Chapter two
But then

When it came time to re-insure, for the 2003 year, Ken told me, the AXA would not provide cover. Because my claim exceeded £50,000, I was a high risk for reinsurance.

At that point in time I had just met a seductive young lawyer, Charlotte Adler, 29, a junior solicitor at TWM, 14 years my junior, who advised me on a clever legal option to get lower cost Insurance. A loophole if you like. She offered to take out Insurance in her name, saying she had never claimed before. She offered to do this because I was housing her for free and lending her life-changing amounts to get her out of the debt lifestyle of a junior lawyer with student debt. And so, in a trust agreement between Charlotte Adler and myself, from 2003, my freehold title went into her name enabling her to take out Insurance cover for my building and contents. In the section applying for policy cover when asked “Have you claimed more than £50,000 in the past 5 years” she answered No. It was the truth. She had not.

The Policy cover on my Riverbank home continued exactly as it was before. Buildings and contents, landlords insurance to cover the rental income. Just in her name instead of mine, which was linked to the fire claim. I was surprised the AXA didn’t cross reference the property with the name of the policy holder, but as I was assured by my lawyer girlfriend, who had confirmed this aspect with the property law partner at her firm TWM would be the case, they did not. Gosh. Lawyers know stuff, I thought. I would never have thought something like that was legal, but there you go. If you cant trust a property law partner at TWM then who can you trust?

And so, for the Insurance renewal in 2004, with just a different name on the policy,  the same insurance cycle continued. I paid for an annually reviewed buildings and contents  policy. One freehold buildings policy and two leaseholds with rental income underwritten. My payment for the full amount of the invoice reached the broker well in advance of the renewal date. Every year. The only difference was the name on the freehold title was a trustee. Charlotte Adler, and not my own name.

In 2004, I bought the third leasehold in my property. And spent £300,000+ refurbishing that to a high standard. This included tanking the lower level to prevent water ingress. That alone cost some £100,000 at that time.  The Insurance was reviewed and changed to include the third property. And the fact there were now two rental units generating income. I was listed as a live-in Landlord for the policy cover. Policy cover was for one Building with three leaseholds. And  a substantial amount for contents cover reflecting my growing list of possessions.

Then came the first flood to my Riverbank property. 2007.

The Thames rose to record high levels, and the tanking on the lower level was breached. However, the builder, a good friend of mine, Cliff,  who had done the work in 2005, stepped up and agreed to repair the tanking and the clean up any water damage.   He asked that I claim only for the lost contents. He would do the rest. (Seeing as it was his liability that was no less than fair, or so I thought.)

It took about two weeks to do what he said with repairing the tanking breach. The policy was still in my then girlfriends name, Charlotte Adler. The agreement was that she would return the Freehold that enabled the Insurance policy cover for the building to my name. However this claim meant that we agreed to keep the title in her name. The claim for contents was around £30,000. The AXA paid it to Adler, and that replaced the contents lost in the 2007 flood. Cliff sent in a crew to repair the area where he believed the tanking breach occurred.

Another years renewal for Insurance came around. 2008 – 2009. The policy was still in Adler’s name. As usual, I paid it in full, in advance of the due date. The 22nd year in which I paid the AXA for cover on my home. Although by this time they had paid out twice. £90,000 for the fire claim and £30,000 for the flood of 2007.

Then came the flood of 2008. Turned out Cliffs patch repair of the tanking had not been effective.
And the entire lower level flooded in 6 inches of water.
The policy was still in Adler’s name, however from day one I had her call the AXA and authorize me to manage the claim, as the Lessee. (The Buildings cover was for three leases. Each lessee was liable for one third of the cost. I was the lessee of all three. I owned the whole building, freehold and leaseholds) In Insurance terms, as the named Lessee, they agreed to deal with me for the claim. No problem at all.

A surveyor came to the property. Identified the problem as failed tanking. And within no time at all works were underway to ‘restore the property to its pre incident condition.’ I was rehoused in  ‘like for like accommodation‘, as per policy, which was a three bed annex in Palace Road, a five minute walk from my property. About 9 months later works were complete. And I moved back into my home.

The claim cost in total around £300,000. The AXA paid in full. The payments went to Adler who was still the named policy holder, in her capacity as a trustee freeholder. The agreement from 2003 where she put the freehold in her name to be able to take out insurance without declaring the fire claim.

Nothing illegal there, as I had confirmed by the property law partner at TWM in 2003.  And the AXA were beyond reproach in their  policy payments. They paid all costs exactly as prescribed in the policy cover.
Specifically; like for like accommodations until the property as habitable again (9 Months of rental payment at £3,500 pm).
And complete re tanking of the lower level. Which required going back to soil and replacing all the parts.
Two top spec bathrooms. Tiling. Carpeting etc…… Electrics. Plumbing. The works.
The tanking job was contracted to Peter Cox tanking.
The Plumbing was GBM heating, my friend Geoff, who did the plumbing for all three of my apartments for many years. I must have done over £100,000 of work with Geoff through the years. About 7 new boilers. Countless call outs as tenants needed urgent plumbing work. Geoff knows his business well and I was a good customer over a 15 year period.

Nine months after the 2008 flood, I moved back home to a complete job. My property restored to it’s pre incident condition. And I rented out my two rental apartments.

The re-insurance for 2009 – 2010 followed. No reluctance from the AXA. The policy price increased, but was still realistic. The policy was still in Adler’s name, the trustee freeholder. Her advice was to leave it that way for 5 years until the ‘Insurance blight’ passed. Evidently it takes 5 years for the flag on a property to lapse following a big claim. Made sense. Good legal advice.

And so 5 years passed. Same procedure. Annual review of Insurance needs. Invoice generated. Sent to Adler’s name. Paid by myself, in time and in full. To the AXA. By cheque from my account. The last policy in this arrangement was 2012 – 2013. This was the 26th year in which I paid buildings and contents to the AXA for policy cover on my home.

In 2013 Adler left my home in an acrimonious separation in which she committed a string of offenses while still the trustee freeholder of my home. I requested the return of the freehold and when renewal of the Insurance policy came due, I contacted the broker. Fairweather Insurance. I explained the change in the named policy holder – that I was the freeholder and Adler the trustee – and as she as no longer resident in the property – I would henceforth be removing her name as trustee freeholder, and about returning the freehold to my own name. We discussed amendments to policy cover for that renewal – including removing contents items belonging to Adler. (I had given her a ring from JS Jewels, made for her, costing £12,000 that was insured in the contents policy.) This lowered the contents cover. The broker sent me an invoice for the year 2013 – 2014 (October to October).

I paid it in advance and in full. Buildings and contents cover for the three apartments, exactly as calculated by my IFA as adequate cover for my situation. Landlords insurance to cover loss of rent. Based on landlord living in the property. All professionally done. Agreed and paid for. Policy accepted by the AXA Insurance.

At this point in time – October 2013, I had buildings and contents cover in place with the AXA for my home for the 26th consecutive year. From October 2013 to October 2014.

In February 2014, my home flooded. The biggest flood in Thames history. TV cameras were there when the Thames breached the river bank.
The flood was far worse than that of 2008. Aside from  the Thames river water breaching the riverbank and flowing over the road,  the Thames-water drains back-flowed, adding sewerage to the flood ingress into my property. A dirty flood.

At this point, I became homeless. My home was clearly uninhabitable. And I needed to have the repairs effected quickly. The AXA sent a surveyor. The surveyor wrote “Flood caused by breached tanking”. It was pretty obvious. As was the liability of the Insurer.

I expected the AXA to do exactly as the policy cover required. As they did in 2008, in identical if less extreme circumstances. The precedent in terms of cause and Insurance liability was established. The sole difference this time is, for reasons of malice, the ex girlfriend, Adler, refused to had over the claim for me to run, as had been the case previously, when she had honored the trust agreement exactly as required in law.

On the day of the flood I started paying out costs for remedy and mitigating the claim. To pump out water. To clean up the foul water mess. To rescue whatever possible from the downstairs. To plug up the back-flowing foul water drain. To install rented pumps. Over £2,700 just in the first 2 days. I had to pay a plumber to stand in rushing water and stick his hand two feet down, into a back-flowing foul water drain, to block it and stop the back-flow of sewage. Imagine how much a plumber will charge you for this service? That would never be enough. Still, I did all the things a good owner would do to mitigate the damage and begin the repair of the flood damage.

I would go on to spend over £250,000 in remedial works, making up the shortfall in Insurance necessary to make my home habitable again, while I waited for the AXA to pay.

In year one post flood, I paid out some £75,000. The AXA paid me back Zero Pounds. (£0.)
In year two I paid out another £80,000. the AXA paid me back back Zero Pounds. (£0.)
By year three had paid out £250,000. By the end of year three post flood The AXA INSURANCE had paid me back Zero Pounds. (£0.) Not even the bills for the pump out of the flood water.

To date I have not received one penny from the AXA.

The consequences of this non payment are;
I no longer own my home. The costs of non payment for that flood damage and not being repaid the money I borrowed to progress repairs lead to the situation today where I have lost my home entirely. Unable even to sell it.
I ran out of money. Foreclosed and no longer even live in the UK where I have no home.

Because? When I needed my Insurance, it turned out #THEAXAINSURANCE did not pay.

If the AXA Insurance had paid out on the policy I paid for and had accepted by the AXA INSURANCE in the 26th year of my cover with the AXA INSURANCE, I would not have lost my home. (Upper value £2.5 million. Lower value £2 million.)

To date I have not been offered anything by the AXA.
Who have not at any time even spoken with me about their decision to not payout one penny to me.

The exact details of what happened are included in a book I have authorized to use my story about the AXA INSURANCE.
It is available here.

An entire chapter of some 22,000 words with the exact timeline of events between the AXA Insurance and a client of 27 years and includes actual correspondence from the AXA. Their legal argument for non-payment beggars belief. It is a must read if only for this reason.

Contender for the lamest excuse in the history of Insurance nonsense. I won’t put in a spoiler alert here. You read the book and decide.

More than 5 years have passed since my home flooded. I have repeatedly requested contact with the AXA. However, even when I tweeted the #theaxainsurance, and received a message from their tweetmaster that they would look into my claim immediately, I never heard another word.

So here is my latest effort. If only someone senior at #THEAXAINSURANCE  would write to me and offer a written explanation of why I have not received one penny from THE AXA INSURANCE. I could then publish the explanation s a rebuttal to the version of events in the AXA INSURANCE chapter in “WHO LIES WINS”.

The Axa Insurance
5 Old Broad Street
London
EC2N 1AD
Phone:   AXA UK head office; 0843 557 3825

Dear #THEAXAINSURANCE

17 October, 2019

My flood claim. 7 Riverbank. East Molesey, Surrey. KT8 9BH

Please will you contact me to set up a communication portal to provide me and my readership with your explanation for breaching the agreement implicit in my good faith payments for your Insurance service for a 27 year period.

Continuing to refuse to speak to me must reflect on your companies good standing in the market.

I propose, for reasons of practicality, you set up an email or telephonic dialogue opportunity between your representative and myself by using the private message facility on my Facebook account. HERE.  I could then arrange either a phone talk or an email dialogue.

In turn, I assure you I will publish your treatment of my request in rebuttal to the facts surrounding my flood claim of 2014, which you know has not  paid me one single penny despite all these years of asking. I am sure the readership following my experience with the AXA would welcome the opportunity to see an appropriate and measured response from #theaxainsurance.

Sincerely,
Andrew Brel

_________________________________

The previous #theaxainsurance posts follow below

Update:  June 2017.

The AXA Insurance and my flood claim from February 2014.
I confirm that despite paying Buildings and contents cover annually, in advance, since 1986,  since the flood of my home in February 2014,  I have not received one penny in Insurance. No contents has been paid, although I had a paid for contents policy that was accepted by the AXA.

No Buildings cover has been provided and no rehousing has been paid. I have had to raise over £200,000 to effect repairs myself to make the house habitable. As a result of this personal outlay I was able to let the property out and that income is used to repay interest on the loan to effect repairs that the Insurance should have covered. However because of the delay in repairs – some two years – the effects of leaving the property standing unheated in damp conditions has led to costly breakdowns since. Most recently, June, 2016, the collapse of the staircase as the footing was standing in water and rotted, and the collapse of the bathroom flooring because the wooden frame on which the floor tiling was supported rotted through. I requested a claim for that cost. Still waiting for a reply.

After some 27 years of paying for Buildings and contents Insurance with the AXA, when the opportunity came to avoid paying following the floods of 2014, which affected many Thames side homes, #theAXAinsurance have to date, not paid one penny to me.

The AXA and the buildings and contents cover for my home

My Thames side home flooded in February 2014 in an event that made the news and was for me a traumatic experience. (BBC: 10 Feb 2014: Thousands of homes along the River Thames are threatened with flooding as waters continue to rise. Aerial footage of the river between Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey and Marlow, in Buckinghamshire show the extent of the flooding.)

Lots of poo and Thames water washing through my beautiful home. I wasn’t even there at the time, being away on holiday.

Lucky for me the freeholder to my home, a Kingston lawyer, Charlotte Adler, had buildings cover with  AXA INSURANCE .

I have had cover for my home since 1986. Fully paid up annually in advance, buildings and contents. Although in 2003 I transferred title to Charlotte Adler to take advantage of her legal advice in lowering premiums.

First off I needed rehousing. Obviously living in a excrement flooded dwelling with black mould appearing on the walls was not going to be an option for me, with family members including a 5 year old son and my 79 year old mother. The building not only stank. The boiler was damaged beyond repair by flood water and the electrics did not work for some time.

After initially inviting my hotel bills and quotes for a 6 month lease while works were undertaken, following a meet with the Landlord, Insurers reversed their position. Saying the house was habitable and as such they would not pay the rehousing stipulated in the policy. I was assured that I should put my fears that it might be a breach of health and safety law to one side and consider living in the flooded property as ‘adequate rehousing’. That there was no heating, as well as no electricity initially, did not seem to the AXA to be at odds with providing ‘like for like’ housing. It seemed clear there was some collusion between the Loss Adjuster and the Landlord in undermining the policy cover.

The market rehousing equivalent of my home is £4,000 per month. Given the urgency with which I needed rehousing, I was staying in Hotels, paying on my credit card, while I waited for a suitable lease.  I took the first feasible option, a 3 month lease at £4,000 pm. I was prepared to pay 25% of the cost difference myself and made this offer to the Axa. I thought at worst the repairs would be effected within 6 months. I had an identical flood situation in 2008 and knew the procedure well.

Not for one second was it an option to live in the flooded and unheated property. It stank of poo for starters. For another, the AXA buildings policy provides for like for like rehousing when the property becomes uninhabitable.

When the flood happened (I was out of the Country) and sent in my building handyman to try and mitigate the damage. He successfully blocked the back flowing waste pipe that was spewing excrement into the incoming water by sticking his hand under water into the drain to block it with a towel, effectively plugging it to stop further waste egress. He spent several days at the property working to mitigate damage, place dehumidifiers in, assist with drainage and so on. Vital work in mitigating the damage. 8 months later his bill was still not been paid by the AXA. To date, December 2016, that bill has never been paid. Including the bill for the truck to pump out the flood water.

Throughout this first 8 month period the AXA did not pay me one single penny. Apparently because I am not named on the Insurance and the decisions reside with the named party, the Landlord, Charlotte Adler. I paid all my rehousing myself, with unsurprising financial consequences. My home meanwhile rotted away with black mould enjoying a good 8 months to take hold of the entire property. Without heating and through the cold winter months damage to the plumbing and electrics was to be expected.

At the time I began writing this blog, (8 months after the flood) I still had no indication of when the restoration works might begin, let alone a completion date for me to aim at moving back home on.

I suggested to the Axa that their proposal that I house my family in an uncleaned foul water flooded property where they know black mould is present might represent a breach of Health and Safety Laws which would bring the Axa into disrepute.

Their reaction was to give me a written assurance that I ‘be advised that Black mould does not represent a health and safety risk‘. This is the AXA Insurance writing to a flood victim who has a 4 year old child and a 79 year old mother visiting a property with sprouting black mould.

With my family’s health at stake I thought it reasonable to request sight of their qualified experts report confirming that black mould is not dangerous to health. A professional document from someone who had visited the foul water flooded black mould infested dwelling, just to reassure myself that I would not be placing anyone’s health at risk by living in a contaminated property (Even though it was transparently obvious to anyone visiting that living in this space was clearly not possible).

I thought that surely the AXA would not provide this reassurance that no Health and Safety laws were being breached by their rehousing arrangements without first taking the precaution of a professional report and so imagine my surprise when it turned out that they had no report to send me, because they had not commissioned a report.

Instead of a report by an Environmental Specialist in Health And Safety I got Lars the Gab Robbins Loss Adjuster assuring me that his mate told him  that it was OK to house a family (with young and elderly) in a poo infested untreated black mould rich property without hot water or heating.

This is not an exaggeration. The words relayed to me in the absence of a reliable and credible specialist written report were; “Lars Richter has clarified there is no written report but an assessment by their surveyor who attended the property as to risk which was in turn reported back to him then to me. There has been deemed no risk by a professional surveyor.”

The ‘professional Surveyor’ to whom they refer turns out to be another employee of Gab Robins who rebranded toxic black mould as Mild Mildew. It seems that Lars from Gab Robins is making it up as he goes along. If this is not the case, then, obviously, I would have seen the report I requested confirming that Lar’s assurance is based on reliable and credible professional evidence. To date – December 2016 – I have never had sight of any confirmation that the property was professionally evaluated. Although I paid an environmental health inspector to review the property. He commented as follows:

“In terms of the Housing Act 2004 ‘Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)’, I have identified a Category 1 Hazard, this is because the extent of the hazard in this case cold & dampness and its potential to cause harm being high, warrants immediate action in regards to remediation. As a result of this defect your property fails to meet ‘the Decent Home Standard’ and is uninhabitable in its current state. I recommend that you engage a damp proof specialist who can undertake the necessary work to remedy the situation. You will need to provide heating and electricity to the property, therefore I would recommend that approved contractors are used to test and repair both systems.”

With a Health and Safety concern as significant as the one described and as you see pictured on this page, do you not think any responsible party would consider as a minimum precaution the commission a professional report, including a laboratory analysis of the black mould, which has the potential to be toxic, before insisting that a family should be forced by their decision to live in these conditions? And if so, what kind of professional loss adjuster decides to go ahead and say ‘there is no risk’ just to defend not paying for rehousing?

The answer in law is, they knew I was not named on the policy. They were answerable to the named policy holder. Adler. Who, clearly, encouraged them to not pay out on the policy wherever it was in her power to do so, for the advantage it gave her in causing me financial distress at a time when she was litigating furiously.

She was probably unaware, or unconcerned by any fiduciary responsibility relating to her name on the title, because she knew the title was not in fact hers. She held it only in trust and could change her position in that regard at any time.

I found the AXA’s position to be unreasonable. At least they could have made the effort to get a certified environmental health expert to go in and take a look at any health issues before dismissing my concerns out of hand. It may be that I was not named on the policy, but they would know from their records that I had paid buildings and contents in good faith since I bought the building in 1986. It’s not that hard or that expensive, as I found out when I commissioned a site visit and professional report with analysis of the black mould by an accredited professional with a Phd. Which cost about £500. Surely the AXA could have taken this basic precaution?

Imagine my lack of surprise to learn that the AXA’s assurance that their policy was not placing my family at risk  based on nothing more than a heresay opinion by a loss adjuster (Gab Robbins) and motivated by the will to avoid paying out at any cost, encouraged by the Insured party toward this end.

Although assuring me that it is safe to house my family in the presence of trichothecene mycotoxins has enabled Gab Robins and the Axa to avoid paying me one single penny in rehousing in 8 months, I remain convinced that it brings both of these organisations into disrepute.

My hope then was that this is the work of a few bad apples at the AXA #theaxainsurance rather than the policy of the company they represent. Now, in December 2016, I have grave concerns.

Even at that stage, (8 months in) given the total failure to provide any reasonable insurance cover, either by way of my rehousing costs until the works are complete, or by paying the mitigation works invoice, or by actually completing the remedial works to enable me to return to my property, I had very little confidence that the A

xa actually would make any payment. For a period they suspended all dialogue in relation to the flood claim while they investigated the Landlord (Adler, the Lessor of my property) for fraud. An issue that is between Insurers and the Landlord, and has nothing to do with my claim as the Lessee. None the less, while that investigation went on, I continued having to rehouse myself at my own expense and my home continued to decay as mould rose up untreated walls. And wooden frames remained untreated after foul water intrusion.

Whilst we are accustomed to Insurers trying to pay out as little as possible, especially given that many people were affected by the flood, I think that in my case the Axa have taken avoiding liability to a new high and I do not feel that I have been treated fairly.

8 months. Not one penny. No rehousing. No works underway. No completion date.

Thank you kind reader for letting me share my tale with you and I hope it helps in some way next time you need to Insure your property.

Andrew

https://twitter.com/andrewbrel

PS: Now its 9 months later. Still no payment. Just nothing at all.

PPS:  Now it over 2 years later. And not one penny has been paid. The financial consequences have been dire. I believe fraud has occurred in which The AXA, Gab Robbins and the named Freeholder of my home have conspired to fraudulently avoid payment

PPPS: Three years later. Two further claims for damage. One a tree fall from next door property causing £15,000 damage to fabric of building and another £8,000 damage when staircase left in standing water and bathroom floor wooden bracing collapsed having never been treated post flood. Neither claim was even triggered and AXA declined speaking with me as I was not named on the policy. The Policyholder, my ex girlfriend, deliberately did not trigger a claim for either, acting in bad faith, although as a member of the Law Society one would expect a higher ethical standard to apply, in this case Charlotte Adler has deliberately fouled three Insurance claims leaving me with costs far in excess of £200,000, whilst refusing to return the Freehold title that gives her the control over the Insurance despite being in a trust agreement requiring her to do so.  The AXA have at no time spoken with me directly about the fact that I am the property owner relating to the cover they provide, and have paid the costs of Insuring with them for the past 29 years, never once late in payment, always the full year ahead of time. To date, 2017, I have not received even the repayment of the bill for pumping out the property after the flood.

ENDS

Stories I have chosen to blog about since 2013

Letters to Byron. Weekly letters from a father to his son, prevented by family-court abuse from seeing his own father, but not from reading a blog

How Tuti lost her head through the Kafala system. Beheadings in the Kingdom.

The 27 club, Trump and Juice Wrld. Young son of a single Christian mum takes cough medicine, makes a rap song on his iPhone, hires a private plane and dies at 21.

The Greensboro massacre – talking bout China Grove. Awful Racism Klan story from the US in 1979

Slavery. A brief overview of legal slavery in 2019 The 13th amendment. Where prisoners can be slaves to prison owners, selling their labor for profit.

Inherent racism and lynching. American racism. Some 5,000 people lynched. Strange fruit.

#theAXAINSURANCE and ME. I had Home insurance with the AXA Insurance for 27 years. My house flooded. And look at what happened next.

Athens, Antiparochi, Turkey, Syria, Hevrin and the blundering dolt. The horrible death of Kurdish leader, Hevrin Shalaf. Contrasted with the development of Athens

MBS, Trump, Pegasus and Khashoggi. Bin Salman and hacking and Kashoggi

False news. How to tell FACTS from OPINIONS and why uppercase matters

Anniversary of 911. 18 years later. Musing on 911

What is appropriate etiquette between Liberals writing? Repubs stick together. United at all costs. Liberals do not.

Trump and Churchill. Comparing Great Leadership qualities

Captain Silas Soule and Minister John Chivington. Memorial day. Great Americans of Yore

Kaveh Golestan. My friend for many years. A human great.

About “The Emergency Bouzouki Player.” My lovely first book about PTSD

My cousin George and the medals. How I was given my fathers WW2 medals

Facts and opinions. A Brexit story

Christians for Trump. More Trump Clan fun

M A W A. Make America Write Again. My solution to most of what ails the USA

Werner Schmitzenkopf’s letter to the POTUS.  More Trump satire

Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?  More Trump satire

Play that funky music white boy. Advocating for women

How to stay healthy. In the era of Trump derangement syndrome

Emanuel Sampson. Black on White Christian. Confused Black culture adopting religion.

My first Formula one race. I grew up near Kyalami – home of F1 Grand Prix in Africa

Willie and Trigger. Willie Nelsons astonishing guitar, A Martin made acoustic nylon he calls Trigger.

The Tulsa massacre of 1921. American racism history

All of my Love. Karac’s song. Led Zeppelins final tour ended with this tragedy

The Menu Bombings. Because it’s not taught in Trumps American schools.

Brexit and Greece and the resistance that froze fascism. WW2 leaves a shadow on Brexit

Wallace the dogs blog. My mini Schnauzer Wallace was pure K9 legend.

Gee, thanks mom and dad. Good job. Brexit musing for the next generation

30 years on the 3rd of July. Iran Air Flt 655. Shot down by the USA. Many dead.

Educated fools. Some graduates are not smart

USS Liberty. 8 June, 1967.  Israel attacking the US in 67

Sexual frustration, poor parenting and gun celebrity. Why kids spree kill

King of Clubs 1985. One final gig I did before leaving South Africa

Sophie and Johann. Sophie Scholl. A great German Lass, died in 1943

Student protest Comparing SA in 1976 to today’s student protests

Aktion T4 and Babi Yar. WW2 History worth remembering

Browning 1910 FN. My first gun and how I used it

My #metoo moment. A humorous aside to gender discrimination in #metoo

George Lincoln Rockwell. American Nazi history

Call that Fake news? My Sun Story. When I got paid by Rupert Murdoch for creating false news.

Hubert Lanz. Devout Catholic. Mass murderer. Nazi Catholics were the best Nazi’s

Distomou. 10 June, 1944 Where I learned what an Ossuary really is

When Wallace was kidnapped. My dog was kidnapped by Pikeys

Bad business on the way to Blechhammer. A famous WW2 picture explained

If you support Trump I know 10 things about you Trump fun

Sniper babe, Roza Shanina. WW2 Russian military story

British sale of African goods to America, Slavery and the British

Palace Vs Sunderland. When I was invited to bring my son, 4,  to his first football game. By Ian Holloway.

Love choices of fascist racist demagogues. Mussolini, Hitler and Trumps partner choices.

Mao decides to ‘Make China Great Again.” Important man in World History. Mao Zedong

Visitation disputes. When acrimonious separations get worse

Bryanston High School Hair Policy, 40 years later. My former school in the news 40 years later

Alexander Marinesko. Hero. Russian submariner who could have caused disaster

Guantanemo Bay Living Memorial (GBLM.) My idea for the criminals of Iraq’s destruction

Paragraph 175. Nazis and gay people.

Crash memorial. UTA Flight 772. French families memorialize their dead in the desert.

Call that flu. The Spanish flu. 19 million dead in 1919

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MY AMAZON AUTHORS PAGE    
     Where you can order my books and also send copies to friends
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  Who Lies Wins. (Press Release) #1 Amazon Best seller in Family law, October 2019.

Who Lies Wins is based on the actual judgments in Britain’s family court affecting British author and parent Andrea Lee. A loving capable parent who cannot not see her son thanks to a family court judgment that meant a fortune earned by family law members.  Her story illustrates the critical importance of  removing the remunerative incentive for increasing the adversarial element in a court system developed to process criminals; not the psychological profile of parenhts separating and being emotionally vulnerable to suggestion that benefits family-lawyers above their client’s parenting responsibility.
“The saddest book I have ever read, but terribly important. Glad I did.” Lori Steele

Order from AMAZON HERE – Kindle and paperback / Epub order HERE (APPLE)

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  2020 new edition of The Emergency Bouzouki Player first published in 2011,  is a first-hand account of the unwilling forced conscription into South Africa’s Apartheid army in 1979, of an 18 year old Greek medical student and musician atthe height of the 33 year long ‘Border War’.
An anti war polemic underpinned by dark humor. With well researched facts about South Africa’s history, including the two Anglo Boer Wars and the introduction of British racist legislation. Includes  personal experiences like meeting the Apartheid leader, PW. Botha, and the lasting legacy of undiagnosed PTSD  for an entire generation of South African conscripts.

Order from AMAZON  HERE – Kindle and paperback / Epub order HERE (APPLE)

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   ‘One Day in Paris’ is a novel being one year in the life of former British Army officer, Dan Blake.

An fast moving cerebral action thriller with love and guns and high-tech nano weaponry generating billions in trade deals. How the .1% of the 1% prosper through war and defense contracts.

Order from AMAZON HERE – Kindle and paperback / Epub order HERE (APPLE)