Insurance claim temporary accommodation in Bristol and Newport
The first call after a flood is to the insurer. The second is about where the family sleeps tonight, and the policy answers the first question without answering the second: alternative accommodation is covered, and it's nobody's job to find it.
So it defaults to a hotel, because a hotel can be booked in an hour. That's fine for the first two nights. It's wrong for the next twelve weeks, when a family of five is in two rooms with no kitchen, every meal is a receipt on the claim and the dog is in a kennel.
A furnished house is the other answer, and the reason it isn't the default is that nobody knows how to place one quickly. This is how it works with us.
Placing a household
Tell us the household: how many adults and children, where school and work are, whether there's a pet, and how long the repair is expected to take. That last one is a guess at this stage and we treat it as one.
We come back the same working day with the houses that fit, a monthly rate for the placement, and what's included. You confirm, we send the address, the parking and the self check in details, and the family lets themselves in. No reception, no key handover to arrange.
Where a house is free, a household can be in within the week. Where the closest fit is booked, we say so and offer the next nearest, rather than sit on the enquiry.
How the invoice works
We work with loss adjusters and claims handlers directly and invoice on the claim. Tell us who the invoice is addressed to and the claim reference, and that's what goes on it: one invoice per stay, to the insurer, the adjuster or the managing agent, not to the household. If the claim needs it broken down by month, say so when you place.
If your policy has you paying and reclaiming, the same invoice goes in your name instead.
How long a placement runs
Placements often run two to six months, which is the length of a drying out and a rebuild rather than a booking window. Stays over 28 nights are quoted at a monthly rate, the lowest we offer, and the quote is for the whole placement.
If the repair overruns, the placement extends month by month where the calendar allows, so the household isn't moved into a different house halfway through. If it finishes early, tell us as soon as you know and we'll say what's possible on the dates.
What the house includes
A whole house or apartment, nobody else in it, furnished to live in rather than to photograph: proper beds, a real kitchen, a washing machine and dryer, a sofa the family would choose. Fast wifi. Parking where the property has it, stated on every listing. There's nothing for the household to set up: the wifi, gas, electric and water are already on, so no account gets opened in a name that then has to be closed again.
A clean and a linen change part way through the stay, and one contact for anything that breaks, which matters more to a family that's already had one thing break. Children are fine. No smoking. Pets are by agreement, so ask before you place.
Where the houses are
Bristol: Hotwells for the centre; Filton, Patchway and Brentry for the north; Brislington, Bishopsworth and Totterdown for the south; Eastville, Easton and Greenbank for the east; Emersons Green and Kingswood for the ring road. Newport: Caerleon Road, Llewellyn Street and the Pill side of the river near the Royal Gwent, with Chepstow for Monmouthshire.
Sizes run from a one bed apartment to a six bedroom house, so a couple and a family of eight are both placeable, and the house can be matched to the school run rather than the other way round.
What we can't do
We can't hold a house without a booking during the busy months, we don't offer unfurnished lets, and we don't quote a placement by the night. If the household needs to be somewhere we don't have a house, we say that on the first reply rather than send them across the city.
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