A man has been locked in a battle with Halifax after the home insurer refused to pay out for damage to his house.
Greg Barnes, from Prenton, Birkenhead, told the ECHO he noticed water damage to his house and leaks from the ceiling after Storm Arwen hit Wirral on November 27 2021.
Leaks developed in his property's roof, causing water damage on ceilings.
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Greg contacted Halifax in order to make a claim, but it was rejected. After making a complaint, he was later told that there was no evidence of storm damage to his home.
He said: " The storm happened at the end of November but the first we saw of any issue with the house was when we saw the water marks on the ceiling.
"We contacted Halifax and they sent out an independent surveyor who came round with a camera on a long pole and he popped it up there and took photos. He then said: ‘we’re just going to reject this’ and I asked why and he said that the leak was due to pre-existing repairs up there.
"He didn't look in the loft, where you can see the water coming through, nor did he acknowledge a missing tile."
Greg told the ECHO that his home is over 100 years old and does have repairs, but they had held up until Storm Arwen arrived.
He added: "My argument is that the repairs have lasted for at least 20 years and then there’s a storm and all of a sudden they start leaking, so that has to be the result of the storm.
" The surveyor also refused to go up into the loft to see where the water is coming in.
During the weekend of November 27 and 28, when the storm hit, Greg's immediate neighbours suffered damage to their home. Their insurers paid out.
Other properties in the vicinity of his house had suffered damage - a home further down his road had a fence blown over and a tree was felled approximately 750 metres away.
Meanwhile, Tranmere Rovers (whose ground is less than 500 metres from Greg's house) had their game against Stevenage on November 27 postponed due to storm damage to their Prenton Park stadium.
A Wirral Council statement from November 29 read: "Wirral is continuing to deal with the aftermath of the catastrophic Storm Arwen, which battered the borough over the weekend."
"More than 160 separate incidents were reported through the council’s out of hours phone line on Friday and Saturday, with the majority relating to trees having been brought down by the strong winds."
Mentioning the damage inflicted on the local area by the storm, Greg then made a complaint to Halifax about the initial decision.
He reiterated that the repairs to his roof, which had been made more than 20 years before, had not faced a problem until the storm hit.
However, a response from Halifax to Greg's complaint seen by the ECHO again pointed to concerns with previous repairs and also noted that ridge tiles on the roof were not straight and had mortar missing.
The response also stated: "There is no evidence of storm damage and this is supported by the conditions in your area at the time of the loss."
Greg added: " I then got a phone call from a guy at Halifax who said that it wasn’t poor repairs that was the issue, so they’ve changed their story. It’s now the fact that there is some mortar missing from the ridge tiles.
"He also said that 'it’s because of the ridged tiles, there’s mortar missing from that and this confirms, along with weather reports that there was no storm in your area'."
Greg accepts that mortar is missing from the roof, but he believes that this was also a result of the storm.
"If you look at where the mortar has gone from, you can see that there’s no weathering on those bits, so the mortar has come out in the storm.
"In the pictures, I’ve circled in red tiles that have moved and you can see that again, where they’ve dropped down, there is no weathering on the bits that are now exposed.
"Obviously they’ve dropped down recently or they would have been weathered, so it’s the storm that has done that."
Disappointed with the response from Halifax, Greg felt that they had changed their story.
He added: " It just seems amazing to me that I got one story from them when the surveyor came out, then I get another story from them when they have another look at their computer.
"The fact they're not paying out to me feels like they’re flat denying a storm that everyone in the North West and the whole country knows about.
" They just seem to try and wriggle out of it. I went for Halifax for my home insurance because they’re massive and well known."
The ECHO contacted Halifax after speaking to Greg and we now understand the insurance company plans to return to Greg's property for a second look.
When approached by the ECHO for comment, a spokesperson for Halifax said: "Based on information provided by Mr Barnes, and circumstances specific to his case, we have reopened his claim and will be sending a personal claims consultant to reassess his property as a matter of urgency.”
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