A gran from Coatbridge fears the worst after a major flood destroyed her flat and has left her cramped in her living room, sleeping on a blow up mattress.
Cathy Morris is due to undergo a hip replacement in the coming weeks but has been confined to just one room of her property for seven weeks.
She has slammed her home insurance company and says she's been 'messed about' by LV, the Daily Record reports.
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Following a major water leak from an above flat back in October, the deaf 72-year-old, who lost her husband Archie, 79, earlier this year, has had to have her ceiling pulled down while the walls, skirting and furniture in two bedrooms were also extensively damaged.
She says that constant delays have meant she has been unable to find tradesmen to repair the damage due to the time of year.
Gran-of-five Cathy claims she was told it would take four weeks for the flat to be dried out but now fears she will have nowhere to sleep after having her hip replaced.
She said: “I had a pre-assessment for a hip replacement around six weeks ago, which the insurance company knows about.
“I could get word any day to go and get the operation. But I haven’t got a bed to come home to. I’m in pain which is being made worse by the situation that I’m in because I’m having to squeeze my way about the living room. Everything is being stored in there.
“Not to mention getting up and off the mattress, which is on the floor. I live alone and I’m also deaf. I have special equipment that goes under my pillow to let me know if there’s a fire but I don’t know where that’s gone because everywhere is such a mess.
“The day after the flood I called up the insurance but they’ve messed me about from day one. They gave me numbers to phone for the building side of it and the contents side of it but one kept saying the other was dealing with it and vice versa.
“After about two weeks, I had enough and they put me onto a loss adjuster who sent someone out to access the damage. We couldn’t get the house properly dried until the paper was stripped out of the three rooms that were affected.
“I had to get a ceiling brought down in the hallway which took about four weeks to do. The skirtings, plasterboard, just everything had to come off. It was in quite a mess and still is. The insurance arranged for the drying equipment to come in and for this other company to do the stripping.
“They were only coming out one day a week and that’s why the drying took so long. My family arranged for the ceiling to be put back up and skirtings put on for me on Christmas Eve. They’re trying to get my house back into some type of order just now so I can get a proper bed.
“If it wasn’t for my family, I don’t know where I would be. I’ve no radiators on the walls because they had to be taken off so I’ve not got heating.
“Now I’m at the time of the year where it’s very difficult to get tradesman and I haven’t had a settlement yet anyway.”
The pensioner claims work has been pushed back even further after the loss adjuster appointed to her case went off on holiday for two weeks, leaving Cathy in limbo.
She added: “They finally offered me £9300 which just isn't enough to replace beds, carpets and all the decorating work, never-mind the new ceiling. Now the loss adjuster I've been working with has gone off on holiday for two weeks and they say they can’t do anything until she’s back.
“This could have been dealt with in a much better way and I wouldn’t have found myself in this situation at this time of year. I would have got everybody in and got the work done. What makes it worse is that my husband just died a few months ago and I’ve only just kept myself together.
“I’m going to continue trying to keep myself together as best as I can but it’s becoming harder. I’m just so disappointed in LV and I hope they don’t treat any of their other customers like this.”
A spokesperson for LV said: "“We understand this is a very difficult time for Mrs Morris and we’ve done everything we can to help resolve this case as quickly as possible. Due to the extensive water damage, the drying time took over six weeks before work could start and our customer decided not to use the heating which delayed this further and we would have covered this cost.
"We’ve offered Mrs Morris different alternative accommodation options during this time but she has decided to remain at home. Mrs Morris has requested a cash settlement and to use her own tradespeople, which we have offered based on our loss adjusters valuation of around £9,000.
We continue to keep Mrs Morris updated on the options we have to settle the claim.”
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