had
leapt in through an open window and ignited the curtains. There was
little left to save. At least no lives had been lost. The owners
had moved out earlier in the week, and the lady of the house had
been tidying up the grounds for the new owner.
“ You’ll be needing to speak to Brenda; she’s the owner and the
policyholder. She’s next door with Mrs Withers,” Rodney told me
without lifting his eyes from his report.
***
Brenda was a slight woman unsuited to her name, in my opinion.
I don’t know why, it just seemed to me she would have suited a more
delicate name like Emma or Florence. She had obviously been pretty
in her younger days but she had aged quickly. She was forty seven
years old but could have been ten years older. Perhaps her
appearance owed more to her distress over the house burning down.
Her eyes were puffy and red with crying. Her face was smudged with
soot.
Obviously in this business you learn to show sensitivity as
you are often dealing with people who have suffered a loss of
property, and sometimes a loved one. I eased into the questioning
by asking Brenda if she had lost anything irreplaceable in the
fire, although I already knew that the house was empty. She
brightened immediately as she began to realise that, disastrous
though the fire had been, she had lost only a house that they were
vacating in any event. Her belongings had been moved out, and were
all safe.
After more, gentle questioning I was able to determine that
the house had been sold and contracts should have been exchanged
last Friday. She told me that she should have been in Brussels by
now. Unfortunately the exchange had been delayed and was now due to
take place on Monday. Somehow I couldn’t see that
happening.
“ Brenda, this is the situation,” I began. “Once contracts are
exchanged, the new owner is responsible for insuring the property,
and so if you had exchanged last Friday it would have been their
problem and probably a legal argument would have ensued. To be
honest, this way is simpler. Can you tell me what you insured the
buildings for? The rebuilding costs, I mean?”
“ Yes, the insurance is set at half a million pounds, for
buildings only,” the weepy lady replied.
“ OK, Brenda. That should be more than enough. I think that the
RICS Rebuilding index will probably suggest around a hundred and
seventy five thousand, but we need to add around twenty five per
cent to that because the house is so far out in the countryside.
Even so, we’re only talking two hundred and twenty five thousand or
so, depending on the standard of finishing you had
inside.”
“ Oh, it was beautiful inside, always was, and Brenda had all
the bathrooms and the kitchen done last year, didn’t you, Brenda?”
Mrs Withers interjected helpfully. Brenda looked close to tears
again as she nodded her agreement.
I discovered that Brenda was due to fly out to Brussels to
join her husband, who had bought a flat in the Belgian capital so
that he could fulfil his new role as the EU Commissioner for Labour
Relations. I was impressed.
My phone rang, which was amazing way up here in the
hills.
“ Josh, are you alone?” It was Eddie from Dale County
Insurance, Brenda’s insurer.
“ Hold on,” I said as I excused myself from the presence of the
two middle aged women. “OK, I’m outside, and I’m on my
own.”
“ Josh, I’m sorry to do this to you, mate.” I knew what was
coming and I dreaded it. “The duty staff at head office have dug
out the policy and they thought that they had better call me at
home.”
“ Come on, Eddie,” I sighed. “Don’t tell me there’s a problem
with the policy. The poor woman is in pieces already.”
“ Look, mate, I’m going to see what I can do, but she doesn’t
have a policy with us anymore. She wrote to us last month,
cancelling the policy as of last Friday, and we have already
refunded the balance of her premium.”
I sighed, and swore under my breath. When would people learn?
They
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