Keystone Property Claims

About Keystone Property Claims

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Keystone Property Claims is an independent loss assessing practice based at Pebsham, on the eastern edge of Bexhill-on-Sea. We act for homeowners, landlords and business owners across East Sussex who find themselves making a claim on their property insurance.

The distinction that matters is a simple one. When you make a significant claim, your insurer appoints a loss adjuster to assess it. That adjuster is instructed and paid by the insurer, and works in the insurer's interests. A loss assessor does the same job from the other side of the table, for you, the policyholder. We assess the damage, document and present the claim, and negotiate the settlement.

Most people will deal with one serious property claim in their lifetime. Insurers deal with them every day. That imbalance in experience is the reason this profession exists, and it is the reason we are usually called in shortly after something has gone badly wrong.

Keystone Property Claims is a trading name of BPM Property Claims Management Limited (company number 11570901), an Appointed Representative of Citrus Compliance, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The claims we handle are the ones that disrupt a household or a business, rather than the ones settled with a phone call.

Escape of water is among the most common we are called to. A failed joint under a bath or a split pipe in a ceiling void can soak through several rooms before anyone notices, and the drying and reinstatement work that follows can be more extensive than it first appears. Fire and smoke damage brings its own difficulty, because smoke travels well beyond the room that burned and its effects are easy to miss on a first inspection.

We also assist with flooding, storm and weather damage, impact damage, subsidence and structural movement, theft, burglary and malicious damage. For commercial clients we can address business interruption alongside the damage to the building itself.

Landlords form a steady part of our work. A tenanted property with a serious leak brings a repair claim and a loss of rent question at the same time, and the two are best presented together.

The work usually begins with a visit. We look at the damage, establish what has actually happened and check it against the cover you hold, because the policy wording decides what can and cannot be claimed.

From there we prepare the claim. That means documenting the loss properly, putting together the schedules and costings that support it, and presenting the whole thing to the insurer in a form they can act on. When the insurer's loss adjuster attends, we meet them on your behalf. We then handle the correspondence and the negotiation through to settlement.

You deal with one person throughout. There is no call centre and no passing between departments, which matters when you are already living with the disruption of a damaged property.

How closely you stay involved is your choice. Some clients want a say at every stage; others would rather hand it over and get on with their lives. Either suits us.

Our fees are straightforward, and we would rather set them out plainly than leave you to ask.

If you instruct our principal contractors to carry out the agreed insurance works, there is no separate fee for our services, as our professional fees are included within the overall cost of the claim. Your policy excess may still apply.

If you would prefer to use alternative contractors, or if you accept a cash settlement, a loss assessing fee of 25% plus VAT of the final settlement value applies. That fee becomes payable once the claim is settled and is invoiced separately.

That is the whole of it. We will confirm which basis applies to you before you instruct us, so there are no surprises later.

Keystone Property Claims is a trading name of BPM Property Claims Management Limited, registered in England, company number 11570901. BPM Property Claims Management Limited is an Appointed Representative of Citrus Compliance. Citrus Compliance is a trading name of Andrew Smith, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.