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Homes From Hell family is so grateful to Sharon

Posted: 15 July 2010

Author: Amanda Sandland-Taylor

Customer Care Manager Sharon Coombs-Hoar listened in horror as the heart-breaking details of long-standing Alan Boswell Group clients Tony and Vivien Smith’s Christmas disaster unfolded.

However, tonight (Thursday July 15) Sharon will watch with a sense of satisfaction as the Smiths’ story of separate Christmas Day and New Year’s Day blazes which destroyed their isolated Durham farmhouse and hit their holiday home business while they were abroad, is retold on national television.

What viewers of "Homes From Hell" (ITV, 9pm) won’t hear is how grateful the couple are to Sharon and the Alan Boswell Group for the way their insurance claim was handled...and settled.

The Alan Boswell Group, is one of the UK’s top 25 insurance brokers and independent financial advisers. They have a head office on Thorpe Road Norwich, another on Prince of Wales Road, as well as offices in Attleborough and Bury St Edmunds.

"We are 100% happy with the way we have been treated by Alan Boswell Group – and the loss adjuster has been brilliant. Everybody has been so kind and considerate and understanding," said Tony, an Alan Boswell customer for 20 years.

Tony, who has a portfolio of rental properties, found Alan Boswell through a landlords’ association and is thankful he has stuck with the firm despite the temptation of internet-based comparison sites.

"Recently I had been looking at these sites to shop around for landlord insurance but thankfully I stayed with Alan Boswell Group. You can maybe save £50-£100 by going for a cheaper policy but fortunately I didn’t. It’s good to be with someone you can trust," said Tony.

"It was one of the biggest claims I have had to deal with," said Sharon. "This was someone's home. They lost all their possessions, absolutely everything they had. They were on holiday and couldn't get back into the country because of the weather, so we had to organise everything. I am a trained loss adjuster and was able to offer that full personal service and ease some of the strain for them."

Tony and Vivien’s Christmas From Hell at their 60-acre Bowlees Farm home, in the village of Wolsingham in County Durham, began on Christmas morning. He was changing the water in a hot tub used by tenants in a holiday cottage attached to the farm when a fire broke out.

Tony managed to bring the blaze under control himself, but the pool house was ruined.

Despite the fire, the couple, who have a nine-year-old son, decided to go ahead with a planned trip to Egypt five days later. However, while they were away, further disaster struck when a three-month-old fridge freezer in the farmhouse they had converted into a dream home since moving in seven years ago caught fire on New Year’s Day.

A passing neighbour called the fire brigade, but with the snow three feet deep they could not reach the house in time to save it. The bill for the damage is around £½m.

Tony tells the programme that on getting a call from the neighbour – "I just looked at Viv and we knew the fire brigade wouldn’t get up, we knew we’d lose everything we owned, we knew the house would burn down."

In emotional scenes, Tony adds: "It’s just so tragic that it’s happened and I wish I could turn the clock back. I wish I could turn it back six years; I’d have put a sprinkler system in. To have two fires in one week, one Christmas Day and one on New Year’s Day is unbelievable, a lifetime of bad luck in one week."

Despite their horrific misfortune, Tony tells the programme that he is determined to re-build the family home and re-create their dream life in their perfect location. They hope to move back in for Christmas 2010, just one year after the shattering events unfolded.