We understand how overwhelming it can feel dealing with an insurance claim after a flood, fire, or major damage.
You may be stressed, your home or business may be turned upside down, and you’re suddenly expected to become an expert in policies, paperwork, and negotiations. Not exactly ideal, right?
That’s why people bring in Harris Balcombe to handle their claim. We’ve helped over 5,000 customers secure the settlement they deserve, and we can do the same for you.
Rather than telling you why people choose us, we thought we would let our clients explain it in their own words.
Below are five reasons clients say they chose Harris Balcombe.
When something goes wrong with your property, you don’t just have ‘a claim’. You’ve got builders, inspections, phone calls, emails, decisions, delays… and a house you might not even be able to live in.
Dame Joan Collins describes getting the call that the ceiling had collapsed in her London flat and arriving to find it ‘horrific’, with a huge hole, water coming through, and damage to curtains, carpet, and furniture. She says it was impossible to live there, and even the builders said it wasn’t safe.
Then comes the bit a lot of people recognise instantly. After meeting Harris Balcombe, she explains they ‘immediately took everything out of our hands’ and dealt with ‘the insurance company, the builders, and everyone who had been giving us trouble’.
If you’re thinking, ‘Yes please, that’s exactly what I need’, you’re not alone.
One of the biggest worries people have after an incident is knowing who is actually on your side. Insurers have their process to follow, brokers have their role, and contractors have their own priorities. So who is really in your corner?
Hazel 4D’s Garth Christie explains that after a huge warehouse fire, they chose not to use their insurance broker because the scale of the loss felt beyond what a broker could handle. They wanted experts who could ‘fight our corner and act entirely on our behalf, with no vested interests’.
That’s a big differentiator because clients aren’t just looking for help; they want representation. They want to get back on track in a timely and efficient manner, with no noise.
Claims can get complicated fast, especially when you’re dealing with business interruption, large buildings, stock, specialist repairs, or multiple parties. This is where knowledge and experience really matter.
In Hazel 4D’s case, the warehouse destroyed was over 50,000 square feet, and the fire took days to put out because it was full of packaging materials. ‘The devastation was immense,’ as Garth puts it.
He describes Harris Balcombe’s ‘professionalism, knowledge of the industry, and attention to detail’ as ‘outstanding’, and calls out the specific expertise involved, including a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Surveyor managing different sides of the claim.
This mix of technical know-how and detail is often what separates an okay outcome from a properly fair one.
Let’s be honest, we understand that property loss is an emotional rollercoaster. Even when it’s ‘just’ a building, it can be your home, your family’s routine, your livelihood, or your sense of security. We know that a cold, tick-box approach simply doesn’t cut it.
Sam's story starts with a kitchen fire in November 2015, flames going into the ceiling and flooding across the property from the water used to put it out. Smoke damage affected her entire house.
She describes the moment things changed for her. It was a call from Harris Balcombe that led to Martin Gelder coming out to meet her straight away. The first thing he said was, ‘How are you? Is everyone okay?’ She says that there was never any pressure; he came back over the weekend, and even took calls in the evenings.
It wasn’t only professional support. Sam says Harris Balcombe ‘went above and beyond’ and provided emotional support too, for her and her wider family. She even mentions texting late at night because they couldn’t sleep, and still getting a response straight away. That’s the sort of support people remember, and the sort of support we like to give our clients. We see you, not a policy number that needs to be processed.
Sometimes the hardest part of a claim is getting the insurer to accept what’s happened and what the policy should cover. If you’re stuck in the ‘back and forth’ process, we know that it can feel endless.
David, a legal professional in Altrincham, explains how water ingress appeared years after a cellar conversion, starting with mould and then pooling water. He describes feeling panic, health risk concerns for his children, and the impact it was having on his home, even going so far to say that the house wasn’t sellable in that condition.
He thought insurance would sort it, but after delays the insurer concluded it was defective design or workmanship and refused the claim. His worst nightmare had come true.
When Harris Balcombe got involved, James reviewed the policy and spotted straight away that if the cause was unclear, the insurer had a duty to fund further investigation under the trace and access clause. After Harris Balcombe engaged directly and persisted, the insurer agreed to cover the investigation, which helped prove it was a natural cause and therefore covered. Much to David’s delight, the cellar was then fully reinstated.
As David puts it: ‘The cellar has now been fully reinstated, and we finally have our home back. Based on my experience, I’d have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending Harris Balcombe to anyone in a similar situation.’
That’s the difference between a ‘computer saying no’ and you getting your home back.
Not every claim is a domestic one, and not every loss is straightforward.
Graham Wilson, Production Engineering Director at Mainetti UK, describes a major fire at their recycling site in Holywell in May 2013, where the business lost the entire site. Like many companies, they assumed the insurer and loss adjuster would handle everything, until industry contacts strongly advised otherwise.
As Graham explains, Mainetti doesn’t deal with fires every day, and that was exactly the point: ‘You have to go and find people who deal with this on a daily basis, deal with insurers on a daily basis, and understand what makes them work and what doesn’t.’
Harris Balcombe were on site within days, responding on a bank holiday weekend, to their initial call. Their support stayed consistent from first contact through to settlement, and Graham believes the outcome speaks for itself: ‘We’d have got, I reckon, 70 or 80% of the claim we did get if we hadn’t had Harris Balcombe in place. So yes, very much a fee well worth paying.’
Large, high-profile, complex claims are exactly where calm, specialist claim management becomes crucial. You need people who can keep things moving forward in a timely manner, keep stakeholders aligned, and handle the detail without letting anything slip.
Because when you’re dealing with a flood, fire, or serious damage, you don’t want guesswork. You want someone who:
And, as our clients show, that’s exactly what we do at Harris Balcombe. We will work with you to get the compensation you deserve and get you back into your home or get your business back on track.
If you have a claim you’d like us to look at, please feel free to submit your claim, get in touch, email us at info@harrisbalcombe.com, or contact our 24/7 helpline on 03300 229179. Feel free to watch our domestic testimonial videos here and our commercial videos here.
We’re here for you, and we’re ready to help.
At this point, you would hope that your insurance company is there to help but unfortunately, this is not always the case. We have known families who have felt intimidated by insurers and have been treated as though they have done something wrong, or are in some way to blame for their situation.
Hassle free, no obligations is how we operate. So if you’d like to speak to us call our 24/7 Helpline on 03300229179 or email us at info@harrisbalcombe.com. Or simply click the button below ...
