Colinton family left with '£15,000 worth of damage' to their home after washing machine blast as 'quotes and photos were not enough evidence'

A Colinton woman whose washing machine exploded in her home is claiming £15,000 worth of damage from the company - but has been told the quotes she sent in which were requested by the company are not enough.

Ms Gregson-Davies says she and her family have been left in the same position as when the blast originally happened.

In August, Leigh Gregson-Davies was sitting in her living room when she heard a blast which “was like a bomb went off” in her kitchen.

The explosion from her Indesit washing machine caused a mini indoor flood from a burst pipe and wrecked cabinets and damage seeped into her hall and children’s room.

Following an article in the Evening News at the time, the manufacturers, Whirlpool, have since replaced her machine.

Leigh claims that at the time the machine was replaced, Whirlpool asked that she have the damage assessed and send the company a quote so the amount for the damage could be paid out to her.

“Whirlpool got in touch the day after the article and arranged for the replacement machine to come and said we should provide them with two quotes for the damage,” Leigh said, “We had two men out to give us quotes and we sent them to Whirlpool as they had asked.”

She added: “We got a message from Whirlpool the other day which just said the quotes weren’t enough, they didn’t break down all the bits of the damage and what needed replaced.

“The quotes and the photos we provided to them weren’t enough evidence and it has left us in exactly the same place as we were when the first machine exploded.”

The original Indesit machine was originally purchased for around £400 and Leigh has said that she is unable to afford the £15,000 to pay to fix the damage to her home herself.

She said: “There’s damage to the cabinets, the floor, the hall is water damaged and it has gone in to the kids room.

“Whirlpool have said to me that they aren’t liable for the kids room because the explosion didn’t happen there.”

"We are trying to help resolve the matter"

Earlier this year, Whirlpool issued an urgent recall notice for up to half a million tumble dryers made between 2004 and 2015 over fears a fault with the mechanism could put them at risk of catching fire.

A spokesperson for Whirlpool said: “We understand that this is a difficult time for Ms Gregson-Davies and her family. Our customers’ safety is our number one priority which is why we take every incident report extremely seriously.

“We are trying to help Ms Gregson-Davies resolve this matter, which is why we have instructed a loss adjuster to assess the damage so they can assist in calculating the amount of compensation due.”

Leigh disputes that Whirlpool have contacted her to tell her about the loss adjuster.