A High Court judge has said no insurer can be expected to house a family indefinitely in “extraordinarily expensive” accommodation in Dublin’s five-star Four Seasons Hotel until their flood-damaged home in Sandymount is repaired.
Ann Marie Glennon Cully and her children, Zane and Zara, who are living in a one-bedroom apartment in the hotel, might consider “reducing their standard of living” to “more modest accommodation”, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said.
He described as “very reasonable” an offer by insurer Axa to pay €645,000 towards reinstating their “effectively derelict” home at Victoria House, St John’s Road, and funding alternative accommodation until works were complete.
Axa’s offer also gave an option of seeking additional payments should the works cost more and, while he could not compel them to accept it, “I would not look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The family, whose home was first flood damaged in late 2009 and who moved into the hotel in October 2011, are adults who “have to behave sensibly” and it was up to them to get on with the repairs.
Axa had tried to sensibly resolve the claim, the judge said.
