07:00 - 08-August-2008
Some tradesmen have been forced to remortgage their homes or take out large overdrafts as they wait for payments of up to £300,000.
The huge debts have destroyed the trust between builders and sub-contractors, who do not know if they will get paid at the end of a job.
Martin Cuthbert, 49, who owns MJ Cuthbert Building in Bilton, is waiting for £180,000 for work he completed on up to 40 homes.
Mr Cuthbert, who also chairs the East Yorkshire branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "I am now reluctant to take on work with other firms and insurance companies.
"The problem has definitely slowed down the rate that homes have been repaired after the floods."
Thirteen months on from the floods, 1,296 people in Hull and 561 in the East Riding remain in temporary accommodation.
Two insurance companies accused of failing to pay builders on time told the Mail they would need to see evidence before commenting on the situation.
As part of the Mail's Back Home campaign, we spoke to Suzie Pallister, 36, who is still living in a rented house in Albert Avenue, west Hull with her husband, Andrew, 38, and their two children, Jessica, seven, and Thomas, 15.
Since the family's three-bed terraced home in Monic Avenue, Hessle was flooded in August last year they have seen three different building firms working on it, but it is still only 75 per cent finished.
Suzie said: "I don't trust anybody any more. If they had told me my work wasn't going to be done until March I would have been in temporary accommodation at Christmas – but at least I would have known. Now we might have to spend another Christmas away from home."
A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: "We cannot comment on specific cases but insurance companies were inundated with claims relating to the floods in the summer of 2007. On the whole, they coped extremely well and the Government has recognised how well they coped with the large numbers of claims that came in."
