Roof/box gutter leak - Home insurance claim

SWSS

I am a Halifax customer with Halifax Home and Content insurance which i have held for just under 3 years.

While I was on holiday at the beginning of Feb 09, there was substantial water leakage into my house which my mother managed to discover and clean up as well as organise a roofer to come asap (he started work on 18 Feb when he erected scaffolding). This happened during the week 2-6 Feb (when there was the severe weather in the UK and London where my property is). She did not realise I had insurance cover.

Upon my return on 18 Feb I called Halifax to say I wanted to make a claim. They did their best to dissaude me (not enough rainfall in my area and claim was automatically dismissed, I would lose my no claims etc) before reluctantly sending out a surveyor.

The surveyor that attended I felt was fair. He explained to me that the leak likely came from my box gutter which was likely to have been damaged by the heavy snow that settled and caused the leak and internal damage. The roof he said had small cracks in the asphalt but this was due to temperature changes and wear and tear.

Yesterday I received a letter from the Claims Services which said that the ingress was due to poor workmanship to the box gutter (I have lived at my property for 3 years with no issues to date) and that they had checked relevant weather reports and these showed that weather conditions did not fall within my insurers criteria for storm on or around the reported date of loss. As such there was "no cover under the policy and the claim is declined".

Please can anyone at all give me any advice? Is their decision fair? I purposely chose Halifax insurance as they said they offer a comprehensive policy (and are not the cheapest) to cover exactly situations like this. I would be really grateful if anyone can suggest anything I can do? I am currently composing a letter to Halifax.

Many thanks.

dogbot

Sorry, I don't think you will like this but:

I would say it is fair. Your policy covers Storm and flood, and the insurer may describe storm with specific criteria as to wind speed, or have criteria they assess such claims against. This is normal. Even if not Storm is usually considered to be a violent and unusual weather event. The snow fall on 2nd Feb does not fall into the definition of storm usually understood by household insurers, their contracts or the courts in interpreting those contracts.

Personally I would expect a gutter to be able to cope with the few inches of snow we had in London and the South East on those days, just as they should be able to cope with heavy rain. I have not seen or heard of any such problems with the area of SW London in which I live.

I would say it is reasonable to conclude that there must be some other problem with the gutter to have caused it's failure, not the snow. The "proximate cause" could well have been poor workmanship, which only manifest after a few years of use and then a slighly unusual snowfall.

Do you have "full" accidental damage or all risks cover? If so, check the wording of this section carefully to see if you might be covered - but I doubt that you will since wear and tear or workmanship will be a general exclusion or sectional exclusion.

SWSS

Thank you. It's not great news but very helpful to know where I stand. I will check for "full" accidental damage or all risks cover.

dacouch

If you have accidental damage the damage the water has done inside your home eg to the wall paper and your contents will probably be covered.

FlameCloud

The Halifax full AD cover specifically excludes water entering the home unless a storm or flood caused it- or at least it used to when I was there.

SWSS

Thanks all. A bit gutted (and much poorer) but it doesnt sound like I have many options outside accepting the decline. I'll double check the detail, try writing and keep you posted ...

dacouch

FlameCloud wrote: »

The Halifax full AD cover specifically excludes water entering the home unless a storm or flood caused it- or at least it used to when I was there.

I can well believe that kind of exclusion on a Halifax Policy...

Airwolf1

We've had a lot of claims to attend to for leaking roofs due to snow over the last few weeks, it's been hectic. Snow will get where rain doesn't as well.

mattymoo

Just had a box gutter repaired (not an insurance claim) that had failed due to incorrect "code" of lead and the gutter had been leaded in one run of lead - too long. Over the years, heat / cold had caused it to split and water entered the house. Fortunately this was into a conservatory with a tiled floor and little in the way of furnishing at present so no damage done.

Cost to widen the box gutter, step the gutter (to allow water to run off better) and reline with correct lead code was £700. This did took 2 days and also included repointing the brickwork of the wall below the gutter - and that was the lions share of the job.

dogbot

Small update on this subject

I have found that Wesleyan http://www.wesleyan.co.uk household policy does provide cover for "weight of snow" as a peril. Just in case anyone really wants to make sure they are covered!