£1.99 Plumming and Drainage Insurance Cover

Jjock

Homeserve use a canny way of getting your attention, they use the same colour paper as your local water company, ie, blue if you live in the Severn Trent area, and use the words Severn Trent Water introducing Homeserve. They offer cheap underground pipe insurance knowing full well Severn Trent water, offer a free repair service anyway, they also tell the customer to get Severn Trent to find the leak for them so they can fix it?? You will also find that if you took out the old policy a number of years ago, does it really cover you for underground leaks, as you may have had an updated policy sent to you, have a look at exclusions, roundabout 1a? they also say in the policy, have you contacted your water company as they may be able to help?/ so why are they selling underground pipe insurance, money for nothing i think. Also if you live in the Severn Trent area and your house is pre 1937 you may have drainage cover, just call them, they can check in minutes, they can then clear your sewer

diamond_dave

Just had a letter from SW Water re this type of insurance, but reading the small print it does NOT cover the water pipe under the drive.So if that goes, its down to me to repair and the drive is about 70 ft long!

Captain_Leaky

So, can anyone come up with a definitive policy which covers mains water supply pipe leaks where the leak point on the pipework is within the boundary of your property. Similarly, I need a policy which covers both this, and for any sewer pipes situated in the same way. I have put off buying any form of home insurance for the last ten years simply because the policies are too difficult to understand, and I am very wary of being caught out by the 'small print' whereby you actually end up finding out that you effectively have to pay the equivalent of the initial premium twice over because of 'excess', or worse, you are not covered at all, simply because of some !!!!!! 'exclusion'. You only ever find out whether or not an insurance policy is any good when you have to claim, and at that point it's too late, so any suggestions/guidance welcome. Thanks in anticipation Captain Leaky.

rgannon4

I too have had policies from insurance companies but have had homeserve come out and do the job.

I now know i can have two claims on my policy and somehow without my knowledge I had used those two claims from one toilet leak. And its still leaks!

Rather than get these policies I just use local tradesmen who seem to know what their talling about and when these issues do arise it seems cheaper to pay for there and then.

mr-mr_2

Jjock wrote: »

Homeserve. Also if you live in the Severn Trent area and your house is pre 1937 you may have drainage cover, just call them, they can check in minutes, they can then clear your sewer

How do you know that?

Gothicfairy

mr-mr wrote: »

How do you know that?

Not sure why it matters ? but the information given is in most cases correct. If your property is pre 1937 you might well be entitled to repairs on the sewerage pipes for free.
The only thing I would add is that at STW customer relations 0845 7 500 500 will NOT be able to tell you, you would need to go to the operations department 0800 7834444 they are the ones that hold the plans of the pipes and the supply details.

rgannon4

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Not sure why it matters ? but the information given is in most cases correct. If your property is pre 1937 you might well be entitled to repairs on the sewerage pipes for free.
The only thing I would add is that at STW customer relations 0845 7 500 500 will NOT be able to tell you, you would need to go to the operations department 0800 7834444 they are the ones that hold the plans of the pipes and the supply details.

I found this on a local drainage site

http://www.wirraldrains.co.uk/Drainageinformation.html

Which says if your drainage system is older than 1937 is the responsibility of the local water company. Section 24 or something

lapat

simonm wrote: »

The affiliation with the Water Companies can be a positive thing. If there is a problem in dealing with Homeserve, there is always a fall back position in that one can escalate to the water company and get them to approach Homeserve on your behalf.

there is no comback to the water companys read the small print they just take a small percentage of each policy to put this through your letterbox

lapat

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Not sure why it matters ? but the information given is in most cases correct. If your property is pre 1937 you might well be entitled to repairs on the sewerage pipes for free.
The only thing I would add is that at STW customer relations 0845 7 500 500 will NOT be able to tell you, you would need to go to the operations department 0800 7834444 they are the ones that hold the plans of the pipes and the supply details.

all properties pre 1937 are covered under the water companys remit and the law is about to change again next year

Captain_Leaky

I can confirm this -Severn Trent came out and rerouted and renewed our sewage pipes for nothing - some £5+K's worth of work. The key for this is to check your property title deeds and any easements contained therein. In our case, I live in a pre-1937 semi with a 'shared drain'. This means that Severn Trent treat this as a Public Sewer rather than a 'Private drain'. As has already bee said, the Govt changed the law whereby the water utilities will adopt ALL drains/sewers, regardless s to whether they are inside or outside your boundaries. The law comes into effect during 2011.