home insurance can somebody help?

lahers

I moved into my property about 6 years ago. before that tehre was an old couple living here. recently our kitchen ceiling came down as there was a leak in the bathroom however as the bath panel was covering the leak and my kitchen ceiling had polystyrene tiles i was unable to detect something was wrong. The insurance company has refused to pay anything for th bathroom as they are now classing it as rot rather than water damage although teh floorboards and joists are affected. they are however willing to pay for the damage to the kitchen tehy have offered me £1200.00 bearing in mind i will need to replace th whole kitchen as i am unable to find matching units to teh ones i have and the damaged units are in between the others. Please can somebody advise?

Mr_Warren_2

They are having you on ! The leak might have contributed to the rot but as you did not know the leak was there in the first place, you could not possiby have repaired what you did not know needed fixing. Get back to them and insist and don't accept their say. If you do not get compensation join the Which Magazine legal help.

lahers

Thankyou for your reply.....i have raised this as a complaint with the insurance company however they are dead set on not paying out as they are classing the leak as rot and not a leak...they insist they will only pay the £1200 for the kitchen. this has been ongoing since January and i have stressed to them the area is unsafe for my children.

jemw

have the insurers sent a loss adjuster out to assess the damage? can they confirm it was a leak and not rot?

did you arrange a plumber to attend and rectify the leak present?

if you have the invoice which categorically states that there was a leak and this has been rectified, surely this is evidence that there was a leak and the cause was not rot?

if you have no sucess with the insurance company,you can always refer your complaint to FOS

lahers

The insurers did send a loss adjustor out can see it was waterdamaged that is teh reason why tehy are paying out for the kitchen. However as it was a small leak it went undetected as it was at the back of the bath panel, and inevitably rot the wood.

latecomer

Stick to your guns. If the ceiling did come down due to the rot, then thats fine but provided the rot itself was caused by the leak from the bath then they should fix the lot.

On a slight tangent it does seem like insurance companies at the moment are trying to get more money back from previous claims as I recently received a letter from some solicitors who are trying to find out if they can claim from the 3rd party in one of my claims. I put the letter in the bin.