Claiming of house insurance

Legacy_user

My dad, who lives on his own, mentioned that he noticed water stains on the utility room ceiling. It's directly below his ensuite shower room. My brother lifted the carpet in the room and noticed that the floorboards were stained black out to about 5 inches from the shower tray. My husband then removed some of the tiles from around the shower base and the wood behind just crumbled. It's obvious there has been some sort of leak for quite a while.

Dad talked about just replacing the shower tray but we think the job is more major than this and that he should claim on his house insurance for the very first time in his life. There is 1 stud wall involved and we think the bottom of it is probably in the same state as the wood we have already uncovered and so would need replaced. So we have the following questions.

1. Would it be ok to claim for this type of damage on the house insurance?
2. The suite is 18 years old and Champagne colour would the insurance company allow for replacing the whole suite?
3. The room is 3/4 tiled and tiles will be damaged when removing the wall so the whole room will need retiled, will they allow for this too?
4. Is there anything else we should be thinking about in trying to get this fixed for him?

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Pam17 wrote: »

My dad, who lives on his own, mentioned that he noticed water stains on the utility room ceiling. It's directly below his ensuite shower room. My brother lifted the carpet in the room and noticed that the floorboards were stained black out to about 5 inches from the shower tray. My husband then removed some of the tiles from around the shower base and the wood behind just crumbled. It's obvious there has been some sort of leak for quite a while.

Dad talked about just replacing the shower tray but we think the job is more major than this and that he should claim on his house insurance for the very first time in his life. There is 1 stud wall involved and we think the bottom of it is probably in the same state as the wood we have already uncovered and so would need replaced. So we have the following questions.

1. Would it be ok to claim for this type of damage on the house insurance?
2. The suite is 18 years old and Champagne colour would the insurance company allow for replacing the whole suite?
3. The room is 3/4 tiled and tiles will be damaged when removing the wall so the whole room will need retiled, will they allow for this too?
4. Is there anything else we should be thinking about in trying to get this fixed for him?

Your awfully presumptions - funnily enough in your brothers favour.

You dont even know what is causing the leak and already have the insurers paying for a complete refit.

Contact them and ask them to come and have a look and find out.

System

You obviously haven't read the post properly. :mad:
It's not in my brothers favour, it's my dad's ,as mentioned in the very first line of the post, and I'm not being presumptive at all.

I'm asking questions about how claiming off house insurance works when water damage is involved. Obviously he will be contacting the insurers to come out and see the damage for themselves but given my dad is in his 70's and has been paying insurance for years and never claimed I was looking for some information to pass on to him prior to their arrival so that he knows what to expect.

Frankly if you have nothing contructive to give in answer to my post then don't bother. There was nothing in my original post which warranted such an unhelpful response.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Pam17 wrote: »

You obviously haven't read the post properly. :mad:
It's not in my brothers favour, it's my dad's ,as mentioned in the very first line of the post, and I'm not being presumptive at all.

I'm asking questions about how claiming off house insurance works when water damage is involved. Obviously he will be contacting the insurers to come out and see the damage for themselves but given my dad is in his 70's and has been paying insurance for years and never claimed I was looking for some information to pass on to him prior to their arrival so that he knows what to expect.

Frankly if you have nothing contructive to give in answer to my post then don't bother. There was nothing in my original post which warranted such an unhelpful response.

You dont eeven know the extent of the leak, the cause etc and you already asking for a new suite and wall and tiles.

Oh and to the point. If you had water stains and didnt investigate them immediately the insurance may well not pay out blaming your neglience in not doing so for causing the damage.

dacouch

Who is your father insured with?

Do you know if he has accidental damage cover?

missile

I would claim.

However if the cause of the damage is lack of maintenance rather than a leaking pipe, you may find the insurers refuse to pay.

They will only replace tiles where required, not the whole room.
Most insurers will not pay for replacement suite, they will most likely re-use the old tray.

If your insurers are NU / Aviva who contract Asprea, prepare yourself for the worst!

System

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

You dont eeven know the extent of the leak, the cause etc and you already asking for a new suite and wall and tiles.

Oh and to the point. If you had water stains and didnt investigate them immediately the insurance may well not pay out blaming your neglience in not doing so for causing the damage.

The water stains on the ceiling are a recent appearance and were investigated as soon as they appeared. Removal of the tiles around the shower base showed that the original plumber had put blue plastic sheeting down which seems to have contained the leak for some time, destroying the wood shower support. We think that that wood could no longer soak up the water and that's when it leached further beyond the shower into the surrounding floorboards and then down to the ceiling below.

The reason I asked the original questions are this.

We have already removed a handful of tiles to try to investigate the problem. The shower tray is raised above the floor and we can't get a good enough view of the pipework from the waste to check if that's the problem so it seems likely the shower tray and screen will have to be lifted out possibly along with some floorboards.

The screen is attached at both sides by sealant to the shower tiles and I'm assuming if the plumber did a good job, and we think he did as we have checked and that is not where the leak is coming from, it will be hard to lift out both without further damage to the tiles. Another possible source of the leak is the shower itself. It and it's pipework are in the stud wall which is tiled on both sides. If it is rotten too then that wall will need to be replaced and the tiles with it. As mentioned before the suite is Champagne colour, if the shower base itself is the problem and so can't be reused I don't know if it is possible to get that colour again to match the existing basin and loo. When we replaced our own bathroom a couple of years ago the only choice was white. That's why I asked about replacing the whole suite. IE: would they only pay to replace the shower base (if that is the problem or it's not reusable) and leave it to my dad to pay for the replacement of the basin and loo himself if only white is possible?

Now I am hoping someone can answer my questions helpfully without automatically assuming we are on the scrounge or trying to defraud the insurance company? My dad is a pensioner with low income and we just want to try to be a little informed before the insurance assessors come out.

System

dacouch wrote: »

Who is your father insured with?

Do you know if he has accidental damage cover?

Not sure who he is insured with but he said he does have accidental cover.

missile

As mentioned before the suite is Champagne colour, if the shower base itself is the problem and so can't be reused I don't know if it is possible to get that colour again to match the existing basin and loo. When we replaced our own bathroom a couple of years ago the only choice was white.

I know NU will not replace suite, they only pay for those items which are damaged even if style/colour does not match. Ditto where tiles cannot be matched to those on adjacent walls.

My dad is a pensioner with low income and we just want to try to be a little informed before the insurance assessors come out.

May I suggest you try to be there when the assessor comes. Asprea Assessor was quite rude and unpleasant to my MIL when she had a similar problem, with a leak in her bathroom which caused damage to the kitchen below.

dacouch

As missile mentioned the Insurers are technically only responsible to replace the damaged item eg the shower tray, however if you push the Insurer and mention the Ombudsmans rulings / guidances as per the link below you should be able to get them to contribute 50% towards the rest of the suite (They will normally only pay to install the damaged item though eg the shower tray).

Bear in mind Insurance policies do not cover the actual repair to the burst pipe, they pay the for the SUBSEQUENT damage the water has done. (If you father has home emergency cover this MIGHT pay for the repair costs to the burst pipe).

Some policies include "Trace and Access" cover this covers the costs (Up to a set amount) to trace and access the leak eg remove tiles or the flooring (Its still does not cover the cost or repairing the link though).

If you can find out which Insurer your father is with we can check to see whether it includes Trace and Access Cover.

As Missile pointed out if your father is with NU / Aviva they will try and appoint Asprea to carry out the work, they have a very bad reputation (Do a search of MSE forums as there are a number of different threads on them). You would be far better off using a local builder / plumber who you are confident can do a good job (They should fall over themselves to get the work done in the current climate as work is scarce).

Bear in mind your father will have to contribute his excess which hopefully if he has been with the same Insurer for many years will be around £50 to £60 and that his premium will increase circa 10% for a couple of years.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/75/75-household-insurance.html

FlameCloud

Why do you even need a new suite? Has the water somehow damaged it?