Snow and Ice damage

tobago22

Be very carefull when purchasing your buildings insurance. Like hundreds(if not thousands) of others my guttering has come down through snow coming from my roof.
My insurers(Age Concern) have advised me that I am not covered as this is accidental damage. When I asked what I was covered for they said "storm damage". I pointed out that the damage was caused by a SNOW storm.
They have refused to budge

lisyloo

Useful advice.
The problem is that most people tend to purchase on price and not give as much attention to the detail of the cover.

However if it's just come down but is otherwsie intact then you may find it cheaper to pay for the reapirs yourself rather than face an excess, loss of NCB and increased premium for years,
It's not worth making small claims, so you should get a quote first before claiming.
It's easy these days to do quotes and add in possible claims and reduce NCB to see the effect that a claim will have on your premiums.

cogito

Damage caused by weight of snow is not covered under a standard policy. You have to take the accidental damage option to get the cover. Unless the snowfall was accompanied by storm force winds (unlikely as snow would not have settled on your roof in those conditions), it simply isn't covered and the answer you have received from your insurers is correct.

tobago22

That may be the case-my argument with them is that nowhere in the policy do they define a storm. Surely a snowstorm is a storm

dacouch

A storm has a definition in the Dictionary just as a fire has a disctionary so in the abscence of a definition in the policy they use the dictionary defiition.

Accidental Damage Cover on your buildings will cost you circa £6 on a £160 building premium, it's well worth taking the cover as there are quite a few other claims you can make that would not be covered under the standard cover

tobago22

Very kind of you to explain that to me now. This is Age CONCERN Insurance Services we are talking about. By the very definition they will be dealing with a high percentage of old people. How many of them will know they have to look up the dictionary for the definition of a storm?
One of the definitions I have from the internet is "A heavy fall of rain,snow or hail."

dacouch

This is the general definition they tend to use

2. A wind with a speed from 48 to 55 knots (55 to 63 miles per hour; 89 to 102 kilometers per hour), according to the Beaufort scale. Also called whole gale.

There was a poster recently who had damage caused by a very heavy hail storm, a contributer who has good knowledge of claims advised that a hail storm could often be defined as a storm. I'm not sure whether this would apply to snow fall but you could try it

tobago22

By the tone and manner of my conversations with them i'm not sure they will accept anything other than their own definition of a storm. Prepared to take it as far as the financial ombudsman if I have to.

dacouch

You have to bear in mind a lot of claims staff are not that well educated on insurance.

Your best course of action would be to make an "Official Complaint" (It tells you how to do this in your policy booklet). They have to treat the complaint correctly and report back to you in certain time scales. Once you have done this (They may agree and pay the claim). You can then go to the Ombudsman.

P.S Mention you will go to the Ombudsman if your not satisfied as a case going to the Ombudsman costs you nothing but will cost them circa £450 irrespective of whether they win (The FOS takes months to give a decision though)

However as other poster has mentioned, make sure it makes financial sense to make the claim after taking into account your excess and possible premium increases

tobago22

Thanks for the advice-have already made an official complaint in writing AND threatened to take matter to the ombudsman.
However the previous post has given me second thoughts about pursuing the claim-not sure how much the no claims bonus amounts to.
There is also a principal at stake here-they seem to think they can bulldose their own ideas and to hell with the customer.