Heavy rain - Leaking roof - Halifax wont pay!

mantamark

Hi all,

Last wednesday we had quite a bit of rain, and my sisters bathroom started leaking (flat roof), it got quite bad so i put a tarp over the roof, then had to pierce the pvc ceiling cover to release the water as it was starting to sag with the weight.

The paint on the wall is damaged, the felt needs replaced outside & the pvc cladding stuff is all out of shape.

She rang up halifax & they wont pay out as it was less than a certain amount of rainfall that day, there must have been about an inch or more of rain, the drains were overflowing & the roads were flooded!

Can anyone tell me where she stands? where do they get their rainfall data from, and is there any websites i can use to find out rainfall? i've tried searching, but to no avail.

Pretty poor service, she pays her insurance, then they wont pay out due to it not raining hard enough (when it was torrential!!)

Thanks.

Mr_Man_Full_of_Love

I wouldn't be very hopeful. They'll just take the attitude that if the amount of rain that fell caused damage the roof must have been in a poor state of repair. Therefore it's wear and tear caused by poor property maintainance and not covered as a one off insured peril.

lindens

Sounds like wear and tear to me. i wouldn't expect them to pay.

dacouch

Do you have Accidental Damage Cover on the buildings?

mantamark

the point is though they wont cover it because it was less than a given amount of rainfall, i thought if we got data to say it was heavy rain, they may reconsider?

I was under the impression that if its chucking it down, and the roof starts leaking, then the insurance would pay to fix it, as thats what they get paid for?

FlameCloud

No, the policy is there to cover from a set amount of perils. Basically, in this case only Storm is relevant, which means you need to prove that a storm has caused the damage. Given that a high volume of water will not damage a flat felt roof this might be a tad tricky. What essentially happens is over the years the chemicals within the felt that give it flexibility (and hence stop it cracking) leech out through natural exposure to the sunlight. When it rains, lightly or heavily the water enters through these cracks and into the property. This is simply general maintanence and is not related to storm, so the policy will not cover it.

Dacouch- Halifax ones, like alot nowadays exlclude water damage under AD unless a storm has damaged the roof.

dacouch

FlameCloud wrote: »

Dacouch- Halifax ones, like alot nowadays exlclude water damage under AD unless a storm has damaged the roof.

They love their excusions