Home Insurance (Buildings) Policy Advise Needed....

denyse_marston

Hi,

My sister died earlier this year, as she lived alone the house was put up for sale, we paid the buildings insurance shortly after she died as we thought we should do this just in case. Recently however with the bad weather some water damage has occurred inside, on checking the SAGA website I noticed that there seems to be an exclusion clause regarding unoccupied buildings for more than 60 days, I have a feeling therefore that they will not be willing to cover this damage because of this clause, I'm pretty sure that the solicitor acting on behalf of my sisters estate told them that she had died and did not indicate the house would be lived in, we have done our best and make regular visits to the property.

My question is, this situation must happen all the time, so how do insurance companies deal with such cases? also if something drastic had happened to the house (like an accidental fire) would it have in fact been insured? if not, then SAGA took over £250 from us knowing they would not pay out should something happen and surely this is illegal, and we would have been just as well not paying the premium because at the end of the day it appears to be worthless. Anybody have any ideas what happens in these circumstances.

huckster

As you have probably gathered some perils are excluded after 60 consecutive days of unnoccupany, including escape of water.

Unnoccupied means not slept in overnight, so occasional visits to the property will not help.

By all means submit a claim, but the Insurers will investigate when the property was last occupied. If this was 60 days or more before the damage, they will not pay out. You will therefore face having to pay to rectify the damage and to secure the property from further damage e.g. getting the plumbing/heating secured or draining apparatus,turning off water.

The policy would still cover fire, subsidence, storm and other perils not affected by unnoccupancy, so the Insurers have done nothing wrong. Did you ask for specific advice regarding the property being unnoccupied? If you did not then you cannot really complain.