Flood in house I'm letting. Any experience of this?

henmuffin · 22 December 2010 at 7:01PM

My rental house has had a water escape from the tank in the loft. Nobody's fault just one of those things. We are literally just in between tenants but cannot rent it out as it is. The kitchen ceiling has come down due to the water and there is considerable damage.
I have contacted our insurer (Endsleigh) who are sending out a surveyor next week.
Just wondered if anybody else has had experience of this or similar.

clutton_2 · 22 December 2010 at 8:03PM

yes - i had some local yobs put a hosepipe into a property and it caused a flood.

I suggest you read your insurance policy VERY carefully.. you are going to be asked how long the property was empty and if the heating was on and/or if the system was drained (clearly not). If they can establish that you have not maintained a sufficient temperature to prevent a freeze then they almost certainly will not pay out.

if it was not frost - but simply an old tank worn out and rusted through.. they may not want to pay the claim either as they could see that as lack of maintainance.

Get dehumidifiers in there as soon as you posibly can to start extracting the moisture - but you will need to ensure the water container is emptied regularly. Dont leave windows open when using dehumidifiers.