Help please with insurance cover for cooker

littlewren

I don't know if anyone can help me with this query, but here's hoping!

I have a 7 year old Creda electric cooker, which cost me around £600. I was cooking something for my daughter today in the oven, when there was suddenly a loud bang and a flame from the oven! Of course I immediately turned the cooker off & at the wall.

It is covered under British Gas appliances cover, and they are coming out on Monday. I don't know if they can fix it, but even if they can I will be worried about using it again as I don't know what caused this.

My question is: someone mentioned to me that the cooker could be covered on my house insurance. I haven't had a look through my pages & pages of policy yet but I wondered if anyone on here knows if it might be? I have accidental damage cover, but I thought that would cover me for say, if the ceramic hob was damaged, but does it cover me for incidents such as what happened today?

If it does, would I need to let British Gas look at it first? Needless to say, I'm going to be lost without a cooker and want to have one up and running again as soon as possible.

Many thanks in advance,

Carrie

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I will stick in the caveat I don't know for certain, but I suspect not.

Household insurance, even accidental insurance, makes exception for wear and tear. Had you damaged it by accident as you say, like a ceramic hob being damaged, you may have been able to claim.

I take it you do not know what caused the bang? Again, if it was your fault (like spilling something down back that got into the electronics for instance) that would probably be allowed as an accidental claim, but it sounds from the way you write this was unexpected and nothing triggered it.

This is probably a case of leaving for British Gas.

littlewren

No CitySlicker, I don't know what caused it.

dogbot

Your home insurance covers you for the insured perils, and you have a higher level of cover than standard - including AD. Your home insurance does not cover mechanical or electrical breakdown, or wear and tear.

The engineer will be able to work out what caused the oven to blow and will tell you. Make sure you get them out - you have paid for that service already by having that cover.

If it was a mechanical fault, they will either fix it or not under the terms of that policy/contract, but you won't have cover under your home insurance policy.

If the fault was caused by, say, you accidentaly hitting something against an element in the oven causing damage that then caused the element to blow, then you need to get the engineer to write a report to that effect and you can submit a claim under the ad section of your home insurance.

A fault would not normally be caused by something being spilt down the back I wouldn't have thought - unless there was some other problem with the oven - e.g. a seal or cover had come away. If there is some other problem with the oven like that, then damage to the oven in that case is not covered by the home insurance. (of course, if the oven had then, say, caused a fire or something that caused damage to other contents/buildings, then you are covered under the 'fire' section).

littlewren

Thankyou dogbot, that was really helpful.

I will go ahead, as you suggest, and keep the British Gas appointment for Monday and see what they say, and I will let you know.

Carrie

pineapple

Last year the glass on my gas oven door exploded spectacularly. There was a limited (parts only) guarantee in force.
It was a built in oven and my buildings insurance covered it no problem (freestanding would have been via the contents cover). I was doubly surprised when they didn't even want to inspect it and paid for replacement of the whole oven - not just the door.

littlewren

Thanks pineapple. British Gas were meant to come out yesterday, but my Step-Mum (who'd been ill for some time) passed away, so obviously I cancelled the appointment. They are coming out instead on Friday.