Help - house gutted by thieves

satchmo1

Hi

My grown up son moved out of my small terraced house in a deprived area, leaving it empty and I was considering whether to rent it out as the house prices have dropped quite a bit. He had been covering the very low mortgage costs plus his living costs, which suited us both. I live 3 hours drive away.

Last night he rang to say he'd been back to check on the house and thieves had kicked in the back door and systematically removed every piece of copper piping and the new Bosch boiler, damaging the new bath in the process (but strangely leaving the new electric shower?).

The upshot is about £6000's worth of damage to replace and repair the damage.

My worry is that the insurers won't agree to cover because the house was empty. Also, I had literally just changed insurance cover that week, so will the insurers think I'm scamming? There was a cap of two weeks between the end of one cover and the start of the next. The damage may have happened during that time. I've got a police crime number. How much do the insurers check on the report, will they say "no, it's not our liability because it could have happened before the start of the policy". I can't prove what date it happened!

Also worried how to find decent tradespeople to do the work if I'm not around to supervise. I can't be there except for weekends until the beginning of May.

Any suggestions?

ceh209

You may find more help on the insurance board? Maybe one of the mods can move your post?

Anyway, you genuinely didn't know when the crime took place, and the insurance companies can't prove it either way, so I wouldn't worry about them thinking you've committed fraud or something...

What did you tell the new insurers when buying cover? They will normally ask if the house is occupied during the day, evening etc, and cover will often have a clause that it shouldn't be left unoccupied for more than 30 days.

Dig out what your insurance says and we can help some more

gregd_3

Hi,

I am a loss adjuster dealing with buildings & contents claims so might be able to help. As i see it you have 3 potential issues which are :-

1) Did you make your insurance aware that you were not living at the house?? Whilst insurers will not likely look upon it as a landlord/tenant situation because it was your son living there you should have still made them aware

2) Why was there a gap in policy cover?? Policies normally automatically renew themselves unless you tell the provider otherwise. This is most likely to be your biggest issue as your Insurers will find it suspicious that there was a gap in cover.

3) When did your son move out??? The policy will probably have an unoccupancy exclusion stating the number of days maximum the house can be left unattended. Can you prove when he moved out ie did he use a removal company to move his stuff out, any invoices, i would be looking for utility bills to confirm usage to confirm somebody has been living there.

It is more than likely you will end up with a Fraud Investigator dealing with the claim. Don't take this the wrong way but if i went to your house and the information which you have put in your post was told to me i would automatically recommend an investigator deals with the claim. They have much more time to make detailed background enquiries into the claim than we as loss adjusters do.

Feel free to ask me any other questions and i will do my best to help.