Building Insurance help needed.

matphil

I tried to make a claim today on my buildings insurance with the Halifax.
Needless to say they turned me down.
I have lived in this house for twenty years and paid them insurance for all this time without making a claim. Now I need them they don't want to know.
What happened was that last night our light in the passage started smoking and black water was runing out of it.
We shut the electric off at the mains and had to leave it off all night. The problem is that rain was coming in through next doors chimney and running down our walls through the light switch.
Unfortunately next door has been empty for 4 years and I have spent all day today trying to find out the owners.
I found out through the land registry it is owned by a company who was regestered in Penmark, Vale of Glamorgan, at the time of the sale.
Now their registered address is the house next door although they have never been there.
I also have not been able to find a phone number for the buisness.
The Halifax told me we didn't have enough rain for it to be counted as storm damage. Also as I don't have home emergencies cover there was nothing they could do.
What do I do now??

Jake'sGran

Why does it have to be storm damage? If the water was coming in from the house next door I would expect a claim to be accepted. Have you read your policy to check on the section that covers this? I know insurance companies keep records of storms, excessive rain and anything similar but this seems unfair to me. You could make a complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman although I do believe it is part of the FSA these days. This is one I certainly would not let go of. Surely they should accept the claim and then do the work of finding the owners/insurers of the house next door to hold them responsible.

matphil

They said it would have to be storm damage otherwise it would be put down to general wear and tear which the do not pay out for.

Astaroth

Unfortunately wear and tear isnt a peril that is covered by home insurance. I do not have enough specialist knowledge on home insurance to be able to advise further but I think your chances are fairly slim unless you find that the water came from somewhere other than a leaky roof.

The insurance ombudsman ceased to be in 1999 and was replaced by the Financial Ombudsman Services (authorised by the FSA) - they will review any complaint escalated to them however the internal proceedure of the insurer must be exhausted (ie receive a written final response) before they will take on a case.

matphil

Thanks Astaroth.
The water is definately coming from next doors chimney.
Still haven't been able to trace the owner though.

Astaroth

You may be able to claim off the owners for negligence in letting the building deteriorate.... if you have legal expenses/ protection insurance on your home insurance their helpline may be able to give advice on how to trace the owners and potentially make the claim against them on your behalf

matphil

Thanks I will check my policy to see if I can do that.

courtjester

Technically, the claim is probably not covered. However, insurers are often prepared (if pushed) to accept rain damage to the interior on the basis that this is 'accidental' - the originating cause (a defective chimney...?) may well be wear and tear, but it is usual to exclude repairs to the failed component, but accept the damage arising through water penetration to the interior and deal with that normally, or on an 'ex gratia' (goodwill) basis.

It may be that the Halifax are not referring the claim up for proper consideration - you must ask them to do so.

I suggest you make the claim on the basis that the next door premises must have suffered 'storm damage' (how are you to know for sure when the chimney was damaged - it may have suffered damage through high winds at some point in the last few months and only during a heavy rainfall has the defect come to notice).

You are not asking for them to fix the chimney /roof, you are asking them to address the genuine internal damage to your own property.

Clearly, you need to try and contact the owners of the property to get the chimney fault repaired asap, but you really want your own insurers to deal with your damage and leave it to them to chase the neighboruing owners if they feel a legal claim is warranted (probably difficult to prove).

But don't just accept the first thing Halifax say - you must push home your claim and make them send someone out to view your damage. Make sure you refer to the incident in all communications as storm damage, otherwise you make it too easy for them to just fob you off by phone.

You may not be successful, but there is mileage in being persistent and determined in these circumstances - after all you are not trying to make an unfounded claim.

Tamarisk_2

Sorry to hear of your problems Matphil.

I phoned my insurance company today. Sometime in the past few months,due to heavy rainfall, a leak has developed in the roof of our summerhouse (some might call it a posh shed) which was only erected 3 years ago.

The insurance company has said that yes we are covered for one incident, so in order to claim I have to give them a specific date or with a window of 2 weeks when the damage occured. They then check weather records and if on that date they think the weather could of caused the damage then we are probably covered. They also say if the date is not right I cannot make a claim for all the damaged goods inside.

Even though I explained I haven't got any idea when it hapened we only go in there to get stuff out of the freezer and as I have been travelling up and down to the Midlands viviting my very ill mother who since has died 3 weeks ago they just read from the script they have in front of them. I have looked at the Met office records but it is really difficult to get enough weather information. Does anyone know of a site to get good past weather deteils.

matphil wrote: »

I tried to make a claim today on my buildings insurance with the Halifax.
Needless to say they turned me down.
I have lived in this house for twenty years and paid them insurance for all this time without making a claim. Now I need them they don't want to know.
What happened was that last night our light in the passage started smoking and black water was runing out of it.
We shut the electric off at the mains and had to leave it off all night. The problem is that rain was coming in through next doors chimney and running down our walls through the light switch.
Unfortunately next door has been empty for 4 years and I have spent all day today trying to find out the owners.
I found out through the land registry it is owned by a company who was regestered in Penmark, Vale of Glamorgan, at the time of the sale.
Now their registered address is the house next door although they have never been there.
I also have not been able to find a phone number for the buisness.
The Halifax told me we didn't have enough rain for it to be counted as storm damage. Also as I don't have home emergencies cover there was nothing they could do.
What do I do now??

FlameCloud

Jake'sGran wrote: »

Why does it have to be storm damage? If the water was coming in from the house next door I would expect a claim to be accepted. Have you read your policy to check on the section that covers this? I know insurance companies keep records of storms, excessive rain and anything similar but this seems unfair to me. You could make a complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman although I do believe it is part of the FSA these days. This is one I certainly would not let go of. Surely they should accept the claim and then do the work of finding the owners/insurers of the house next door to hold them responsible.

It has to be storm damage because thats what the insurance covers?;)

You have a halifax policy, so it is either blue (MOR) or green (NHP/COV)

The wording is similar in both but assuming you have the MOR one the only relevent perils are-

Storm damage
Escape of water/oil from a fixed heating/water system

Neither of these perils are in force so they insurers are not liable in any way for the damage. You have bought a policy that covers you from the listed items (storm, flood, fire, impact etc) and nothing more.

For it to me counted as a storm, the MOR policy requires there to be either 40 knot winds or 15mm of rain in any am/pm period, although to be honest this is usually ignored anyway. This is changing however in the new booklets to be harsher, and actually stated.

Your best avenue of approach would be (if you have it) contacting the DAS legal service in the policy booklet to pursue a negligence claim against the owners of the house that the water has come from.

FlameCloud

courtjester wrote: »

Technically, the claim is probably not covered. However, insurers are often prepared (if pushed) to accept rain damage to the interior on the basis that this is 'accidental' - the originating cause (a defective chimney...?) may well be wear and tear, but it is usual to exclude repairs to the failed component, but accept the damage arising through water penetration to the interior and deal with that normally, or on an 'ex gratia' (goodwill) basis.

You are not asking for them to fix the chimney /roof, you are asking them to address the genuine internal damage to your own property.

You may not be successful, but there is mileage in being persistent and determined in these circumstances - after all you are not trying to make an unfounded claim.

Firstly, this is correct, although the wording of the accidental damage clause is ambiguous enough for the claims team to wiggle out of it. They will argue that it was a gradually operating cause, which is clearly spelled out in the general exclusions section at the start of the policy book, as is damage caused by wear and tear.

The insurance company, even if they do accept liability for the internal work, will not touch it with a barge pole until the chimney is repaired, as the same damage will occur over and over again.

It is difficult to know without knowing your exact coverages, but I would initially try and claim on AD to buildings, which to be honest is the only way you'd get any mileage from the claim.

If you do push for it and copley register the claim, I've gotta feeling this one will be directed in our general direction so I may be dealing with this one.