Water damage in bathroom

jem16

Looking for some advice on whether to call in the Insurance company or not.

On Saturday my son was informed by his downstairs neighbour that water was leaking into her bathroom from his. My son went with the neighbour to check and the leak was apparent when shower was being used but not when it wasn't.

He has not used the shower since and got the plumber today. He has said that there is no leak but that water has been getting through the sealant and the grout on the tiles. He has already had to rip up some of the floor tiles to make sure the waste pipes etc were not leaking.

He says that my son really needs a tiler now to take off the tiles and see what the damage is behind - looking underneath the wall at least appears black from under the shower.

This may be a big job. At best it would seem as if some of the wall would need repairing/replacing plus the tiles that have had to come off. The job of course may grow once tiles have been taken off.

Is he covered through his insurance - Aviva apparently? What would it cover? Would it put the bathroom back to the same condition it was in before the problem - i.e. if tiles have to be replaced, they wouldn't match what is there.

TSx

Does he have accidental damage cover on the buildings side?

jem16

Yes he does have accidental damage.

CrucianCarp

Home insurance works the same as car inaurance... even though the water damage has caused damage to the flat below the flat below would have to claim on her insurance for the damage. Her insurance may approach your sons insurance company for a recovery but this would happen behind the scenes.

However, as your son is now aware of the problem he needs to have this repaired or her will be negligent if there is any further damage.

He needs to check if his policy covers 'trace and access' basically that means cover for damage caused by tracing and accessing a leak.

Also, he will probably have a matching of items clause. This means that he will only be covered for the damaged area. I.e if he has 50 tiles on the floor and 10 are damaged finding the leak then only the 10 are covered. However if you complain about this the insurance company will offer a contribution.

If you have any further questions please just let me know.

TSx

CrucianCarp wrote: »

Home insurance works the same as car inaurance... even though the water damage has caused damage to the flat below the flat below would have to claim on her insurance for the damage. Her insurance may approach your sons insurance company for a recovery but this would happen behind the scenes.

However, as your son is now aware of the problem he needs to have this repaired or her will be negligent if there is any further damage.

He needs to check if his policy covers 'trace and access' basically that means cover for damage caused by tracing and accessing a leak.

Also, he will probably have a matching of items clause. This means that he will only be covered for the damaged area. I.e if he has 50 tiles on the floor and 10 are damaged finding the leak then only the 10 are covered. However if you complain about this the insurance company will offer a contribution.

If you have any further questions please just let me know.

If it's sealant failing on the grouting, it would fall under accidental damage rather than escape of water, so trace and access usually wouldn't come in to play. They may however cover the costs of getting to the wall under AD if the wall is indeed damaged.

What have his insurers actually said?

bouncydog1

Not sure how you think this might be accidental damage unless there is visible evidence - e.g. dropping something into the shower tray cracking it and causing the leak.

If there is no damage to the pipework causing the leak, then it could simply be a failure of the sealant around the edge of the shower. Insurers may argue that this is a gradually operating cause as accidental damage is usually defined as damage caused by visible external means - therefore sealant failing would be gradually operating cause.

If the bathroom is recently installed then there could be a claim against the contractor. However simple seapage of water through the grout would not generally be defined as accidental damage.

Would need to see policy wording.

CrucianCarp

The peril would be escape of water from a fixed water installation (which is your shower tray) therefore no A/D would be required to cover this claim.

As bouncydog has pointed out there is no A/D here and the sealant would need to be renewed to prevent further damage. (Old age wear and tear)

Also, if your plumber thinks that the leak is ongoing from a hidden pipe and needs to search for pipes to loacate the leak then he will need traces and access to cover damage to the tiles / floor to locate the leak.

bouncydog1

"Fixed water or heating installation" is the usual phrase and is deemed to cover items that are plumbed in. E.G. water tank, boiler, plumbed in washing machine, but not a freestanding one that is filled with a hose from the tap etc.

The fixed installation in the bathroom would be the pipes - I doubt insurers would include a shower tray! Shower trays would come under glass and sanitary fixings so damage to the tray would be covered if it was damaged accidentally.

jem16

TSx wrote: »

If it's sealant failing on the grouting, it would fall under accidental damage rather than escape of water, so trace and access usually wouldn't come in to play. They may however cover the costs of getting to the wall under AD if the wall is indeed damaged.

The plumber's first thought was that the waste pipe was leaking, hence the need to try and trace it. Waste pipe checked out fine though.

The tiler has since been along and the damage does not appear to be as bad as first thought. The wall itself is fine so water has not been getting through the grout and sealant around the shower tray for too long fortunately. The plumber will regrout and reseal the shower as well as retiling the floor.

What have his insurers actually said?

Speaking to them on the phone, the first person said he didn't think it was covered and the 2nd person (in the claims dept) said he was - hence the questions. His policy does have "trace and access".

In the end though, he has not put in a claim as the cost to fix this is going to be less than his excess.

Of course my son has hopefully now learned to look after things a bit better and check out grouting and sealant - first house I'm afraid.

Thanks for the replies.

CrucianCarp

Shower trays are fixed water installations as are gutters etc, even fish tanks could be classed as a fixed water installation. Any resulting escape of water from any of these could be covered under the standard cover.

TSx

What you're saying makes a lot of sense, I'm not sure why the insurer I work for treats it as AD - I've never really understood it but had it explained as being the same as covering internal damage under storm claims even if we repudiate the roof due to wear and tear (the peril being accidental damage rather than storm)

I'll have to query this at some point.