Will my buildings insurance cover me?

njb73

Hi to all who read this,

I bought my house 7 years ago which was a bungalow. Had the loft converted 5 years ago.
I have just had a leak in the roof which has come through the plasterboard in the bedroom.
Contacted a roofer who has just given me the news from hell....

On inspection he found that the battens covering 4 rows of tiles was rotten...disintegrated on touch...I saw this myself.

He says that when built in 1973, whoever built it didn't put the right ammount of coverage over each tile which has meant that the water has come in and destroyed the battens.

When we had the loft conversion done 5 years ago the council wanted us to remove all our cemented ridge tile and put in continuous vented ridge tiles with inserts. The builder we had at the time told us that it was not reccomended for our house as well as our location....Top of a hill on the North East Coast of Scotland.

I told the council this but they said it must be done, so the builder did the job. After completion and the next big rain and wind storm, yep....water came in through the roof which was pinpointed to the ridge tile system. The council said it was not fitted right and blamed the builder and the builder said that he told me so. The builder then said to arrange a meeting with the council guy with him present so he could tell him where it hadn't been fitted correctly.
Both turned up and it happened to be a horrible windy/rainy day...and the council guy said..' I see your problem, they are not designed for weather like this'... He then told us just to cement the ridge tile venting and seal it up...... This had cost us a lot more money to have done in the first place.

Anyway, The roofer guy who has just left has told me that worst case scenario is that 4 rows of tiles across the full length as well as the ridge tiles need to come off and new battens put in place with the tiles replaced to give the correct coverage.....

A huge look of doom on my face was only surpassed by a bigger look of doom when he said that an insurance company will not cover it , they will put it down to bad workmanship.....

Is this true, am i destined for a remortgage or large loan to cover it...

phill99

Rule of thumb is that they cover the results of a leak, not theleak itself. So the damage to your bedroom plaster board, decorations etc will be covered. The battens etc are a different thing. You bought the house in good faith and there is no way at the time you bought it or subsequently that bad workmanship was evident. They have then entered into a contract with you to insure the house. Contracturally, you could say they are duty bound to cover it.

However, the only definite way is to actually ask your insurers. The least they can say is 'No' and your premiums won't be affected just by asking. They may well send out an assessor to look and he will give you the definitive answer.