Leak

Dodgysailor

Hi,

Last weekend we got a huge leak comming from one of the radiator valves. I removed the radiator in our bedroom to do some repairs in the plaster behind and I did not realized that the radiator valve would open up if it wass too cold and as we left the windows open and it was really cold the valve opened up for the whole day with all the water going through the wooden floor and soaking the whole ceiling in the living room as well as the carpet. The cailing has been recently re-plastered over artex and was not painted so it is only stained and its got a small crack where most of the water poured down. I had to cut of a big area of the carpet as there was no way it would dry quicly enough with this cold. The wall paper has been a little bit affected and we are opening the windows as long as we can to get it to dry as fast as possible. We are not insured in contects so the insurance company will not pay for a new carpet.
Obviouslu the Insurance company will try to pay as less as possible so before I go back to them my questios are:
Is the carpet really "content"?
Will they be responsible to change the whole wall paper even though it has been damaged in a very small area?
If I rent equipment to help me out drying out quicly i.e. fans, dehumidifiers should they pay for it?
Any other advice would be apreciated.
Cheers,
North

silvercar

They should pay for the room to be redecorated and they should pay for dehumidifiers etc. When I had a major leak they also paid for an electriciam to test that the electrics were safe to use.

Best thing to do is speak to them.

InsideInsurance

There will be a clause in your policy called "matching sets" or something similar which will state if they have to replace just the area damaged or the whole lot. Most standard/ budget insurance only covers the damaged areas however the FOS tends to force them to pay 50% towards the replacement of other parts.

loracan1

InsideInsurance wrote: »

There will be a clause in your policy called "matching sets" or something similar which will state if they have to replace just the area damaged or the whole lot. Most standard/ budget insurance only covers the damaged areas however the FOS tends to force them to pay 50% towards the replacement of other parts.

I understand the clause about matching sets in respect to sofas etc, but wallpaper?

OP, I had a leak on one wall of my dining room 3-4 years ago (from terraced neighbour) it was only one wall affected but they redecorated the whole room, painted over it, and gave a lick of paint to the adjoining kitchen (paint in there had matched one wall of the dining room)

catkitty

Dodgysailor wrote: »

Hi,

Last weekend we got a huge leak comming from one of the radiator valves. I removed the radiator in our bedroom to do some repairs in the plaster behind and I did not realized that the radiator valve would open up if it wass too cold and as we left the windows open and it was really cold the valve opened up for the whole day with all the water going through the wooden floor and soaking the whole ceiling in the living room as well as the carpet. The cailing has been recently re-plastered over artex and was not painted so it is only stained and its got a small crack where most of the water poured down. I had to cut of a big area of the carpet as there was no way it would dry quicly enough with this cold. The wall paper has been a little bit affected and we are opening the windows as long as we can to get it to dry as fast as possible. We are not insured in contects so the insurance company will not pay for a new carpet.
Obviouslu the Insurance company will try to pay as less as possible so before I go back to them my questios are:
Is the carpet really "content"?
Will they be responsible to change the whole wall paper even though it has been damaged in a very small area?
If I rent equipment to help me out drying out quicly i.e. fans, dehumidifiers should they pay for it?
Any other advice would be apreciated.
Cheers,
North

Hi

Assuming your insurance covers water damage then you will be entitled to full redecoration, so if you have to replace all of the wall paper then this will be covered, as long as costs are reasonable i.e not replacing standard wallpaper with one that costs £200 a roll when the original cost a tenner :-)

Any other costs which have resulted from the leak would be covered such as dehumidifiers - again as long as the cost is reasonable and you can show that this was required as part of the claim.

With regards to the carpet, in insurance terms this is classed as a content because technically you could remove it from the property if you moved (not that you would actually want to)

Best thing to do is to check with them, however if the claim has been accepted then any reasonable cost incurred which has resulted from the leak should be covered.



Hope this helps

Dodgysailor

Very useful tips, thanks.

Skipperthekushbangaroo

We had a leak through our hall ceiling, we were told that we needed to get a local plumber in but a friend recommended Trident Restoration, they did the whole thing, sorted the leak, put the driers in and did the building and re-decoration all in one call. They dealt with the insurance direct and were really easy to deal with. They have a website

It was all pretty painless:T