Clothing damaged by water - broken pipe - do I claim on Insurance?

neneromanova

I would get them washed ASAP though whether you wash them yourself or launder them as the smell of water might start turning stale and stay in the clothes. Oh and when you put your girl clothes on ebay, let me know :rotfl:

suki1001

blue_monkey wrote: »

Yes, I sell my kids clothes and no, it is not a business. I run a business from home and yes, the insurance company are aware of that as are the council, I buy them decent clothes and if they are looked after I sell them on after. In fact, there is probably more than that there. Sometimes they do not even wear the clothes as I buy too many. Why would I chuck a £40 dress in the bin when I can get £10 for it? My husband has that attitude too but was happy with the £300 fish tank the money bought him in November!! I do not have anyone in the family I can hand clothes down to and charity begins at home and all that!! I have a box of Boden clothes down there - and boden clothes sell between £10 and £30 each (one skirt sold for £26 in December).

I sold one box back in April/May and it paid for our trip to Disneyland Paris which was £600. So go on, mock me and call me a liar, but I have not sold on eBay since we moved to this house and that was 4 years in May and after my DS was diagnosed with his conditions and with working so I've not had the energy for it. I just shoved them in the loft and left them there and the last year I sorted everything in age and boy/girl order - hence there being so many boxes.

And I could have claimed on the insurance for my son's to be held at a local restaurant too as I have 'up to £7000 party insurance' on the claim as well, but I have not. I could have left my 2 pairs of Uggs floating in the water (one of those pairs was £250) but I did not. Ditto on my DSi XL, Blackberry, iPhone, £2500 worth of Maharani furniture I bought from eBay for next to nothing as they would have given me whatever I asked for...... the list is endless and my claim could have easily run to £10k but I claimed for 6 items and did not bother about everything else which was about £150 worth. Not everyone is out to screw the insurance company over for everything. However, I do not see why I should be out of pocket and chuck £1000 worth of stuff in the bin because of something that was not my fault. Those clothes were for our holiday spending money.

I've also got a desktop PC drenched in water down in the cupboard but I am not claiming for that as they'll just give us a new one and we do not need it so what is the point.

Woh there. Are you looking for a sainthood? You should claim for what you are out of pocket by "like for like", that is what you pay your insurance for. I only asked if you had informed the insurance company before hand, because you didn't say you had. In which case what I don't understand, if they already know, why are you asking us? Why aren't you asking them? They will be able to tell you what you need to do. In fact they know what you were covered for. We don't, so really we can't give you answers. There is no need to get so defensive, when people have tried to help you.

You should claim for what you have lost. I doubt the loss adjuster is interested in the ins and outs of each item. What they are more interested in, is that you aren't making a fake claim. They're checking out that your story rings true. i.e, that you've actually had a leak. I think they would only go through everything with a fine tooth comb if they were suspicious of your claim and it was likely to go to court.

QuackQuackOops

Get the clothes sent out to the launderette for service washes and that way you wont have lots of damp clothes hanging around. You will find that the insurance company will only pay out for cleaning costs anyway because "having a birthday paty and not being able to wash them so they all got ruined" wont do you any good.

Sounds to anyone like youre trying it on and if it sounds that way to a few people on a forum, it will definitely sound that way to a loss adjuster.

QuackQuackOops

lol I have just read your 'speech' and you sound even more like a trier now.

You really didnt bother with.. "my DSi XL, Blackberry, iPhone, £2500 worth of Maharani furniture I bought from eBay" but you are bothered about some secondhand clothing, some of which is more than 6 years old?

:rotfl::rotfl::T

JodyBPM

I agree that you should take them to the launderette for a service wash, get a receipt, and claim the cost of the washing back.

TBH, a loss adjuster is very unlikely to value 8 boxes of used childens' clothes that don't fit your children anymore at £1200. More likely a £50-£100 at most. So it would be in your interests to salvedge as many as possible.

Have you really got 1500 items of clothing in 8 boxes? Thats 187 items of clothing per box ( I have few boxes of my childrens used Boden clothes in the loft (this post as reminded me that I must ebay them, as they do indeed sell for about £8-£10 an item!), and I get about 15-20 items to an average size box) Must be pretty huuuuuuge boxes, yet you can fit 8 of them in the understair(?) cupboard???? I think the loss adjuster would be seriously challenging your claim, because it doesn't seem very realistic.

flora48

If you do claim £1K for the clothes be prepared for higher premiums next year or if they think you are really trying it on maybe telling you that they can no longer insure you.

balletshoes

JodyBPM wrote: »

I agree that you should take them to the launderette for a service wash, get a receipt, and claim the cost of the washing back.

TBH, a loss adjuster is very unlikely to value 8 boxes of used childens' clothes that don't fit your children anymore at £1200. More likely a £50-£100 at most. So it would be in your interests to salvedge as many as possible.

I agree with this. I had a burst pipe come through my ceiling and into my wardrobe a good few years ago. What could be washed, was washed, what needed to be dry cleaned, was dry cleaned. I kept the receipts and sent those to my insurance company, and was re-imbursed for those.

Don't leave the stuff lying around damp and getting mouldy, get them washed and salvage what you can. As Jody says, you won't get much from the insurance for boxes of outgrown clothes (I know you could sell them on ebay, but as far as the insurance company is concerned they are second-hand clothes).