Building Insurance Claim

megan63

apologies in advance as new to this. I contacted my insurerOct 2011 re an awful smell in one of downstair bedrooms. Insurer advised that I would need to find source of smell. The master bedroom ensuite backs onto this room so we thought there may be a leak so got a joiner to lift flooboards and also cut into gyproc wall to check for leaks , this was clear. So arranged for drains to be jet blasted for any blockages but problem still not resolved. Arranged for Dynarod to carry out a CCTV scan which showed that the pipework coming from shower (installed over 22 yrs ago prior to us purchasing house) and macerator toilet (macerator installed 8yrs ago) was narrower that main sewage pipe and therefore creating a flow back of sewage liquid into soil creating smell and subsidance therfore creating additional opportunity for pipework movement.

Dynarod quoted £2500 + vat to replace drains, I then sourced another company who quoted £2100 inc vat. Insurer agreed I could go ahead with repair whilst they were considering if claim was covered under policy. The total cost of repair came to £1680 inc vat. Insurer passed all details to a drainage assessor who advised the insurer that the claim was non conlusive for full insurance cover and to offer us £830 less our excess payment of £450 therefore settlement would be £380. All in all taking into account investigations and repairs we are out of pocket just over £2000, I would have cut my losses at £1230 to cover repair costs. I have currently declined over of £380.

Would greatly appreciate assistance on how I fight this claim

InsideInsurance

Ok, well the offer is £830 not £380, you cannot consider the fact you have taken a large excess into consideration.

Unless you have a high end policy which will be all risks then the vast majority of policies are insured risk based and so for you to be entitled to claim you must be able to show that an insured risk has occurred. If you cannot trace the cause of the problem to an insured risk then you have no cover.

The problem appears to be that the cause of the problem doesnt sounds as if it has been defined and at least part of it is defective design which will not be an insured peril and even on all risk policies is normally excluded.

You really need to push the engineers to define what the root cause of the problem is but if they dont say it is one of the insured perils then you will risk losing the offer you have on the table

megan63

the excess was £450 and they offered a settlement of £380

Quentin

No.

You weren't covered for your £450 excess. You accepted that would not be covered in the event of any claim when taking out the policy.

The settlement offer WAS £830!

l0u1se

Quentin's correct, I'd take the money and run, to be honest its lucky they have offered you that, it seems the sole cause of the problem was defective workmanship and no insurer covers it.

VictorM_2

l0u1se wrote: »

Quentin's correct, I'd take the money and run, to be honest its lucky they have offered you that, it seems the sole cause of the problem was defective workmanship and no insurer covers it.

This is good advice.

Take he money and run, I am amazed they are paying you anything at all as defective design is not an insurable peril.