Water Leak, dealing with the clean-up

sghughes42

I'm not totally sure if this is the right board for this query, it is a bit of an odd one! I've posted on both insurance and water as it is relevant to both.

Nearly 2 months ago a pipe burst outside my house and flooded my cellar. No question it was United Utilities' fault - it was underneath the pavement so off my property.

They repaired it fairly promptly, although they have had to come back and re-do the repair as the original repair didn't fully fix the leak.. That is by-the-by though, my main query is regarding cleaning up my cellar and compensation for the contents.

From the off UU tried to push me to claim on my own household insurance. I wasn't convinced and am getting them to clean up the mess and compensate me for the damage but the process is dragging on....

They have instructed another company 'Belfor' to empty the cellar and document all damaged items which they will make an offer for. However, I have been having trouble getting any sort of confirmation from them that I will be compensated for the time I will need to take off work both while Belfor are here doing the job and time afterwards I will need to restore the cellar to the previous state.

It has now got to the point where there is an arrangement for Belfor to attend on Monday but the UU solicitor is no longer responding to my queries. The main sticking point is being compensated for my time. I have asked for confirmation that any time I need to take off work will be paid for but all I have at the moment is a vague promise that it will be 'taken in to consideration'.

To complicate matters, as well as having a full time job I am also self-employed so even time away from work will result in lost earnings. The latest from the UU solicitor is to get me to ask Belfor if they can attend outside my normal working hours. They pointed out that to do so would involve them charging UU a premium rate but I've not had a clear answer as to whether UU want that to happen or not.

I contacted Belfor again tonight and the person on the phone suggested that it was normal for people to just leave a key with them and go off to work while they carried out the job. I am very surprised at this - is it reasonable for them to ask you to entrust the security of your property to some blokes you have never met before? Quite aside from the fact I would like to be around to know what is being thrown out and make sure nothing else gets damaged or put somewhere in appropriate.

Can someone advise what my best bet is from here? Should I call UU off and just claim on my household insurance? If I stick with UU do they have to compensate me for any lost earnings? Can they force me to leave the house in the hands of these people and go to work to reduce my losses? And how can I be sure I am getting a fair price for the damaged items?

Sugardonut

I'd claim on your household insurance. If UU are legally liable, your insurer will claim the money back from them.

Most (if not all) water companies will only pay out if they are 'legally liable' - often this will involve some level of negligence. You could go through a long process to find they will not cover your full costs as they could not have reasonably prevented the incident. Water companies will also not offer 'new for old' cover, so if you paid £500 for a stereo, they will take into account how many years you have had it and offer a depreciated value eg. £300.

Go to your insurance and they will also liaise with UU taking some of the stress out of the situation.

Gothicfairy

Isn't this the whole point of having insurance ? To let them sort out the problems and deal with it all ?

sghughes42

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Isn't this the whole point of having insurance ? To let them sort out the problems and deal with it all ?

True, but by using the insurance I'll lose my no claims discount and have my premiums loaded.

In this cases the responsibility falls clearly on UU as the leak was off my property. My thinking was that as the actual value of goods lost is small I would lose more in terms of increase insurance premiums than I would gain from better reimbursement.

I must admit I also thought along the lines of insurance being a 'last gasp' way to get it solved and as UU had admitted fault it was best to let them deal with it.

Can anyone advise as to the likely level of premium loading on a household policy for this sort of claim? If it isn't too high then it might well be better to ditch UU and go to Halifax...

sghughes42

OK, people, help me out here please.

I've been reading through my home insurance documents and my policy has a £150 excess and an additional £250 excess for 'escape of water'. I'm not sure if this applies, the wording seems to suggest this is water from inside the home but hard to tell for sure.

Assuming it does apply that means an excess of £400? (The £250 is down as an 'additional' excess so I read this to mean on top of the £150, not instead of)

Also, being with Halifax I get £50 cash back each year I am claim free.

None of my renewal documents say what my no claims discount is, but they say up to 40%. Assuming they transfer no-claims from previous policies I would guess I have this 40% as I've had household insurance for over 10 years and never claimed.

I don't know if you lose just 2 years as with a car policy or lose the lot. Even assuming I only lose 20% that is another £50 this year, compounded in the future.

That means I'll in effect lose £500 if I claim through my home insurance, plus whatever loading and future effects of NCB loss.

On the plus side, I'll get new items to replace everything that has suffered damage.

This is where it gets massively complicated. The cellar is basically a store. Anything I don't need or don't have storage room for gets pushed down there. The obvious things damaged are two bikes and a few suitcases. There is a load of timber but much of that will be OK once dried out. Most electrical equipment was away from ground level so should be OK. The tricky part is going to be that one time when the folks were visiting I shoved a load of things I was trying to sort out in to plastic bags and dumped them down there. I have no idea what is in there and no idea how to put a value on it. Indeed, it may take longer to value than the stuff is worth, but it will include electronic components (I dabble...) as well as souvenirs, maybe old electronic items such as MP3s etc, who knows!

Looked at on one hand, the only things down there of any actual value to me would be the suitcases - I was going to replace the bikes anyway with a good one. Even the suitcases were fairly cheap. There is nothing down there I'm really bothered about claiming for so getting something from UU would be better than nothing.

On the other hand, if I can rake up a claim I will get a better price from my home insurance than from UU and if the value of the damaged contents is over say £800 I'm likely to end up better off.

The one thing I don't know is how I would be compensated for the inconvenience, time needed off work etc. UU have said they will take it in to consideration but I get the impression they are going to pay the least they can get away with. Would a home insurance policy cover that or do they just expect you to give up your time to sort it out?

Is there anything I've missed in my analysis? Any comments or suggestions?

To me, it seems marginal whether it is worth going via my home insurance, simply because nothing of any real value has been damaged so the losses make any claim marginal if not negative. UU may be more hassle but I will at least see all the money owed.