Home insurance excess - pay twice for one leak!

s7ffp

Hello,
My partner and I went on holiday and when we returned there had been an "escape of water" from two rooms in our house they have clearly the same problem.

We started a claim and someone came out to look at the house.

The insurance company are now telling us that becuase the leak is in two separate rooms that we have to pay two lots of excess.

Can anyone please explain/help me with this issue as I think this is extremely unfair and a money making scam from insurance companies...!!!!

Do I have any rights other than the FSA fair treatment of customers?

Another thing that has also annoyed me and reafirms my belief that they are riping us off is the fact that the insurance company tried to increase our excess to £250 stating that this is accross the board with all insurance companies!!? It is NO WHERE on our paperwork!!! They have actually now said they were wrong and reduced our excess but only after 5 different telephone conversations and arguments!!!

We purchased the insurance thorugh Countrywide and it is underwritten by AXA.

dacouch

What exactly did the leak / leaks come from?

TSx

Each individual leak (incident) will incur an excess, was it a single leak, or were there multiple leaks, and what caused the leaks?

InsideInsurance

Need to read the exact wording but typically a claim under a policy is for a single incident/ event irrespective of the amount or variety of damage.

An excess is payable per claim irrespective of the amount or variety of damage under that claim. If they are asking for two excesses then they are treating it as two incidents and therefore two claims.

Not only will the excess be an issue but having two claims in one policy year will hammer your renewal quotes too

s7ffp

Well the leaks occurred at the same time ( so we believe they were both there when we got back from holiday). As I understand it ( my boyfriends brother is a plumber) it seems to have come from the same pipe and we know it was because there was a problem with a pressure in the boiler, so the leaks have just come out in two areas of the pipe and so happened in separate rooms. We have only made one phone call and the person who comes to look at the damage has been out once, the work will all be completed at the same time so i just dont agree it is two claims but I dont know how to argue it!!?

The wording on our docs says;

"Escape of water from a fixed water installation"



It does not say in a separate location or anything like that. When I challenged the telephone agent about this she just said if we had to write everything in the book it would be the size of the encyclopaedia brittanica ( she was very cocky!!!). My take on this is that surely this booklet is a contract and so if it is not clear and is open to interpretation then surely I can argue that this is just one claim?

Thanks

InsideInsurance

The fact it is coming from two different areas in the pipe is not a good sign for your argument that it is a single event/ claim.

What single event caused the pipe to spring two different leaks at the same time?

s7ffp

Hello

It was the pressure in the boiler ( don't know the exact problem) I just don't think it's fair we have only moved in three months ago, I just feel the fact that they inflated our excess just all points to the fact they are just trying to get more money from us!!!

Thanks

Quentin

s7ffp wrote: »

I just feel the fact that they inflated our excess just all points to the fact they are just trying to get more money from us!!!

Thanks

Dunno about that - it sounds like they have increased their excess since your current policy started, and the claims agent you spoke to wrongly assumed this applied to your policy when it didn't!

But they will have the last word, as 2 claims (which this does look like) will affect your premium at renewal big time.

So shop around then and look for a lower excess as well as better premiums elsewhere (though do disclose the 2 claims!)

InsideInsurance

s7ffp wrote: »

It was the pressure in the boiler ( don't know the exact problem) I just don't think it's fair we have only moved in three months ago

If you dont know the exact problem you will have issues arguing it is a single event.

If it was possible to show that there was a one off surge in pressure for a reason then you can argue it is one event. If you are basically saying things werent set up properly and over time two parts of the piping burst then that is almost certainly going to be seen as two events as you have no idea if they were simultaneous or possibly happened at separate points.

Fairness rarely has much to do with life, assuming you bought the house from another private person (ie not new build) then you have little redress but may be worth speaking to your solicitor that dealt with the purchase to see if there is any chance of anything from the vendor if your argument was that this is a long term problem that existed prior to the sale