Accientally burst a pipe-house floods-No Cover!!

dunstonh

I am going to sit on the fence on this one for a moment. I err toward's courtjester's view. Courtjester writes like he also knows a general insurance thing or two:-) whereas I know your specialty dunstonh is life and pensions business:-)

I am so old that I can remember when the modern concept of Accidental Damage (AD) cover was a new gimmick.

My experience with general insurance is getting old now. I ceased being a general insurance broker in the old sense of the role back in the early 90s. So, i accept things change.

I wouldnt be surprised if this is the sort of thing where you get differences between a quality product and a cheap one.

easynotec3

I currently work in general insurance and hope i don't muddy the issue even further here.

Usually insurers will look at the "Proximate Cause" of the damge ( the initial cause of damage which sets in series a series of events which may cause damage)

As previously stated, water damage is usually covered under a standard household policy however, in the case stated above, the proximate cause was accidental damage to the pipe (somebody knocking the nail in). The insurers could unfortunately state this and if there is no AD cover in place, repudiate the claim as the policyholder does not have the cover.

An example were proximate cause could work in sombody's favour may be where a policy excludes water damage cover but includes fire damage and there is a fire in the premises. Naturally the fire brigade would use water to put out the fire therefore the damage caused by the water from the hoses would be covered as the proximate cause of the damage was fire

FlameCloud

dunstonh wrote: »

I wouldnt be surprised if this is the sort of thing where you get differences between a quality product and a cheap one.

I'd agree with you on this one-

Halifax MOR (defaqto 5*) inlcludes AD to pipes as standard
Paymentshield (3*) you need extra AD for.

Pays your money....

peterbaker

easynotec3 wrote: »

I currently work in general insurance and hope i don't muddy the issue even further here.

Usually insurers will look at the "Proximate Cause" of the damage ( the initial cause of damage which sets in series a series of events which may cause damage)

Quite right as a general principle. But question is, for some types of damage, are there other words in the policy which the policy drafter has deliberately included to circumvent the restrictions of proximate cause linked to a list of insured events? That's what I am not sure about.

We always used to say that the Householders Policy wording was one of the most complex you could find because of some of the idiosynchrasies to be found.

courtjester

As a loss adjuster of some 25 years experience, I can confirm that for water damage under a household policy, the original cause of the 'escape of water' is not relevant to whether the damage is covered.

Under a standard policy, the cover is 'escape of water' (sometimes 'burst pipe' is the wording but meaning is the same).

Under a policy which is extended to cover "Accidental Damage" (which means basically any damage not excluded), an escape of water incident is then covered under two different parts of the policy.

Proximate cause relates to whether the damage can be traced directly to an insured 'cause'. It does not mean that if you trace damage to one (excluded) cause, then it can't be claimed as something else.

There is great confusion over wording in this thread.

With burst pipe claims, there are two parts which are also generally confused, that is the cost of repairing the plumbing and the cost of repairing the damage caused by the water escaping from the plumbing.

To be clear, water damage resulting from an escape from fixed household plumbing is covered under the standard policy peril of "Escape of Water" or "Burst Pipes" and whether that was due to someone (even the policyholder) putting a nail through it or due to old age or frost, it doesn't matter - and you don't need AD cover to successfully claim for it.

jamie304

Thanks for the info everyone. I have UK Assistance coming round tomorrow (for my NatWest buildings insurance) to see about my kitchen floor. At least now I won't be scared of telling them how the leak happened. I just hope they will let me have a new floor, rather than telling me to dry it out (it's made of chipboard and I don't think it can recover).