Buildings Insurance - pre-existing condition refusal

delilah1000

Hi - i wonder if anyone can help with some advice.
I've made a claim on my insurance policy. The guy next door (a shop) filled a drain with concrete and then left the building vacant. This caused some minor but persistent flooding in his property which then caused damage to a wall, floor and units in my kitchen. I'm making a claim to repair the wall, floor and units.
I took out my policy last December.
The assessor has been and says the claim is being refused as the condition in all likelihood existed before we took out the policy.
He may be right, it certainly is the case that the drain next door was blocked before then, but we were unaware of any damage, it has not been until things have progressed and the damage got worse that we noticed the problem recently.
Can they refuse the claim, even though we had no knowledge of the pre-existing condition. I don't think he can really judge what extent there would have been (any) damage back then in any case, even if the drain was blocked at that point the damage may have occured afterwards.
What are my options and do I have a case to challenge the refusal?

rs65

delilah1000 wrote: »

I took out my policy last December.

Did you have cover before? Someone active on the claims side might be along soon but I wonder if your previous policy would deal.