Do buildings insurance policies normally cover underground water supply pipes?

M22saver

tweeter wrote: »

M22saver, In light of what you say below, don't you need to tell them to turn the supply to your flat off, cos they will charge you for what's being clocked up on your meter or have you/they done that already.

No, the flat is not vacant - I am living in it.

I have been living here for a year now and was happily paying a monthly charge to UU until they found out - via a report from another flat owner - that all the meters were incorrectly assigned to the flats (i.e. we had been paying bills based on the water consumption for another flat!).

When UU came to test what meter (and thus what supply pipe) belongs to each flat ... they said to me 'here is your actual meter ... bad luck as this one is showing that there is a leak!!!'

Surely I would not be responsible for the cost of lost water as until a couple of months ago, UU's records showed that I had a different meter/supply pipe. Its only because another resident informed them that UU found out their mess!! Since then, I have been doing everything in my power to get this resolved.

ben500

Building insurance policies do generally only provide cover to underground pipes as the result of accidental damage, however there are some that may cover the cost for mitigation purposes, do you have any British Gas cover in force for your central heating system? Their policies usually provide some cover, also a very important point to check with your insurer is whether or not you have "Trace and Access" cover if so the excavation and restoration of the area will be covered up to around £5K, it will not extend to the actual repair though, you will have to fork out for that yourself but that's the least of your worries. A lot of companies will actually re-route your pipework rather than udergo extensive trace and access so suggest this as a option, it is also much less disruptive.

M22saver

£4000?!?!

Guess I'll be on the debt-free wannabe pages very soon. That is a shocking amount!

Also guess this is one of those 'hard luck' stories. I had no idea of a leak as there are no visible signs of it and, thanks to United Utilities' !!!!-up, I wasn't able to 'see evidence of a possible leak' by taking meter readings ... as they had told me that I had a different meter!!!!

This is all very scary and makes me wonder whether property ownership is worth it. I had none of this hassle when renting and it looks like owning a flat is going to cost rather than make me money.

silvercar

You need to check the terms of your leasehold. There is a reasonable chance that your lease will not give you ownership of the supply water pipe beyond the stopcock within your flat.

If this is the case, the managing agents will need to sort out the leak. Either the managing agents will then pay and the cost born by all the flats in their management charge or it is insured by the managing agents and will be a claim on the building indurance of the block. This will depend on whether the cause of the leak is an insured event or not.

I would suspect that you are responsible for your water pipes within your flat upto the stopcock, the managing agents (on behalf of the freeholder, with the flats communally meeting that expense) from the stopcocks to the boundary of the property ie where the pipe(s) meet the road and the water corad from then onwards.

shudder

I agree with the previous comments on reviewing the wording of your lease to see if you are responsible or at least to see if there is a shared cost basis for underground services (similarly with roofs) as the costs could be distributed with the other residents as in viv0147's post.

Again this all comes down to shopping for price.

The managing agents or whoever is responsible for arranging the insurance should look at the scope of the cover as modern block of flats policies generally have and element of cover built in for 'trace and access'. Even if the repairs to the damage itself aren't covered it is in the insurers interest to restrict their losses by preventing any further claims.

In any event the managing agents should give the matter a bit more consideration.

If that doesn't get you anywhere consider an LVT (Leasehold Valuation Tribunal). Doing a search on Google should give you more of an insight into this.

** Another consideration to the above is 'what if' all the flats were insured individually, then the insurers would be arguing who is responsible for what!