Home insurance: delay in submitting claim

Nameless_Woman

Just before Christmas last year we had a gas leak under our house. We had to have the gas cut off and a new pipe had to be laid which involved digging up the path next to the house. The guy that did it all was a v nice guy and was very helpful at the time as we were without heating/hot water over Christmas week and he fixed it as quick as he could. But he was very relaxed about the payment and he has only just invoiced us last week, despite us chasing him several times about it. We changed insurance companies in May this year. I'm just wondering whether we can still claim so long after the event (if it is actually covered anyway) and which insurance company should we approach, the one at the time of the incident, or the one at the time we were invoiced? The bill is about £680. The invoice is actually dated 23/12/2013, although that's the date of the incident. I have asked him to reissue the invoice with a recent date, but given how long it took him to issue the first one, I don't know when we'll get it!

InsideInsurance

What was the cause of the leak? You'd only have cover if it was an insured peril that caused the leak to occur - eg earthquake, storm, flood, fire etc

If you believe an insured peril is the cause you'd have to claim from the insurer at the time of the event that caused the leak.

Generally there is no time limit on making a claim unless the time passed either causes the cost of the claim to go up (eg you dont repair a damaged roof to more water comes in doing more damage) or the delay prejudices the claim.

The issue will be that the insurer may want to inspect the damage to ensure that the cause was an insured peril and not just wear and tear/ age etc but you have deprived them of being able to do so by having it repaired before they inspect it. If you still have the damaged piping then it may lessen this slightly.

Quentin

Your current insurer won't be interested at all, so no need to get the date on the invoice changed.


Check that what caused the leak is covered before contacting your old insurer, as once you inform them the incident will go on your record irrespective of whether or not you make a successful claim.


Meaning if your claim is rejected that it still will have to be disclosed to other insurers (as well as your current one) with a possible impact on your premiums over 3/5 years depending on how long a history they require.

Nameless_Woman

Thanks for the info. I think we're probably not covered as there was no incident that I know of that caused the leak. Just an old pipe I guess.