re. saving on contents/building accidental damage & Home emergency

rs65

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Obviously most people have small damages like wine on carpets or TVs being dropped but there are occasionally bigger accidents like people badly messing up their parking/ pulling off their driveway ending up in them taking out the corner of their house (as well as their car).

Would that not be an impact claim (rather than an AD claim) therefore covered under normal perils?

katejo

rs65 wrote: »

Would that not be an impact claim (rather than an AD claim) therefore covered under normal perils?

I thought exactly the same as I read the reply above. What sort of event involving major damage and moving out would come under accidental damage? Surely accidental damage wouldn't be an optional extra if it were so serious?

InsideInsurance

katejo wrote: »

I thought exactly the same as I read the reply above. What sort of event involving major damage and moving out would come under accidental damage? Surely accidental damage wouldn't be an optional extra if it were so serious?

It was a bad example as collisions with vehicles are covered under their own section, though collision with other things, like trailers most likely arent.

Certainly accidental damage can make a house technically uninhabitable if it makes the sole bathroom unusable

rs65

InsideInsurance wrote: »

AD cover can cover events that results in your house having to be knocked down, rebuilt and you in temp accommodation

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Certainly accidental damage can make a house technically uninhabitable if it makes the sole bathroom unusable

Knocked down and rebuilt is different from uninhabitable.

I don't recall ever seeing an AD claim which result in demolition. Any of the claims guys ??

katejo

rs65 wrote: »

Knocked down and rebuilt is different from uninhabitable.

I don't recall ever seeing an AD claim which result in demolition. Any of the claims guys ??

Exactly! Surely buildings accidental damage would have to be compulsory (required by mortgage lenders) if this were the case?

TSx

The only one I can think of right now is vibration damage - I've seen a claim for £50k+ for the structural repairs needed following vibration from a neighbouring building site. I can't remember the details but there was a reason we couldn't recover from the construction company so we had to foot the full bill.

Admittedly not knock down/rebuild (but a significant amount of work over a long period).

Some of our policies exclude damage caused by overflowing water where the taps have accidentally been left on under the escape of water section and a claim would be required under the accidental damage section - this can easily lead to £10k+ claims if someone goes out and leaves the taps on for a day.

I might have a look at our most expensive accidental damage claims tomorrow to see if I can see anything else

dacouch

rs65 wrote: »

Knocked down and rebuilt is different from uninhabitable.

I don't recall ever seeing an AD claim which result in demolition. Any of the claims guys ??

I had a new client (No previous home insurance) take out cover with L&G and a week later the council were digging a trench outside their house and undermined the foundations.

The whole house started falling down.

I'm not sure what section it came under but probably A/D.

Amusing claim as L&G being L&G they happily paid out more than the sums insured as they knew they could make a recovery from the contractor / council.

Amazing how much high end designer clothing they had which could not be checked as the house was to unsafe to go into.

TSx

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It was a bad example as collisions with vehicles are covered under their own section, though collision with other things, like trailers most likely arent.

Certainly accidental damage can make a house technically uninhabitable if it makes the sole bathroom unusable

I'm fairly sure most policies would cover damage caused by a trailer colliding with the property on the basis that it covers damage caused by collision or impact with vehicles.

I would say a trailer is a vehicle (OED definition is "A means of conveyance provided with wheels or runners and used for the carriage of persons or goods; a carriage, cart, wagon, sledge, or similar contrivance." or " a. Any means of carriage, conveyance, or transport; a receptacle in which anything is placed in order to be moved.") - it just isn't a motorised vehicle.

That said, I'm less certain about the definition of "road vehicle" which is used in some policies instead of vehicle - my gut says it would include any vehicle legal for being on the road (including trailers) but I can't find a definition to back that up.

InsideInsurance

Biggest claims I've seen coming under AD are all in the HNW space where you have full matching set cover and people with £1m bathrooms so its easy to get big claims when a bepoke marble bath gets chipped etc.

In the realms of mortals then the big AD claims I've seen were major botched DIY jobs to structural beams/ walls etc but some of those were enlarged by the PL element of attached properties (eg mid terrace takes down a structural wall causing adjacent properties to have to be surveyed etc too.

katejo

The DIY which I do is no more than a bit of painting or stripping paper. However I know about not removing structural
walls.