Is my house insurance void as I have a hotpoint fire dryer

robinsharon

I have one of the 'fire' dryers and I am concerned that my house insurance will be void. If so can I force hotpoint to either replace the dryer free of charge or to pay an additional insurance policy?
:eek:

Quentin

Why would your house insurance be void because of the brand of dryer you have bought?

Aretnap

What's a Hotpoint fire drier? If it's a tumble drier that catches fire, I suggest that it's potential to burn the house down and kill you is a better reason to ask Hotpoint for your money back than any effect it might have on your home insurance. But your home insurance will not be voided by owning tumble drier (even if it is a Hotpoint one).

magpiecottage

I suspect they are referring to the Hotpoint tumble driers that have been shown to be a fire hazard

marlot

Surely the answer is not to use the drier when the house is unattended?

And turn it off at the socket when not in use, just to be sure.

nika-nika

magpiecottage wrote: »

I suspect they are referring to the Hotpoint tumble driers that have been shown to be a fire hazard

I guess so.

robinsharon, your insurance won't be voided just because "you have it" in the house.

But in the worst-case scenario (if you continue using the dryer and it causes the fire), the claim will most likely be rejected.

Because you had been warned - by Hotpoint&Creda&Indesit - and knew that the device "potentially poses fire-risk" (if you have one of the 113 models currently included in their recall).

robinsharon

Thank you everyone for your comments. I do have one of the Hotpoint tumble dryers that could catch fire and I do use it when I am in the house and I never leave it running if I go out. If it did catch fire then how am I supposed to move a tumble dryer that is on fire out of the house. I can lift certain weights but I don't think I could move the dryer on my own, which could mean fire damage to parts of my kitchen. So to avoid this is it better not to use it?! so then what is the point if it won't get fixed until June (date given by Hotpoint for repair) when the weather hopefully will be better and I can hang my washing outside. I just think that Hotpoint could do more.

Marktheshark

I would think failure to mitigate a known risk would invalidate any claim arising from the known risk.

System

Just to put things in perspective about the tumble driers that MIGHT cause a fire.
5 million have been sold between 2004 & 2015
Fire brigade figures indicate that in the period 2011 - 2014 410 domestic fires were caused by the driers named in the warning.

Basing figures on 140 per year then over the dale life of the affected driers this means that 0.03 percent of the driers have been implicated in fires. As a comparison, the fires caused by deep fat fryers are 5 times higher.

My advice is to stop using deep fat fryers, they are more dangerous than your tumble drier

robinsharon

Thank you !!!!!! and Marktheshark perhaps I should just chill out a bit. I got rid of the deep fat fryer years ago after my dad came home one night, drunk, decided to make some chips and then fell asleep. If it hadn't been for the cat waking my mother (we didn't have a smoke alarm then!) we would have died. So perhaps my fear of our house burning down stems from that!

magpiecottage

Firstly, if it does catch fire, do NOT attempt to move it. Call the fire brigade. Better to lose your home than your life.

Second, the advice of Hotpoint is not to leave it unattended. Provided you have followed that advice, your insurer would have a hard time persuading the Financial Ombudsman Service that you have acted unreasonably.

In any case, it would then be able to sue Indesit (in your name), to recover its costs and your policy excess.