Nightmare with Direct Line Landlord Insurance

JakeMcCann

ok so i just called Direct Line. he was very helpful to be fair. he advised the reason the joists arent covered as its considered part of the structure of the property. as my property is part of an apartment block theyre advising the buildings insurance should cover this. as far as theyre concerned the joists havent been damaged by the leak but rotted and worn over time.. what do you guys think?

Mungo76

A lot of policies will have an exclusion for rot of any kind alongside any gradually operating clauses (which can be open to interpretation), so if you are going down the route of reporting this to the building insurance, choose your words very carefully.

What dl told you seems reasonable, if it is contents cover only.

Telling the board that in the first place probably would have got to this answer a lot sooner.

JakeMcCann

Mungo76 wrote: »

A lot of policies will have an exclusion for rot of any kind alongside any gradually operating clauses (which can be open to interpretation), so if you are going down the route of reporting this to the building insurance, choose your words very carefully.

What dl told you seems reasonable, if it is contents cover only.

Telling the board that in the first place probably would have got to this answer a lot sooner.

yeah thats the issue, im not too clear on wording etc. i guess ill have to read the policy documents first!

eddddy

JakeMcCann wrote: »

im currently doing just that. a friend of mine who is a carpenter almost fell off his seat with the quote in terms of labour and materials cost. he lay someones floor last week for £400 elsewhere!

I agree that you should get more quotes...

... but laying a floor and dealing with a rotten joist (if it is rotten) are very different jobs.

I suspect the £4k could be a quote is for replacing a section of rotten joist. If you can get away with drying out the joist and treating it, it would be much cheaper.

JakeMcCann

eddddy wrote: »

I agree that you should get more quotes...

... but laying a floor and dealing with a rotten joist (if it is rotten) are very different jobs.

I suspect the £4k could be a quote is for replacing a section of rotten joist. If you can get away with drying out the joist and treating it, it would be much cheaper.

deffo going to get a few more quotes.
my argument at the moment is with the buildings insurance. the building has their own insurance so i unfortunately couldn't purchase it when i bought my place... now ive had a leak its not covered im not too happy.

i cant understand how i have insured myself as much as possible, to have a escape of water and then not be covered. makes no sense at all regardless of who "owns" the joists etc. im still trying !!

DanParks87

ok so i just called Direct Line. he was very helpful to be fair. he advised the reason the joists arent covered as its considered part of the structure of the property. as my property is part of an apartment block theyre advising the buildings insurance should cover this. as far as theyre concerned the joists havent been damaged by the leak but rotted and worn over time.. what do you guys think?

This is incredibly important and ultimately could mean that you are not even responsible for the costs of replacing the joists.


If you only own 1 flat in the block then you need to contact the person/people who owns the Freehold on the block - generally the freeholder will arrange insurance for the building itself, while the Leaseholder of an individual flat will generally only be concerned with the contents and the Public Liability.


It may still turn out that the claim isn't covered under the Freeholder's policy because of it being a gradually operating cause (as advised by others), but that will just mean that the Freeholder has to stump up this cost themselves.


Ps: Check the wording of any agreements you may have signed to check who is responsible for what.


All the best

JakeMcCann

DanParks87 wrote: »

This is incredibly important and ultimately could mean that you are not even responsible for the costs of replacing the joists.


If you only own 1 flat in the block then you need to contact the person/people who owns the Freehold on the block - generally the freeholder will arrange insurance for the building itself, while the Leaseholder of an individual flat will generally only be concerned with the contents and the Public Liability.


It may still turn out that the claim isn't covered under the Freeholder's policy because of it being a gradually operating cause (as advised by others), but that will just mean that the Freeholder has to stump up this cost themselves.


Ps: Check the wording of any agreements you may have signed to check who is responsible for what.


All the best

thanks for the advice again. ill definitely have a good read of this all.