Home insurance claim partially refused

intwominds

Storm Doris caused some ridge tiles to fall off of the roof of my house and through the asbestos roof of my garage. Recieved a letter today from the surveyor the Insurance Company sent to view the damage, which states that the damage is wear and tear. Half the garage roof has been destroyed by the ridge tiles. Can anyone give any advice please.

paddyandstumpy

You say partially refused in the title then infer the whole claim had been rejected? Which?
And what state was the garage roof in pre loss?

intwominds

They will repair the ridge tiles from the roof of my house, but will do nothing for the damage to the garage roof. The garage roof was old but functional. Now I have hardly any roof left on that side at all and everything is covered in asbestos.

FutureGirl

It seems the garage roof was wear and tear, it's mostly likely that the storm has just highlighted a maintenance issue with the roof, especially as you note it was old. So the surveyor is correct, it wouldn't be covered.

However, if you have accident damage cover on on your policy the insurer MIGHT cover any internal damage - you should ask them.

dauphin

If (as I understand it) the falling ridge tiles have smashed through the asbestos roof, how can that be wear and tear?
I can see that if the garage roof was so weakened by age that it could not resist the impact of the ridge tiles, the insured might be in breach of a warranty that the property was in a good state of repair, or perhaps the existence of an asbestos roof was required to be disclosed when the policy was taken out, but these do not seem to be the grounds relied upon by the insurer.

intwominds

Thanks for your advice FutureGirl and dauphin.
I am going to ring and ask them to explain what they mean by wear and tear.
The garage roof is old but it was functional. Now it's mostly gone and the contents of my garage are covered in asbestos dust, including my children's toys.
The roof on my house is high and even if the roof was newer I'm sure the ridge tiles would have broken the garage roof anyway.