Surprised my Home insurance policy doens't cover vermin damage.

justaquestion

Hi there,

Going through the process of dealing with ceiling leaks at the moment caused by mice chewing the plastic water pipes in ceiling. Will probably cost up to £400 in all to repair in total.

I am not going to claim as my excess is £300 and in any case I have one claim that was settled just over two years ago, first claim in my life actually, not a believer in making frequent claims if at all possible.

I am somewhat surprised that my Tesco home insurance excludes damage by vermin which includes mice etc.

page 9 of

https://www.tescobank.com/assets/sections/homeins/pdf/home-insurance-policy-booklet-0417.pdf

So on reading the above does this actually mean that the water damage below is definitely not covered? Are most Insurers the same?

Can live with the cost of the current damage, but would like to feel I was covered if it was an over £2000 repair bill.

Thanks a lot for any clarification.

Aretnap

Damage caused by vermin is a common exclusion - it falls into the general category of things that happen gradually, rather than being a specific event., However normally it only applies to the damage directly caused by the vermin - ie they won't pay to replace the damaged pipes. They will however pay for damaged caused by the resulting flood, as a normal claim for escape of water.


Similarly if the mice gnawed through an electrical cable, the insurance wouldn't pay to replace the cable. They would however pay for the resulting fire, so you would still be covered for the fact that your house burned to the ground.

System

Different branches of insurance take a curiously different view on the value of encouraging preventative measures to prevent a greater loss and payout later.


They will pay to repair a chip in a windscreen, because that would avoid it later shattering and costing them a lot more.
By analogy you might have thought it worth paying to replace a bit of gnawed wiring because that would avoid having to pay out for a new house.