Unsure about possible insurance claim

Ragamvffyn

Hi all, apologies if this is in the wrong place - it's my very first post.

Very late last night the power ring for the downstairs plugs tripped out whilst my partner was shutting down his PC. We we were able to restore power and have reported it to the landlord first thing this morning and we aren't going to us the plug socket in question until the electrician arrives to look at it. Everything else seemed perfectly fine, so we assumed that socket has broken.

Until he tried to use his PC plugged in elsewhere, and discovered it won't switch on at all. When we inspected the power supply unit small bit of fried electrical cable fell out through the air vents - so it's obviously ruined, and we have no idea currently if its shorted out anything else in the PC as of yet.

We've informed our landlord that the PC is damaged. My partner had a power supply in the PC fail early last year, which at the time we just put down to wear and tear. I now suspect the plug socket had an undiscovered problem.

The question is, if the plug socket failure has completely broken the PC, do we have to claim on our contents insurance as it was our belonging, or should the landlord claim on their buildings insurance as the damage was caused by something integral in the house? We've never had to consider claiming on insurance so I've absolutely no idea.

societys_child

the power ring for the downstairs plugs tripped out whilst my partner was shutting down his PC

I've had similar happen in the past with a small portable TV.

we inspected the power supply unit small bit of fried electrical cable fell out

Not sure why you think the socket is at fault, more likely the PSU in the PC failed and tripped the ring main.

eddddy

It's hard to imagine how just one socket on a ring main could be generating power surges.

If the problem really was caused by a power surge, it could be caused by something like an (old) fridge or (old) washing machine coming on. But that would send the surge through every socket on the ring main.

Or it could be caused by something external, like a lightning strike or fault in the supply. But the surge would then go through every socket, plus all your neighbours sockets.


TBH, the more plausible explanation is that your PC's power supply caused the problem. i.e. It burnt out and caused a short circuit which tripped the the ring main's circuit breaker.

But I guess you can wait to see what the electrician says.

ceb1995

Ragamvffyn wrote: »

Hi all, apologies if this is in the wrong place - it's my very first post.

Very late last night the power ring for the downstairs plugs tripped out whilst my partner was shutting down his PC. We we were able to restore power and have reported it to the landlord first thing this morning and we aren't going to us the plug socket in question until the electrician arrives to look at it. Everything else seemed perfectly fine, so we assumed that socket has broken.

Until he tried to use his PC plugged in elsewhere, and discovered it won't switch on at all. When we inspected the power supply unit small bit of fried electrical cable fell out through the air vents - so it's obviously ruined, and we have no idea currently if its shorted out anything else in the PC as of yet.

We've informed our landlord that the PC is damaged. My partner had a power supply in the PC fail early last year, which at the time we just put down to wear and tear. I now suspect the plug socket had an undiscovered problem.

The question is, if the plug socket failure has completely broken the PC, do we have to claim on our contents insurance as it was our belonging, or should the landlord claim on their buildings insurance as the damage was caused by something integral in the house? We've never had to consider claiming on insurance so I've absolutely no idea.

you'd have to claim on your own contents insurance, it's worth considering the value of your pc, your excess and that making a claim can lead to your premium going up in future.

csgohan4

Maybe time to consider power surge plugs for your important equipment. But won't protect from faulty equipment though