Accidental Damage to Hob by Tenant

CeeEll

Hi.  I'm a tenant and have contents insurance with AXA via Tesco.  I've recently accidentally damaged the fitted hob in the kitchen.  The insurers say this is not covered as I only have contents insurance, however the policy  states that under Occupiers' liability the insurers will pay for accidental loss or damage to the property which occurs as a result of my occupancy of the property.  Does anyone know if the damage to the hob would be covered under this section? Thanks. 

[Deleted User]

The hob would need to be claimed for under buildings insurance.

TELLIT01

In the first instance I would get back on to your insurance company and query their decision based on the wording about accidental damage and loss to the property.

Sandtree

Do you have a link to the policybook? Content's insurance does typically have a Tenants Liability section however its scope can be very limited.

Do you know the cost of replacing the hob and your excess? It may not be worth claiming if its a budget option.

Occupiers Liability is normally to deal with the type of situation like you leave a pair of shoes on the front step and the postie falls over them and injuries their arm rather than liability to the building owner but ultimately it all comes down to the wording.

TSx

I had a look at the first Tesco policy booklet I could find - https://www.tescobank.com/assets/home-insurance-policy-booklet-0520/home-insurance-policy-booklet-0520.pdf

Occupiers Liability (24) excludes "Loss or damage to property owned, leased, let, rented, hired, lent or entrusted to you or your family" which would exclude this - in terms of property damage (and as a bit of a reaching example), if you had a sharp spike sticking out from a fence and it ripped someone's coat who was walking past then it would cover that (subject to lots of tests of negligence etc) - but anything either belonging to, or rented to you wouldn't be covered.

There is also a tenant's liability section (26)

This covers damage by causes 1-9 which does not include accidental damage. It also covers a limited set of additional accidental damage to sanitary fittings, glass and underground services - but not hobs.

A (slight) argument could be made the there is cover under the accidental damage section of the contents (if purchased) on the basis that fitted kitchens are only excluded from contents if you own the building. I think it would be a hard sell though, and ultimately the intention appears to be to not cover incidents of this nature. Given the issues around the excess already raised, it doesn't seem like it will be worth trying to pursue it.

Grumpy_chap

CeeEll said:

Hi.  I'm a tenant and have contents insurance with AXA via Tesco.  I've recently accidentally damaged the fitted hob in the kitchen.  The insurers say this is not covered as I only have contents insurance, however the policy  states that under Occupiers' liability the insurers will pay for accidental loss or damage to the property which occurs as a result of my occupancy of the property.  Does anyone know if the damage to the hob would be covered under this section? Thanks. 

What is your insurance excess, even if it were covered?
What is the value of the hob?
How old is the hob?
What is the extent of the damage?  Does it put the hob wholly beyond use?
Is it just a hob, or a whole cooker unit?

With few exceptions, built in hobs are from around £100 to £500.
Say the hob has a life expectancy of 10 years.
Straight line depreciation, that would be £10 to £50 per year.
If the hob is 8 years old, that means 2 years premature depreciation to be "made good" by the tenant.  £20 to £100 bill.

It might be worth either living with the damage until you move out and accepting a deduction from the deposit at that time, or report to the LL and pay the premature depreciation now.

Sandtree

TSx said:

A (slight) argument could be made the there is cover under the accidental damage section of the contents (if purchased) on the basis that fitted kitchens are only excluded from contents if you own the building. I think it would be a hard sell though, and ultimately the intention appears to be to not cover incidents of this nature. Given the issues around the excess already raised, it doesn't seem like it will be worth trying to pursue it.

Its not a slight argument as it explicitly states Contents AD cover excludes fitted kitchens unless you dont own it and your arent responsible for buying buildings insurance. If you remove the double negative then it means fitted kitchens are covered if the OP took the optional AD cover.

tacpot12

As Sandtree says, you would have had to have paid extra for Accidental Cover to have the hob covered.