Home Insurance Won't Pay For Criminal Damage To My Property

Lord_Frugal12

Hello! 

 I came home from work to find that someone had thrown a brick at the front window of my house. After phoning the police, I phoned the housing association (Clarion Housing.)
I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder. And I have home insurance with Nationwide. 

 Clarion Housing told me that they will not replace the window as I own the property.  Nationwide Home Insurance rep told me that my home insurance policy does not cover damage to my windows or criminal damage. He said that I have to have building insurance have the window replaced. I did  not choose to have building insurance because I pay an annual service charge to Clarion Housing. And included in that is cover for building insurance. 

 I spoke to a housing officer at Clarion Housing. She does not know about building insurance being paid as part of the service charge. So, I sent her my latest service charge statement from Clarion which shows the building insurance. 

 As I wait to hear from Clarion Housing, I would like to have your advice please.  Who should pay for the cost of replacing the window? I got a quote from a window installer who has said it will be £400 to replace just the glass on the large window.  He also advised me to wait for the response from Clarion Housing as the housing association has its own repairs team that might be ordered to carry out the replacement.  

My other question is this:  there are two teenage gangs operating around my block of flats. This could have been caused by them. The housing officer said that she and the police are aware of the gangs' activities. But, it is taking time to gather evidence to do something about the perpetrators. Both gangs got one of its member as a resident at my block of flats. It could take months for the police and Clarion Housing to get the necessary evidence to do anything about the residents who harbour the two gangs.    In the mean time, I could pay £400 to get this window replaced. But, next month, what if the same window or another one gets damaged? I can't afford to keep replacing windows. 

 The police told me that my case of criminal damage is "on slow time." So, it could take weeks or months. And there is no evidence or witnesses to this incident.  So, I have no hope of the police finding who caused the damage. 

As I write this on this forum, I live in fear of another attack on my property. I have lived in this house for more than 30 years. But, it is only this year I had objects being thrown at doors and windows.  What would you do in this situation? I am hoping that Clarion Housing's building insurance would cover acts of criminal damage to my property. 

Are you a leaseholder and had something similar happen to you? Is it possible that Clarion Housing's building insurance would cover my smashed window?

I thank you in advance for your help and advice.   

TELLIT01

The window would come under Building insurance, not Contents which you have.  Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance.  If another window does get smashed at a later date there will be excess each time.

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. As the freeholder is the policyholder its really their "decision" rather than the OPs on if to claim however leases normally oblige the process else the freeholder could refuse to ever claim for any issue meaning leaseholders are effectively uninsured.

user1977

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. 

OP says:

"I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder."

Liability for the windows (and how insurance is dealt with) should be detailed in their lease.

Grumpy_chap

It sounds like the OP's home insurance is contents only, so will not cover building damage.  The window will be classed as building, not contents.

The freeholder may have building insurance, but it is possible that only covers common areas.  The OP's window is not common so would not be covered in that case.

I suspect the OP will need to cover this window damage themselves (as uninsured) and then consider buildings cover as well as contents cover in the future.

Even with buildings cover in place, the excess may mean a claim for a lower value incident such as this is of limited benefit.

Sandtree

user1977 said:

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. 

OP says:

"I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder."

Liability for the windows (and how insurance is dealt with) should be detailed in their lease.

But they also said 

Lord_Frugal12 said:

 I came home from work to find that someone had thrown a brick at the front window of my house. 

user1977

Sandtree said:

user1977 said:

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. 

OP says:

"I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder."

Liability for the windows (and how insurance is dealt with) should be detailed in their lease.

But they also said 

Lord_Frugal12 said:

 I came home from work to find that someone had thrown a brick at the front window of my house. 

And they also refer to "my block of flats".

Anyway, house or flat, they've said it's leasehold, in which case the advice still applies.

Lord_Frugal12

Sincere thanks to everyone for your responses. 

  I am a leaseholder of a ground floor flat. And this is part of a block of flats owned by Clarion Housing, the housing association. 

The housing officer at Clarion Housing does not know about leaseholders paying for building insurance through their service charge. I asked her to find and send me the building insurance policy. I am still waiting for that document. 

My real fear is this: I could have this window replaced for £400. But, there are two teenage gangs operating from this block of flats. So, this criminal damage could happen again. And again...


 So, I am really stressed, emotionally and financially. I was wondering if there were any leaseholders on this forum who might have similar experiences with property damage. I didn't take the building insurance because I was already paying it through my service charge to Clarion Housing.  

Lord_Frugal12

user1977 said:

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. 

OP says:

"I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder."

Liability for the windows (and how insurance is dealt with) should be detailed in their lease.

I checked the lease.  But, there is nothing about building insurance in the lease. So, I had to ask the housing officer to find out about the building insurance I am paying to the housing association through my service charge. 

user1977

Lord_Frugal12 said:

user1977 said:

Sandtree said:

TELLIT01 said:
Even with Building insurance it's worth checking any excess before deciding if it's worth claiming on insurance. 

Its not 100% clear the development setup, if the OP is leasehold or not and what insurance the HA has purchased.  If it were flats rather than a house it would certainly be a block policy and so any increase in premiums caused by a claim would be shared by all the leaseholders. 

OP says:

"I own the ground floor apartment as a leaseholder."

Liability for the windows (and how insurance is dealt with) should be detailed in their lease.

I checked the lease.  But, there is nothing about building insurance in the lease.

That doesn't sound very likely. Surely it says something about insurance?

Sandtree

Lord_Frugal12 said:

My real fear is this: I could have this window replaced for £400. But, there are two teenage gangs operating from this block of flats. So, this criminal damage could happen again. And again...

It could, though if they keep picking on you then you may want to consider why.

A relative had a somewhat similar issue with his business and after a few smashes ultimately replaced the glass with what was effectively "bullet proof" glass which worked for them however it wasn't cheap and there is clearly a potential safety implication as its equally unbreakable in an emergency