Damage caused by leaking drain or soil pipe (as opposed to fixed water plumbing system)

Annemos

Good afternoon. Please excuse the long post. 

Unfortunately, I have developed a need to look at Trustpilot reviews! (I also find it so interesting, the Insurance Industry.) 

One review I spotted today is someone who has thousands of pounds of damage from a leaking soil pipe. The claim is being rejected. And, as is often/sometimes the case, the homeowner perhaps may not fully understand what their cover is in these circumstances. 

So I thought, what happens with my own policy?  Please see attached. Click on policy wording at the top. 

  https://www.johnlewisfinance.com/insurance/home-insurance.html



Is this how it would work? Assume there are no issues with Wear and tear/Gradual damage exclusions. That kicks you out anyway before you even get started, but as I understand it, the Insurance Company has to prove that exclusion.   (Also assume there is no Subsidence, Flood.) 


1) What type of damage could one have from a leaking waste or soil or sewer pipe in a bungalow? (I shall call this Waste pipe for now, but I mean all three.)

2) See page 8. Am I correct in thinking the damage to the building if any, would NOT come under the Escape of Water section because a Waste Pipe is not a Fixed Water Plumbing System?   OURS FAILS HERE?

3) Trace and Access on page 14. Is this a problem because potentially this would be foul obnoxious stuff! So, I suppose it is not an Escape of WATER?  OURS FAILS HERE? (So they would not be investigating the pipe through this section.)


4) So then we look at Accidental Damage page 16. That does exclude water (unless by storm or flood), but we have already discussed that this will not be (clean) Water. It will be foul/obnoxious stuff.  YES WE ARE OK HERE? As long as we satisfy the definition for Accidental Damage  (page 89). 

5) Then page 17 says Drain and Pipes.  YES WE ARE OK HERE? (And we don't need the Trace and Access that was in the normal section, because they are going to fix the Waste Pipe anyway in the Accidental Damage section).


Am I on the right track here?

If so, do people always realise that they must have Accidental Damage as an extra cover if it is not included in the main Policy...... in order to stand even a chance of claiming for damage due to leaking sewer, soil, waste pipes?

Also it is quite a tortuous process, understanding the Insurance flow for a claim like this and what you might be entitled to claim for? 


Thanks everyone for your time. 

Sandtree

I am waiting for the post where you say you are starting to study for your ACII!

1) Not a building person but large quantities of foul water sitting in places generally isn't a good thing

2) Why do you think the waste pipes aren't part of the fixed water system? Do you take yours out for a walk or something?

3) Hopefully if its smelly its easier to find but it doesn't cause any problem, its still water. Even clean water if it sits for a long time it will get fairly foul if there is a large void under the ground floor etc.

4) You also have AD to pipe/drains on page 17. Page 16 you've got the double negative so water entering the home other than from Flood/Storm isn't covered under that particular section. Water that's in your pipes is already in the home not entering the home. 

5) Trace and access is unlikely to be needed as generally its because you've put a nail in the pipe or such and so where the leak is is well known. There can be times when the actual problem isn't immediately in the proximity of what you've done in which T&A would kick in.

Annemos

Sandtree, thank you very much for your time and explanations. I am incredibly grateful to you. 


If I was 40 years younger and hadn't had such an awful experience with Claims Handling.....ACII might have suited me, I think. 

But also, you can see just how I misunderstand things. I would spend so long mulling over the precise wording, any Claims Handling company employing me, would throw me out within a month.


Maybe my problem is that my career was in US taxation. In their Code and Regulations....everything....literally EVERYTHING has a reference, with numbers or letters, italics, small letters, capital letters etc etc. So, you can usually track the trail of precisely how things should be read. 

(A career in US Taxation does not explain why I would think water cannot be brown, though!) 

 

2) and 3)    Thank you for clarifying that, Sandtree. What a relief! 

About it all being just shades of brown dirty water!

For some reason I imagined the foul did not constitute actual water. (As you say, it would indeed be a bit difficult to grade the shades of brown, anyway!) 


Re point 4)..... that is fascinating re the double negative. I missed that because I merged the two bits together.... please see the highlighted way in which I read this below!!    Also the ENTERING the home....... I would never have thought of that difference! 


What's not covered:  

This doesn’t include damage:               I TOOK THIS AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE! 

• When your home is lent, let or sublet to anyone other than your family

• While your home is unoccupied

 ******       OBVIOUSLY I HAD OVERLOOKED THAT THERE WAS A BLANK LINE HERE! AND ALSO THE NEXT BITS DO NOT FOLLOW ON FROM THE PREVIOUS BULLET POINTS AS PART OF THE SAME LIST, ON CLOSER INSPECTION. 
 
Caused by:

• Water entering your home other than by storm or flood

• Mechanical, electrical or electronic fault or breakdown

• Coast or riverbank being worn away

• Sulphate reacting with any materials from which your home is built


PS Outlook is now sending us spam in our actual e-mails. The tracking cookies have now kindly sent me one for go.premierdrain.co.uk   I hope I never need them! 

Sandtree

Annemos said:

But also, you can see just how I misunderstand things. I would spend so long mulling over the precise wording, any Claims Handling company employing me, would throw me out within a month.

If you work in house then its not that often that you'll ever look at a policy book for mass market consumer insurance... you will be dealing with it day in, day out and will simply know if someone is entitled to a courtesy car or not and 99% of the time you dont need to be able to quote the exact wording. 

If you work for an outsourcer you may have to look more often because of having to deal with so many different clients and their different wordings but still the basics dont tend to change that much.

Certainly when you get into commercial insurance where claims routinely run into the millions (or billions) then nuances in wordings are debated/argued much more commonly... we all saw that playout with Covid and if it triggered Business Interruption cover or not.

Been dealing with Marine insurance recently and so Brown Water means something very different and thankfully that's what's in my head when you keep mentioning it