Retrospective insurance claim

foreverblueuk

Hi,not sure if this is a daft question but would be grateful if any help.....even if it's to say don't be daft!

We moved into our house in Feb 2021, according to the reports it needed a brand new roof and part of the deal was that the seller contributed £3500 towards this. In the April we had a brand new roof put on at a cost of £14k, luckily we had the money from our house sale.
Now a friend has asked why didn't we claim on insurance, and that we could have claimed up to £01k, and I must admit it never even crossed our minds that we could have done this? 
Are we able to claim retrospectively for this or is that it really a done thing? We are with the same company and have all the receipts/invoices etc. 

P.S sorry if this question isn't in the right section. 

Thanks

 Victoria 

DullGreyGuy

Why'd you be able to claim on your insurance?

Insurance covers you for one off events of defined perils (fire, flood, storm) that occur whilst you own the property. It is not a maintenance contract and it doesnt cover you for things that happened before you owned it. 

The fact the seller contributed clearly shows the roof was in a poor state of repair prior to your ownership and therefore would void any claim attempted even if you were to try and argue there were high winds on XXX date after purchase. 

macman

It doesn't cover wear and tear, nor pre-existing faults.

tightauldgit

foreverblueuk said:

Hi,not sure if this is a daft question but would be grateful if any help.....even if it's to say don't be daft!

We moved into our house in Feb 2021, according to the reports it needed a brand new roof and part of the deal was that the seller contributed £3500 towards this. In the April we had a brand new roof put on at a cost of £14k, luckily we had the money from our house sale.
Now a friend has asked why didn't we claim on insurance, and that we could have claimed up to £01k, and I must admit it never even crossed our minds that we could have done this? 
Are we able to claim retrospectively for this or is that it really a done thing? We are with the same company and have all the receipts/invoices etc. 

P.S sorry if this question isn't in the right section. 

Thanks

 Victoria 

Claiming for damage that happened before you had the insurance? no you can't do that. 

In any case it sounds like it was wear and tear/age rather than damage otherwise the previous owner would surely have claimed on their insurance?

Exodi

I'd give your friend a bit of a shake, insurance doesn't work like I'm afraid.

It doesn't cover wear and tear/general maintenance type issues, and it also only applies to issues that are created after you take out the insurance policy. Obviously you were aware of the roof before you took out the insurance policy, you accepted a £3.5k contribution towards its repair. Did your friend think you'd be entitled to pocket that also?

Likewise I couldn't buy a dilapidated castle, take out an insurance policy and pay my first £11 monthly payment - then immediately claim that the insurance company is required to restore the castle back to it's former glory. Obviously an exaggeration, but the same concept.

Exodi

Two identical threads with different titles:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6403021/can-you-claim-on-insurance-retrospectively