Insurance not covering condensation damage

DullGreyGuy

diystarter7 said:
I'm no mechanic, builder, gas safe engineer brin surgeon, cyber expert, PM, president, etc surveyor, insurance expert, pilot, ect, etc but

Never been able to tick off 3 items in a persons list before!

Alphatauri said:

My plan was to ask for advice on here, as advised I will re-check my policy then email to see if I could challenge the decision and ask for a final decision in writing. 

At the end of the day you have little to lose by making a complaint but in principle if it is an issue with condensation then your only hope is either 1) you have a policy typically aimed at the more affluent which is on an all risks basis rather than insured peril or 2) your AD cover may respond for some of it. 

Obviously if you hired an alternative expert who determined the overflow leaked rather than condensation then you can probably argue its EoW and so covered

diystarter7

DullGreyGuy said:

diystarter7 said:
I'm no mechanic, builder, gas safe engineer brin surgeon, cyber expert, PM, president, etc surveyor, insurance expert, pilot, ect, etc but

Never been able to tick off 3 items in a persons list before!

Alphatauri said:

My plan was to ask for advice on here, as advised I will re-check my policy then email to see if I could challenge the decision and ask for a final decision in writing. 

At the end of the day you have little to lose by making a complaint but in principle if it is an issue with condensation then your only hope is either 1) you have a policy typically aimed at the more affluent which is on an all risks basis rather than insured peril or 2) your AD cover may respond for some of it. 

Obviously if you hired an alternative expert who determined the overflow leaked rather than condensation then you can probably argue its EoW and so covered

Not to worry, made me chuckle and I hope your post made you a happier person for making the effort.

OP, you have a lot on your plate and I will let you get on with this with help possibly from a new contributor.
TBH and I am like that, I can't visualise what really happened, sorry.


Good luck and I hope its all sorted one way or the other soon.

DullGreyGuy

diystarter7 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

diystarter7 said:
I'm no mechanic, builder, gas safe engineer brin surgeon, cyber expert, PM, president, etc surveyor, insurance expert, pilot, ect, etc but

Never been able to tick off 3 items in a persons list before!

Alphatauri said:

My plan was to ask for advice on here, as advised I will re-check my policy then email to see if I could challenge the decision and ask for a final decision in writing. 

At the end of the day you have little to lose by making a complaint but in principle if it is an issue with condensation then your only hope is either 1) you have a policy typically aimed at the more affluent which is on an all risks basis rather than insured peril or 2) your AD cover may respond for some of it. 

Obviously if you hired an alternative expert who determined the overflow leaked rather than condensation then you can probably argue its EoW and so covered

Not to worry, made me chuckle and I hope your post made you a happier person for making the effort.

My post didn't, but yours did... the effort was much more in the second half responding to the OP. Unusually tetchy for you though, hope alls ok

ThisIsWeird

Alpha, do you know if this tank is properly insulated - ie to by-law 30 or whatever it's called? And is your loft and hatch also insulated to current standards, or close-to?

I can understand the insurance company's reluctance to pay out for this - surely what you have experienced just shouldn't happen. Yes, the tank will have been kept cold by the constantly incoming water, but is it really significantly different to what could happen due to normal family use, say a number of family members having a series of baths, which would also have the tank kept at quite a low temp? Condensation forming to the point it's dripping off to cause this damage just shouldn't occur, afaIcs.

diystarter7

DullGreyGuy said:

diystarter7 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

diystarter7 said:
I'm no mechanic, builder, gas safe engineer brin surgeon, cyber expert, PM, president, etc surveyor, insurance expert, pilot, ect, etc but

Never been able to tick off 3 items in a persons list before!

Alphatauri said:

My plan was to ask for advice on here, as advised I will re-check my policy then email to see if I could challenge the decision and ask for a final decision in writing. 

At the end of the day you have little to lose by making a complaint but in principle if it is an issue with condensation then your only hope is either 1) you have a policy typically aimed at the more affluent which is on an all risks basis rather than insured peril or 2) your AD cover may respond for some of it. 

Obviously if you hired an alternative expert who determined the overflow leaked rather than condensation then you can probably argue its EoW and so covered

Not to worry, made me chuckle and I hope your post made you a happier person for making the effort.

My post didn't, but yours did... the effort was much more in the second half responding to the OP. Unusually tetchy for you though, hope alls ok

Was it, I do not think so but you saw it like that, then I will have to accept that.
My fault for not being clear about me not being a professioal in those areas and others but I have the knack for stuff like this. To be clear it was not amided at dear OP
or anyone for that matter but in a way showing that I am baffled by this event
Thank you for asking, I'm ok and I hope we can together help others here.
Thank you and goodnight and pleasant dreams - and again, I hope the OP gets
stuff sorted asap as it is an awful situation and worse still thinking one is covered and the insurance
outfit comes up with something like this.
goodnight

diystarter7

ThisIsWeird said:

Alpha, do you know if this tank is properly insulated - ie to by-law 30 or whatever it's called? And is your loft and hatch also insulated to current standards, or close-to?

I can understand the insurance company's reluctance to pay out for this - surely what you have experienced just shouldn't happen. Yes, the tank will have been kept cold by the constantly incoming water, but is it really significantly different to what could happen due to normal family use, say a number of family members having a series of baths, which would also have the tank kept at quite a low temp? Condensation forming to the point it's dripping off to cause this damage just shouldn't occur, afaIcs.

Thank you for that post as I thought I was going mad.
As an open and honest poster, from the outset, I could not and still cn't get my head around this.
I am certain the insurance outfit has misunderstood/mixed up details etc.

Anyway, goodnight.

Alphatauri

@ThisIsWierd given that standards change over time and I bought the house as a new build in 1997 I expect the insulation may not be at current standards. I will need the ceiling repaired and as part of that I will get an assessment of the insulation etc. at the same time.

Clearly condensation damage is not routinely covered by insurance so it looks like a £13 ball valve has cost me a lot more. 😂

ThisIsWeird

Alphatauri said:

@ThisIsWierd given that standards change over time and I bought the house as a new build in 1997 I expect the insulation may not be at current standards. I will need the ceiling repaired and as part of that I will get an assessment of the insulation etc. at the same time.

Clearly condensation damage is not routinely covered by insurance so it looks like a £13 ball valve has cost me a lot more. 😂

1997 isn't old. It's a really bizarre one, Alpha, and I've never heard of anything like it before.

I do wonder where all the damp air came from to actually condense in such quantities! Surely not all from your house? After all, you weren't even there, so little moisture should have been produced. And it has to get up to the loft in the first place!

There was a 'tradition' for loft insulation to be left off immediately below any water tanks, the idea being that the trickle of heat from the house below would prevent it from freezing. I wonder if that's the case here? That comes with some issues, tho'; that cold rectangle of uninsulated ceiling boards will be attracting much more of the moisture in the rooms below, and will be condensing out more on the ceiling in that spot, only to percolate/breathe through in to the loft immediately below the tanks. But... hard to imagine it's in such quantities.

Or, perhaps the loft hatch is poorly sealed? Or the loft space is not well ventilated - it should be nice and draughty (and cold) up there :-)

Really really bizarre - if it's truly down to condensation. I wonder if there's more of an element of Ganga's suggestion - the gushing b'!!!!!! was causing a light spray of water which was escaping past the lid which may not have been firmly snapped down tight. I have to say, that seems far more plausible to me than condensation. And that surely would be covered? (Unless they claim you were 'negligent' in not securing the lid - but that's easy; you've never been up there :-) )

Alphatauri

I seem to have started a mystery, as I can’t get into the loft I have to accept the explanation given by the emergency call out engineer. If anything else comes to light as I get quotes I will let you know.

ThisIsWeird

Alphatauri said:

Two bed mid Terrance property c25 years old.   I went away for a fortnight leaving my central heating to come on twice a day at 15c to prevent freezing pipes etc. when I returned home water was dripping through a bedroom ceiling. Emergency home repairs call out identified the ball valve in the loft water tank had failed and as a result condensation had formed on the outside of the tank and then leaked through to the bedroom.

Rereading this - the age of the property (not old, almost certainly has at least an 'ok' level of loft insulation, obviously not a metal tank, that sort of stuff) and the circumstances (house unoccupied so no large production of moisture, heating left at a plenty-warm ~15oC which is more than enough to keep the building protected), along with the sheer quantity of water that must have been produced in order to 'drip thro' the ceiling', I find it nigh-on utterly implausible that this was condensation.

That's only a judgement, of course, but if it were condie, then your tank must have been in a near-constant state of dripping on the ceiling at nearly all times in winter. There is nothing exceptional about having the tank being refilled more constanty than in normal use. I just find this so implausible, and if the assessor didn't come down the loft ladder going "Wow! That's INCREDIBLE!!", then I fear they didn't actually appreciate how bizarre their assumption was.

If it is condie, then I don't really blame the ins co for turning down the claim, as this is something that should not normally happen and things should be in place to mitigate it - Ie, the tank and the loft should be insulated to a reasonable standard. But I can't see it as being this, and there is a more plausible explanation.