Faulty product caused water damage - do I go through house insurance?

waterhouse_melons

We found today our shower had caused a massive amount of water damage after a temperature knob had turned faulty and water was spurting through the shower handle. This property is in the UK, and is in the middle of a renovation. The bathroom is brand new, unused, only installed approx a month ago. After calling our bathroom fitter, he found the part that caused the problem was the handle, and you can see in the pictures below where the screw has busted causing the leak.
We have house insurance, but no contents insurance. The damage done includes soaking all the floorboards, seeping through to downstairs, damaging flooring in our hall beneath, a door and other items. This is a manufacturer defect.
The damage includes: floor downstairs, door downstairs, floorboards upstairs, ceiling in hallway and some stuff in the bathroom but will have to see how that dries.
A finger in the air guess on the damage would be £3k.
So do we claim through our house insurance, despite not being at all our fault? Or do we go through to the manufacturer to get them to sort all of this?

Aretnap

Most claims you could make on your home insurance would be for things that weren't your fault. Floods, subsidence, storms, burglary, most fires etc. If you're not going to claim for things because you don't think they're your fault there isn't really much point in having insurance.

No idea about your chances of claiming from the manufacturer of a plumbing part, but claiming from your insurance will be a quicker and easier process by at least a country mile 

DullGreyGuy

waterhouse_melons said:

We found today our shower had caused a massive amount of water damage after a temperature knob had turned faulty and water was spurting through the shower handle. This property is in the UK, and is in the middle of a renovation. The bathroom is brand new, unused, only installed approx a month ago. After calling our bathroom fitter, he found the part that caused the problem was the handle, and you can see in the pictures below where the screw has busted causing the leak.
We have house insurance, but no contents insurance. The damage done includes soaking all the floorboards, seeping through to downstairs, damaging flooring in our hall beneath, a door and other items. This is a manufacturer defect.
The damage includes: floor downstairs, door downstairs, floorboards upstairs, ceiling in hallway and some stuff in the bathroom but will have to see how that dries.
A finger in the air guess on the damage would be £3k.
So do we claim through our house insurance, despite not being at all our fault? Or do we go through to the manufacturer to get them to sort all of this?

How substantial are the renovations? Did you declare them to your insurers? Are you living in the property whilst it happens? If not how long has it been vacant and was this declared?

Some of your comments certain raise questions on the validity of the insurance at this point however assuming everything has been declared and accepted then this would be an escape of water claim which will not cover the faulty part that caused the escape but will cover the resultant damage it caused. 

You could attempt to claim off of whoever sold you the plumbing part that failed but that will be a long and painful process

waterhouse_melons

The reason we are thinking of avoiding insurance is that excess appears to be £750. I think we'll call them later today and see what they suggest, also to make them aware. The manufacturer of this part is coming to the house also to investigate for themselves and likely will get something outside of insurance with them.

DullGreyGuy

waterhouse_melons said:

The reason we are thinking of avoiding insurance is that excess appears to be £750. I think we'll call them later today and see what they suggest, also to make them aware. The manufacturer of this part is coming to the house also to investigate for themselves and likely will get something outside of insurance with them.

If you mention it to your insurers you will have to declare it for the next 3-5 years irrespective of if you proceed to claim or not. You technically need to declare it anyway however most people "forget" to do so if they havent got it on their record.

You have to declare anything you get from the manufacturer or retailer to your insurers. They will deduct that amount from their settlement to you. Failure to do so would be illegal and "undue enrichment". As previously stated, the retailer has much greater legal duty to you than the manufacturer under legislation in the UK