Buildings insurance - won't help with flooding, do I have grounds for complaint?

TELLIT01

DE_612183 said:

Most insurance companies will try not to pay a claim if they have to.

That has certainly not been my experience.  In the past few years I have had to make one claim on buildings insurance and one on contents.  Both have been dealt with promptly and without any hassle.

Smithcom

DE_612183 said:

I would think you need to get the insurance company to provide a definitive response for the water ingress - have you checked the T&Cs of your policy - it should say there what is covered etc.

Most insurance companies will try not to pay a claim if they have to.

The majority of claims are paid without fuss.

Where an insurer feels that a claim is not covered under the policy, they are probably more vociferous these days in sticking to the specifics of the policy terms and conditions.  Some insurers are better than others when it comes to grey areas.

I'm not sure that your comments add anything to this thread.  On the contrary, they are pretty unhelpful and just evoke emotions rather than dealing with the matter in a grown-up and sensible way.

OP - As a starting place, household policies are there to cover specific events like flood, fire, escape of water etc.  Some (many) policies will provide Trace and Access cover to see where a leak is coming from.

Some policies state that Trace & Access cover applies only if damage has been caused to property.   Sometimes, it could be argued that damage is imminent/inevitable in order to activate the Trace & Access cover.

As a starting place, you need to find out if the water is freshwater, groundwater, brownwater or greywater.  If your water authority cannot or will not assist, try contacting a water consultant to see if they can help establish the source of the water.

Hope this helps OP.   

SC

amanda1024

TELLIT01 said:

DE_612183 said:

Most insurance companies will try not to pay a claim if they have to.

That has certainly not been my experience.  In the past few years I have had to make one claim on buildings insurance and one on contents.  Both have been dealt with promptly and without any hassle.

Who's your insurer? This sounds like they've got a good track record. Unfortunately my own experience has been that insurers do tend to look for a reason not to pay - the majority of claims I've had have been partially or completely unsuccessful. 

CSI_Yorkshire

amanda1024 said:

TELLIT01 said:

DE_612183 said:

Most insurance companies will try not to pay a claim if they have to.

That has certainly not been my experience.  In the past few years I have had to make one claim on buildings insurance and one on contents.  Both have been dealt with promptly and without any hassle.

Who's your insurer? This sounds like they've got a good track record. Unfortunately my own experience has been that insurers do tend to look for a reason not to pay - the majority of claims I've had have been partially or completely unsuccessful. 

Your claims being unsuccessful =/= insurers are looking for a reason not to pay.

Claim acceptance percentage hovers around 80-85%.

Who comes out in the stats as most "generous" varies from year to year.  A few years ago Hiscox were high up that list, more recently it has included Haven and Tokio Marine.  Conversely AA, Ageas and Lloyds have been quite low.

The stats seem to indicate that most failed claims are due to customers claiming for things they were not actually insured for - like accidental damage when they didn't take that extra coverage on their policy.

mac.d

I discovered the water when I went down to check if there was underfloor insulation. It's a crawl space and large enough to go on your hands and knees, but under the kitchen it drops down much lower, could probably crouch/half stand up in it, and the water covers the entire floor, not to sure how deep but maybe 3-6 inches. The water doesn't smell, it looks fairly clear, with a sandy looking layer at the bottom (under the rest of the house you can see there's a damp proof layer that looks like it's painted over the floor, but it's very dirty and dusty down there).

The house has wooden floorboards but the kitchen is concrete. I looked myself and could see no pipes and I've had a couple of drainage guys in to try to find evidence of a leak, and they can't find anything. They also checked if it was perhaps due to a damaged drain outside or a leak from the water main. There is water but no evidence of where it's come from, which is why they seem to have come up with the idea that it must be ground water coming from below. The water level doesn't seem to have changed at all, and it's not creeping up the wall or anything like that. 

So it doesn't appear to be much of a hazard, I've no idea how long its been like that, it's just that now I've found it I'd quite like it gone. Insurance have covered trying to trace source of leak but have quickly decided it's not an issue they can do any more about. I've also contacted the water board and waiting to hear if they'll look at it and maybe sample it to see where its come from. However, as there's no loss of water pressure, they weren't sure it would have anything to do with them (they also suggested groundwater seeping in wouldn't likely flood the whole room).

The access makes it difficult to simply get someone to pump the water out, and it's too big a job for me to do myself. Also if it's not really a hazard, how much do I spend trying to get rid of it. Might need to look at getting someone to cut a new hatch in the hall to try for easier access to try and get someone to pump the water out.

Again, cheers for all your thoughts.

eddddy

There are companies who claim that, if you provide them with a sample of the water, they'll chemically analyse it to determine where it's likely to have come from...   such as the drinking water supply, groundwater, rainwater or a foul drain.

They claim they can do this, even after the water has been in contact with soil, brickwork, concrete etc.


(A few years back, somebody was telling me they had a persistent damp problem and got helpful results from this kind of chemical analysis. But that was for a wet wall. I suspect water under a floor will be more contaminated, so might be harder to analyse.)

CSI_Yorkshire

There are several - many are the same companies that the insurer would turn to for an investigation if it was accepted as a potential claim.

I know that at least one would accept a private client, but it's unlikely to be cheap.

mac.d

As the insurer has investigated and declared its not something they will cover and it appears there's nothing I can do about that, the only question I need to consider is if it's not really causing any problems, should I spend any further money on trying to investigate/fix it. I don't have a lot of spare cash so will need to have a think about it. I might try to see if I can get anyone to try and pump it out, but I'm not hopeful after speaking to the drainage guys about that.