Bathroom suite + tiles damage replacement

TribbleTrouble

I fell in the bath last week and broke it; it's not repairable. It's also an odd colour that I've never seen elsewhere (it's old), with matching toilet and washbasin.

The bathroom fitter who just came said that when he takes the bath out, it will certainly take half the tiles off the wall with it, on three sides (it's a small room and the bath is wall to wall almost). Knowing the plaster in this old house more likely it will take the whole wall. So, the entire room needs taking back to brick, boarding and tiling.

Does anyone have experience with insurance for this? I haven't told them yet, because I don't want to end up paying more in premiums than the repair cost, but now I know it's going to be at least £6,000 it's a different matter.

My buildings and contents cover with PolicyExpert doesn't really say anything about replacing the tiles and matching sanitary parts, only that damage to sanitary fittings is included.

Aretnap

The first thing you need to check is whether your policy includes cover for accidental damage - with some policies this is an optional extra that you pay a bit extra for. Without it you're just covered for things like fire, flood, storm damage, subsidence.

Assuming you do have accidental damage cover, the next thing to check is whether you have matching set cover. More expensive/higher end policies often include this - and it means that if they can't find an exact match for the bath, they'll also pay to replace things like the toilet and the wash basin, so you still have a matching set.

A more basic policy unfortunately won't include matching set cover - so it will pay to replace the damaged items (the bath) and presumably other stuff which is an unavoidable part of the repair (like making good tiles and plaster that come away with the bath). However it won't replace the toilet and sink for purely aesthetic reasons - if you end up with a non-matching bath and sink that's just bad luck.

That's how it used to work anyway. In more recent years the Financial Ombudsman has tended to take the view that even if you don't have matching set cover, the insurer should still make a contribution of around 50% of the cost of replacing the undamaged items, should you want to do so. See here for more details. 

If you can't find mention of matching sets in your policy bok then it probably means that you don't have matching set cover - insurance policies are generally written so as to list the things that they do cover rather than the things that they don't cover.

Mr.Generous

I would imagine cover that provided a lovely new matching suite and new tiles including labour for damage to an old bath might encourage someone to "accidently" damage an ancient coloured suite. For that reason I would say it is highly unlikely any policy would offer this as standard.

In car insurance terms it would be like crashing your ford Escort that parts are no longer available for, and asking for a new Focus.

Aretnap

Mr.Generous said:

I would imagine cover that provided a lovely new matching suite and new tiles including labour for damage to an old bath might encourage someone to "accidently" damage an ancient coloured suite. For that reason I would say it is highly unlikely any policy would offer this as standard.

In car insurance terms it would be like crashing your ford Escort that parts are no longer available for, and asking for a new Focus.

Depends on what you mean by "as standard" I suppose, but it is a perfectly normal thing to include in premium versions of policies. Admiral for example include it in their "Platinum" home insurance, but not their basic or "Gold" options

https://www.admiral.com/home-insurance/buildings-insurance.php

While Direct Line include it in their "Home Insurance Plus" and "Select" offerings, just not their basic one

https://www.directline.com/home-cover?cmpid=43700005909927173/bphome/ppc/GOOGLE/direct+line+home+insurance/kwd-46894690/1006598/m&gclid=CjwKCAiA3aeqBhBzEiwAxFiOBmCLKH8HrGYC1F1xycpzN4vV7My_-iTlinYcc3I4MosKlBXezNhRFhoClloQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Your arguement could just as easily apply to any new for old cover - break your old bath, sofa or road bike and get a shiny new one as a replacement. However insurers continue to offer new for old cover as standard because (1) most people are honest and don't do this (2) they have anti-fraud measures to weed out many of those who do and (3) the risk that they will end up paying for a few fraudulent claims can be factored into the price like any other risk.