Contents Insurance Question

eliza2811

Hi,

I am just about to renew my contents insurance policy and came across the question: is the house in a good state of repair ?

I should explain that I am a tenant, the landlord is private, the house is over 100 yrs old and I've lived in the house since 2001. 

In the last year, we've had water come through the brickwork in the front room at ceiling level ruining the plasterwork/wall/coving. This is now sorted.  Water coming through the brickwork in my daughters bedroom causing the wallpaper to peel off and go black (mold?).  These issues will be sorted, I'm assured, from outside and inside by the landlord's builder when the weather gets better.

We've always damp in the kitchen and dining room but its drys out in summer.  The DPC was done years ago by the way in the kitchen and dining room areas.  Its mainly the chimney breast walls and an external wall.

None of these issues have ever caused us to claim on contents insurance. Its not MY house, so should i declare or not that the property is in a good state of repair. If I put its not in a good state of repair, I'm getting insane premiums for 3 different companies that i've never heard of!  Surely damp, etc is part of buildings cover ?

Any advice please ?  We've never had flood issues and aren't near any water thank goodness :-)

Alderbank

Damp which affects the fabric of the building (walls, timbers, etc.) is part of buildings cover.

Damp which affects your clothes, books, etc. is part of contents cover.

Insurance is predicated on honesty and acting in good faith. Your possessions are at much greater risk in a building that might collapse or the roof cave in than in a well maintained building. It's not a question of whose fault it is.
If the premiums are insane it is because the risk is high.

Mark_d

With water coming through, mould and damp in the kitchen/dining room it sounds like the house is not in a good state of repair.  If your front door was crumbling, can you see how things like this would put your contents at risk?

Ultimately if you don't answer the insurer's questions accurately then it might be considered fraud.  Maybe you'll be paying insurance premiums only for your claim to be denied if/when you do make a claim.

amanda1024

One thing you could do is ‘self-insure’ while you wait for the specific issues to be sorted, then you can go back to honestly saying the building is in a good state of repair and get standard contents insurance. I don’t know if the landlord has any liability if they’re aware of the issues but choosing to delay fixing them.

DullGreyGuy

amanda1024 said:

One thing you could do is ‘self-insure’ while you wait for the specific issues to be sorted, then you can go back to honestly saying the building is in a good state of repair and get standard contents insurance. 

Self insuring for Contents for the average household would mean putting £40,000 aside to cover your home burning down @amanda1024 and you being left with only the clothes on your back, I'm not sure the average person has that sort of excess cash to self insure.

It sounds like maybe you mean risk being uninsured for a period? There is a big difference between uninsured and self-insured, the later means you have the finances put aside explicitly to cover (large) claims