Home insurance underfloor leak

Low_battery86

Hello, I have never used insurance before but looks like the time has come. I have an insurance with Halifax including emergency cover. I have an underfloor leak somewhere downstairs. Would you know is track and trace covered? And does repair including new floors or tiles? Thanks for any advice. 

skycatcher

With my insurance they would not pay to fund the leek but did cover all the repair costs. They sent a loss adjuster who came up with a what needed to be done and he offered us a sum of money if we wanted to do it ourselves. Which we declined and let the insurance company deal with all the trades etc. The money we were offered worked out to be less than ½ what the final total was!

DullGreyGuy

Low_battery86 said:

Hello, I have never used insurance before but looks like the time has come. I have an insurance with Halifax including emergency cover. I have an underfloor leak somewhere downstairs. Would you know is track and trace covered? And does repair including new floors or tiles? Thanks for any advice. 

You need to read your policy book to see if track and trace is covered or not... Halifax do various levels of cover and its unlikely to be covered by the lower ones. 

You also need to check if you have Matching Set cover, if you don't then only damaged items are covered and undamaged items aren't when it comes to floor tiles. 

What damage has the leak itself caused? 

Low_battery86

Hi, thanks for the response. I have a top ultimate or whatever is called policy with them. I believe the leak is in the kitchen, floor tiles. But I moved the sofa in living room, just the other side of the wall and can see the solid wooden floor started to rotten. I have living room, spare room and hallway with same hardwood, all one piece. Can I expect them to fix the leak and replace all the floors? Or just the kitchen tiles? Heating is working for an hour and all water from the system is gone, must be some hole in a pipeline..

skycatcher

For me they replaced all the contiguous flooring even though only a small section was impacted. They also paid for the rooms to be repainted as the skirting boards had to be replaced.

DullGreyGuy

skycatcher said:

For me they replaced all the contiguous flooring even though only a small section was impacted. They also paid for the rooms to be repainted as the skirting boards had to be replaced.

If you have matching set then they have to replace the lot. If you don't have matching set then they don't however the Ombudsman would make them make a 50% contribution to the uninsured element if it has to be replaced too.

Continuous would have to be fully continuous, if there is a door sill breaking it up between rooms then the 50% contribution would be capped to only the room where the damage is even if the other rooms are matching. 


Looking at their Policy Expert Gold, which I assume is the top tier, it doesn't include matching set cover just the 50% contribution the Ombudsman requires. Unfortunately names for products tend to be relative to each other within a brand but mean nothing cross brands. Most Gold/Platinum/Black level covers will be significantly lower than than the entry level policy offered by Hiscox for example.