Aviva Escape of Water excess

db3745

Compare the Market threw up Aviva as a good choice for my Buildings and Contents renewal, and I was ready to sign up till I saw an excess clause which alarmed me. I know escape of water has gone up across the board; my LV renewal which I'd rejected included an increase to that excess from £350 to £500. As I checked through the Aviva quote, however, I saw that in addition to the £250 voluntary excess I'd ticked for Buildings there was a further £500 excess for an escape of water, and that was clearly on top of the voluntary, making £750.

I'm not even certain what escape of water is covered by policies generally, as my current LV one tells me water leaks are covered, but when I called with my first claim in over 20 years over a leaking pipe causing damage to the ceiling below, I was told the plumbing repair wouldn't be covered, but I could claim for re-plastering the ceiling. So on the one hand I'm thinking £750 is very high, but on the other hand thinking I don't really know what sort of problem I could claim for under that heading?

Aretnap

db3745 said:

I'm not even certain what escape of water is covered by policies generally, as my current LV one tells me water leaks are covered, but when I called with my first claim in over 20 years over a leaking pipe causing damage to the ceiling below, I was told the plumbing repair wouldn't be covered, but I could claim for re-plastering the ceiling. So on the one hand I'm thinking £750 is very high, but on the other hand thinking I don't really know what sort of problem I could claim for under that heading?

Generally speaking damage caused by long term wear and tear (eg long term degredation of the water pipe) isn't covered by home insurance. However damage caused by the escape of water itself (eg the knackered plaster in the ceiling, and the carpet below etc if it was a big leak) is covered. Which is why you could claim for the ceiling, but not the replacement pipe.

If the pipe has been damaged at the result of a one off incident, rather than by wear and tear (eg you'd drilled a hole in the wing part of the wall), you could claim for the pipe as well under the accidental damage section of the policy.

Another thing to check is whether the policy includes trace and access cover, which covers the cost of smashing your house to pieces to find a leak, then putting it back together afterwards. It still doesn't cover the replacement of the old pipe itself, though this is often trivial compared to the cost of getting to it.