Insurance (or other options) after botched bathroom renovation

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I've just moved into a rental property. Bathroom was apparently renovated 9 months ago - but it's a botched job. Water is getting under the bath at at least 3 points (badly-installed shower screen, plus 2 seams/joins in the shower panels), and causing water damage (minor so far) to the ceiling below).  
The necessary fix is to pull out bath & panels, then re-fit, re-seal to a higher standard. Estimate at roughly 3,000. 
Landlord (no agent) is rightly surprised/frustrated - but lives remotely and isn't especially clear on how to manage going forward. It's in my interest to suggest any way she could mitigate cost of repair - but I'm new in the country and also not clear on the options.

Would insurance likely cover any of the work to re-fit the bath & shower panels, since that's necessary to address the leak caused by the dodgy work? Can she claim anything back from the guy who installed it?

Thanks

user1977

I can't see insurance being relevant unless it includes legal protection to help with a claim against the installer? But certainly sounds like there ought to be a claim. Hasn't the installer been contacted?

tacpot12

The landlord might have legal expenses cover as part of a Landlord's insurnace policy. If they do, they will have a legal helpline they can call about suing the original installer.

FlorayG

HOW MUCH?!
I had an entire new bathroom for under £3,000 that can't be right
Landlord needs to contact the person who did the work and insist on it being rectified. It shouldn't cost anything at all if the work was faulty in the first place

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Not yet - landlord didn't know about the issue until a few days ago, and we didn't know the extent of it until today when we got a plumber in to quote. Landlord will do that next - but I'm not sure she has much idea what she can request/demand from them, or where to make a claim, etc. 

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FlorayG said:

HOW MUCH?!
I had an entire new bathroom for under £3,000 that can't be right
Landlord needs to contact the person who did the work and insist on it being rectified. It shouldn't cost anything at all if the work was faulty in the first place

Yeah he said 2.5-3. I've got another quote coming in, that may be lower. I don't know the scene myself, but other people locally who have had plumbing/bathroom stuff done recently have said it's very expensive here at the moment. If others have a sense for how much is a reasonable quote price, I'd be glad to hear that too.

DullGreyGuy

gravybot said:

Would insurance likely cover any of the work to re-fit the bath & shower panels, since that's necessary to address the leak caused by the dodgy work? Can she claim anything back from the guy who installed it?

Landlords/Home insurance explicitly excludes problems caused by defective design, workmanship or materials so no insurer will be paying for the rework directly. 

They may have a claim against the business that did the work but would need to check on what was discussed, agreed, stated would be done/has been done... Landlords aren't typically known for going for top quality jobs and have heard of some asking plumbers etc to do jobs against their recommendation to save money. 

If it looks like there is a claim to be made against the plumber then any Legal Expenses cover they may hold could step in to assist in the recovery but it needs to have a positive prospect of success/ be cost efficient etc for the insurer to do so. 

Obviously if the contractor has insurance they may decide to hand it over to their insurers to defend the case for them - though in my experience it rarely happens, not sure if that means they rarely have insurance or just dont want to have to admit a claim but its normally much bigger losses where they get involved.

gravybot

That's very helpful, thanks. Sounds like the best route is browbeating the installer about it, and making a claim against them if they don't sort it out (provided there's nothing problematic in the small print).