Building insurance and water ingress

Teddy4321

Hi all. I recently had a leak into my ground floor flat from the flat above. The cause was water getting behind some shower tiles and consequently not covered by my building insurance as the cause was deemed faulty grouting which is a specific exclusion. 
I have been looking to change my insurance so that I am covered for any repeat occurrence but cannot find a company or policy that will cover leaks due to faulty grout or sealant. Does anyone know of one please?
Many thanks in advance. 

user1977

I can understand a policy excluding your own faulty grouting, but are you sure it excludes upstairs' grouting?

Teddy4321

It does, yes. I have had discussions with the Halifax, Liverpool Victoria and Churchill so far and they're all the same.

DullGreyGuy

Are you in Scotland? 

Insurers cover one off events rather than, other than subsidence, the slow action of a problem over time hence they'll cover escape of water from a pipe that bursts but won't cover the gradual seeping of water from defective grout 

Teddy4321

Not in Scotland no. London.

DullGreyGuy

Teddy4321 said:

Not in Scotland no. London.

Then why isn't the freeholder buying block insurance? There are a host of problems with individual flats buying separate buildings insurance and means you should also be buying an indemnity policy should one of the other flats fail to buy insurance leaving you unable to proceed with damage repair because they cannot repair their unit.

Teddy4321

I am the freeholder  . I share it with the landlord of the upstairs flat. 
They do not have insurance that covers the damage caused to my flat. Unbeknownst to me, my insurance does not cover a leak with this cause, hence my question asking if anyone knew of an insurance company whose building insurance did cover sealant/grout failure.
You think an indemnity policy is the answer?

DullGreyGuy

Teddy4321 said:

I am the freeholder  . I share it with the landlord of the upstairs flat. 
They do not have insurance that covers the damage caused to my flat. Unbeknownst to me, my insurance does not cover a leak with this cause, hence my question asking if anyone knew of an insurance company whose building insurance did cover sealant/grout failure.
You think an indemnity policy is the answer?

So are you buying home buildings insurance for your dwelling only or block insurance for the whole property? What does the leases say about insurance?

In scotland, where leasehold doesn't exist, it's more common for each flat to buy its own buildings insurance traditionally (now factoring companies are getting more involved and they buy block insurance). This leads to a major problem... imagine the situation of a small 2 flat building with you downstairs and the other person upstairs. They have a significant fire which also destroys the roof. Luckily the fire didnt spread down to your flat but obviously with no roof left your getting a vast amount of water ingress each time it rains. 

It turns out they dont have home insurance and cannot afford to do any repairs to their part of the property so walk away. Your insurers confirm your covered but they cannot start repairing your ceilings until the roof has been repaired which isn't covered under your policy. This is where an indemnity policy would step in because the upstairs neighbour has failed to buy insurance or for some reason the insurance is invalid. 

Its rarely a problem in England because of the Leasehold system means the Freeholder has typically to insure the whole building so no risk of the roof not being insured or arguments on if the upper floor flats should contribute to the repair of the foundations or is that just the ground floor.

Insurers, nor indemnity providers, will cover gradual damage other than subsidence. 

Teddy4321

Thanks for that. The problem here though is that the building insurance, no matter who it was bought by, does not cover grout or sealant failure.
Does anyone know of an insurer who DOES cover these in the event of a leak?