Leak in roof - covered by home insurance...?

artyboy

The recent wet weather has caused (or possibly just exposed) a leak in part of our roof - it's in the area of a channel where the roof tiles change direction in a sort of L shape (it's a detached house that has an additional section jutting out at the back).

I've had a roofer come round and he's had a good look - his view is that this could be damage that's been building up over time, and just come to light because we've had so much rain - more normal rainfall probably wouldn't have made it far inside. There's no visible damage from outside, just a lot of sagging felt and bits of tile falling down inside the eaves, but without further investigation, the suggestion was that a big patch of roof tiles would need to be removed/replaced, along with remedial work to whatever is underneath. Scaffolding and the like - possibly a 5 figure job.

I've got what I thought was pretty comprehensive home insurance, but it does have an exclusion clause for wear and tear (which they say is standard for home insurance) - my concern is that they will say that although I've just found out and have got water stains on my walls, it's because of a roof that's basically worn out and needs replacing, so tough luck.

This would be the first time I'd ever claimed on a buildings policy, so if anyone has any experience with similar situations (I'll bet some of you have had leaky roofs this year!) then I'd appreciate thoughts on whether I'll have to suck this up, or if insurance should cover it...

mr_stripey

Not likely to be covered by insurance I think. Will come down to wear and tear.

Had a leaky roof in my old house (which we didn't know about until we stripped the bathroom to replace and found ingress behind the tiles etc) - wasn't covered by insurance.

Find a decent roofer and get it repaired asap! 

Mark_d

The remedial work, for damage caused beneath the roof, may be covered so it's worth asking about that.  But regular maintenance/repair of your roof will likely be down to you

DullGreyGuy

artyboy said:

The recent wet weather has caused (or possibly just exposed) a leak in part of our roof - it's in the area of a channel where the roof tiles change direction in a sort of L shape (it's a detached house that has an additional section jutting out at the back).

I've had a roofer come round and he's had a good look - his view is that this could be damage that's been building up over time, and just come to light because we've had so much rain - more normal rainfall probably wouldn't have made it far inside. There's no visible damage from outside, just a lot of sagging felt and bits of tile falling down inside the eaves, but without further investigation, the suggestion was that a big patch of roof tiles would need to be removed/replaced, along with remedial work to whatever is underneath. Scaffolding and the like - possibly a 5 figure job.

I've got what I thought was pretty comprehensive home insurance, but it does have an exclusion clause for wear and tear (which they say is standard for home insurance) - my concern is that they will say that although I've just found out and have got water stains on my walls, it's because of a roof that's basically worn out and needs replacing, so tough luck.

This would be the first time I'd ever claimed on a buildings policy, so if anyone has any experience with similar situations (I'll bet some of you have had leaky roofs this year!) then I'd appreciate thoughts on whether I'll have to suck this up, or if insurance should cover it...

Home insurance covers, with the exception of Subsidence, "events". A pipe bursts, a storm rips the roof off, you trip and pull the TV off the wall. Home insurance is not a maintenance contract, thats down to you and part of the joys of home ownership. 

Insurance tends to also exclude 2 things - 1) wear and tear, as mentioned its not a maintenance contract and 2) things that happen gradually over time - these are effectively wear and tear. 

The fact that the roofer says there is rot will point to it not being a recent storm thats ripped off some tiles etc and therefore highly likely to be excluded. Even if you could point to a specific bad weather day a few months ago when it may have happened it must meet the policy definition of a storm which isn't just "bad weather" 

artyboy

Of course the problem is they get you all ways - even if the claim is rejected, the fact you have made one has to be declared in future and makes the insurance more expensive! I guess I'm trying to work out if it's even worth asking them... a few hundred quid of internal remediation work versus 10 grand on the roof itself...

user1977

artyboy said:

Of course the problem is they get you all ways - even if the claim is rejected, the fact you have made one has to be declared in future and makes the insurance more expensive! I guess I'm trying to work out if it's even worth asking them... a few hundred quid of internal remediation work versus 10 grand on the roof itself...

You don't need to ask them (and no particular reason why you ought to trust their answer if you did ask them!) - you read the policy to find out what it covers.

DullGreyGuy

artyboy said:

Of course the problem is they get you all ways - even if the claim is rejected, the fact you have made one has to be declared in future and makes the insurance more expensive! I guess I'm trying to work out if it's even worth asking them... a few hundred quid of internal remediation work versus 10 grand on the roof itself...

In principle it has to be declared if you claim or not as insurers ask about "incidents" but it's clearly easier to "forget" about declaring it if it's not in any insurance system anywhere. 

It's highly likely from what you say it will be declined out of hand. If you complained they may send someone round to check it for themselves but wouldn't be holding breath for a different outcome. 

ButterCheese

We've had this same issue; and as above, no it isn't covered by insurance. 

It will certainly be a 4 figure number; we had a friend of a friend who gave us mates rates for ours and it was still a grand.  That was replacing 18 broken tiles and laying new felt on a flat roof - 2 men 8 hours work, plus materials.  If there is underlying damage or wear underneath (e.g. felt and/or batons need replacing) it might well cost up to £3.5k.  Make sure you get someone reputable, there are a lot of rogue roofers out there

artyboy

ButterCheese said:

We've had this same issue; and as above, no it isn't covered by insurance. 

It will certainly be a 4 figure number; we had a friend of a friend who gave us mates rates for ours and it was still a grand.  That was replacing 18 broken tiles and laying new felt on a flat roof - 2 men 8 hours work, plus materials.  If there is underlying damage or wear underneath (e.g. felt and/or batons need replacing) it might well cost up to £3.5k.  Make sure you get someone reputable, there are a lot of rogue roofers out there

Thanks, I'm getting the message here... the guy that came round is reputable, came recommended from others that have used him and (bless him) he didn't even want to take any money for the hour he had spent poking around. I don't think he even really wants the job, so I guess it's possible he was pricing himself out, but based on the area he was highlighting, it could be over 100 tiles. So scaling up from where you were, 10k might not even be that much.

Ugh...

Lorian

Maybe post photos in the home/DIY sections if you want some opinions