Home Insurance Claim

CHandAP

Hi,

We are currently debating or not whether to put a claim in on our house insurance from a leak we have had. It has damaged the flooring and floorboards in the bathroom, ceiling, flooring and light fitting in the kitchen below where the leak occurred. We are in the process of getting quotes for the repairs of the damaged areas. 

We are wondering if any plumbing works which would need to be undertaken should be included within the quotes which we submit to the insurance, if we were to go through the insurance. (I.e toilet, sink etc to be removed to allow floorboards and flooring to be re-laid and then reinstated). Would the insurance cover this, or are we being too "greedy" if we were to include this price? 

Any thoughts/opinions are much appreciated, we have no idea what would, and wouldn't be good to get a price for.

Thanks  

DullGreyGuy

CHandAP said:

We are currently debating or not whether to put a claim in on our house insurance from a leak we have had. It has damaged the flooring and floorboards in the bathroom, ceiling, flooring and light fitting in the kitchen below where the leak occurred. We are in the process of getting quotes for the repairs of the damaged areas. 

We are wondering if any plumbing works which would need to be undertaken should be included within the quotes which we submit to the insurance, if we were to go through the insurance. (I.e toilet, sink etc to be removed to allow floorboards and flooring to be re-laid and then reinstated). Would the insurance cover this, or are we being too "greedy" if we were to include this price? 

Any thoughts/opinions are much appreciated, we have no idea what would, and wouldn't be good to get a price for.

So this "leak" is coming from pipes? Failed sealant? A hole in the roof?

Does your Home insurance include "trace and access" or not?
Does it have Matching Set cover or not?

Making a lot of assumptions here but... assuming it is a leaking pipe and you dont have either trace and access or matching set cover then you are responsible for the cost of finding/fixing the leak and any reinstatement work for the repair.

Your insurer would be responsible for repairing the damage the leak itself caused which may include having to remove/refit items if the repairs cannot be done with them in place. Note that with the absence of matching set cover they are only responsible for items that were damaged so, for example, if its a tiled floor then only the tiles damaged get replaced and not the undamaged ones. If however a suitable match cannot be found you can insist that they make a 50% contribution to replacing the undamaged ones in most circumstances

CHandAP

DullGreyGuy said:

CHandAP said:

We are currently debating or not whether to put a claim in on our house insurance from a leak we have had. It has damaged the flooring and floorboards in the bathroom, ceiling, flooring and light fitting in the kitchen below where the leak occurred. We are in the process of getting quotes for the repairs of the damaged areas. 

We are wondering if any plumbing works which would need to be undertaken should be included within the quotes which we submit to the insurance, if we were to go through the insurance. (I.e toilet, sink etc to be removed to allow floorboards and flooring to be re-laid and then reinstated). Would the insurance cover this, or are we being too "greedy" if we were to include this price? 

Any thoughts/opinions are much appreciated, we have no idea what would, and wouldn't be good to get a price for.

So this "leak" is coming from pipes? Failed sealant? A hole in the roof?

Does your Home insurance include "trace and access" or not?
Does it have Matching Set cover or not?

Making a lot of assumptions here but... assuming it is a leaking pipe and you dont have either trace and access or matching set cover then you are responsible for the cost of finding/fixing the leak and any reinstatement work for the repair.

Your insurer would be responsible for repairing the damage the leak itself caused which may include having to remove/refit items if the repairs cannot be done with them in place. Note that with the absence of matching set cover they are only responsible for items that were damaged so, for example, if its a tiled floor then only the tiles damaged get replaced and not the undamaged ones. If however a suitable match cannot be found you can insist that they make a 50% contribution to replacing the undamaged ones in most circumstances

Thank you for your swift response!

To answer your questions, the leak came from a failed heating pipe between the first floor bathroom and ground floor kitchen. We have trace and access cover, and I do believe we have matching set cover also. We have already been told that the works to fix the leak won't be covered, but the trace and access will. (Waiting for the invoice to come through but the repair would likely be the smaller of the 2 sums anyway).

Looks like the floorboards in the bathroom are water damaged so they'll all have to come up anyway, and the flooring within the bathroom is also damaged so would need replacing, so I'd assume that matching set cover wouldn't apply as the lot is damaged so would need replacing. 

However, the main question we had about the plumbing works you have given us some solid advice so I'll definitely look to include that within the quotes for the repairs.

Thanks for the help, have a great rest of your day!

DullGreyGuy

Yes, have seen some fairly silly looking claims for £100,000 of water damage which is then settled less the £75 it cost to fix the pipe or a £150k sport car settled less the 50p for the faulty fuse that caused the fire that wrote the car off. 

Some loss adjustors are really helpful and will point out there are things you could claim for that you haven't listed, others will just take what you give and base their assessment on that rather than telling you that you could also have claimed for X. Contrary to popular belief most 3rd party loss adjustors are paid based on the total cost of the claim so actually its in their interest for it to be higher than lower (unless they can repudiate the claim in which case they get half the fee but a lot less work)