We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Home Insurance Claim
Options

WorldCitizen
Posts: 120 Forumite

This is my first insurance claim. I do not know how it works.
I have all ceilings in my flat affected/damaged after the water escape from the neighbours upstairs, where they had a tradesperson, who did a new bathroom and damaged the water mains pipe.
Neighbour gave me the tradesperson's insurance details, which I passed to my insurance company when I made a claim.
I have the building insurance only. I understood the risk of not having content insurance.
1. But interesting - do I have rights to ask for my mattress to be covered by tradesperson public liability insurance?
2. Now I am at the negotiation phase with the insurer. They say if I want I can obtain the quotes from local tradespeople. I contacted some of them, asking for a quote only not for work as we think to do the work by ourselves. But several tradespeople say that this is insurance fraud.
Now I am confused. I will call to insurance company on Monday to clarify if I obliged to do works by tradespeople only. Can you advise how insurance claim works.
I have all ceilings in my flat affected/damaged after the water escape from the neighbours upstairs, where they had a tradesperson, who did a new bathroom and damaged the water mains pipe.
Neighbour gave me the tradesperson's insurance details, which I passed to my insurance company when I made a claim.
I have the building insurance only. I understood the risk of not having content insurance.
1. But interesting - do I have rights to ask for my mattress to be covered by tradesperson public liability insurance?
2. Now I am at the negotiation phase with the insurer. They say if I want I can obtain the quotes from local tradespeople. I contacted some of them, asking for a quote only not for work as we think to do the work by ourselves. But several tradespeople say that this is insurance fraud.
Now I am confused. I will call to insurance company on Monday to clarify if I obliged to do works by tradespeople only. Can you advise how insurance claim works.
0
Comments
-
WorldCitizen said:1. But interesting - do I have rights to ask for my mattress to be covered by tradesperson public liability insurance?WorldCitizen said:2. Now I am at the negotiation phase with the insurer. They say if I want I can obtain the quotes from local tradespeople. I contacted some of them, asking for a quote only not for work as we think to do the work by ourselves. But several tradespeople say that this is insurance fraud.
Now I am confused. I will call to insurance company on Monday to clarify if I obliged to do works by tradespeople only. Can you advise how insurance claim works.
Whether the insurer will agree to what you're asking for is a different question. There are several ways that an insurer could settle the claim, and the policy will generally give the insurer the right to choose which one to use.
The options would include
(1) The insurer arranges for a contractor of their own to do the work and pays them directly
(2) You find the contractor but the insurer pays them for work they've actually done
(3) a "cash in lieu of repairs" settlement where the insurer just pays you the money that the repairs would cost, and it's up to you whether you use the money to pay a tradesman, do the repairs yourself, or perhaps not do the repairs at all, live with the damage and spend the money on a holiday instead.
So you can certainly ask the insurer to use option 3, but you can't really insist on it.1 -
WorldCitizen said:This is my first insurance claim. I do not know how it works.
I have all ceilings in my flat affected/damaged after the water escape from the neighbours upstairs, where they had a tradesperson, who did a new bathroom and damaged the water mains pipe.
Neighbour gave me the tradesperson's insurance details, which I passed to my insurance company when I made a claim.
I have the building insurance only. I understood the risk of not having content insurance.
1. But interesting - do I have rights to ask for my mattress to be covered by tradesperson public liability insurance?
2. Now I am at the negotiation phase with the insurer. They say if I want I can obtain the quotes from local tradespeople. I contacted some of them, asking for a quote only not for work as we think to do the work by ourselves. But several tradespeople say that this is insurance fraud.
Now I am confused. I will call to insurance company on Monday to clarify if I obliged to do works by tradespeople only. Can you advise how insurance claim works.
2) You can ask for a cash in lieu settlement, though you should tell the trades that is what you intend to do as no one is going to waste their time preparing a quote for which they have no chance of winning the job on. Expect a CiL payment to be made net of VAT if the quotes show VAT is payable.
Presumably you are in Scotland? Buildings insurance isnt normally held by flat owners elsewhere in the uK1 -
Thanks for your answers.
Yes, I am in Scotland.
Usually the qoutes are free, but I told the trades that I need the estimate only for insurance purposes and asked for the price doing this.0
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.8K Banking & Borrowing
- 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.4K Spending & Discounts
- 243.7K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.8K Life & Family
- 257K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards