Tesco Home Insurance Claim (or lack thereof)

newsgroup_monkey

Okies, a bit of history first.

We currently live in a rented house. The landlord pays the buildings insurance and we have contents insurance. A few weeks ago, whilst on holiday, the roof leaked. The whole room was damaged including the bed, furniture, carpets and ceiling. The landlord has done his part of the bargain by repairing the carpet, roof and decorating however we had to claim on our own insurance for the furniture.

This is where the fun starts with Tesco. When we called up, we explained the situation, that we did not own the house and we did not have buildings insurance. No problem there. We then explained that we would probably need to replace all of the furniture. This is where the fun begins.

Firstly, they pointed out that we did not have accidental damage cover (surprising, because I have always had this in the past). And because the roof failed, they won't pay out. They say it's an accident. Why? Because it isn't covered by one of these

Loss/damage from fire, theft, storm, flood, burst pipes, vandalism, subsidence

How daft is that? To me, accidental damage is dropping a tin of paint on a carpet or kicking a football through a window. Something that was clearly an accident, but avoidable. Silly thing is, if there was electrical equipment damaged, they would pay for that because it's included.

Possibly the worst thing is that the roof was under warranty and was immediately repaired. Of course, all they are responsible for is the repair of the roof. Unless we could prove that they were negligent in the way the roof went on (which I don't think we probably can - it was just one of those things).

So the big question is "Why Should We Be Out Of Pocket?". It's not our house and it wasn't our fault!

In real terms, we are only £250 out of pocket because we have replaced the absolute minimum we can live with. Ultimately though, we have water-damaged furniture which is slightly bowed and imperfect. The total claim we were trying to make was around £600.

Before anyone considers asking us to sue our landlord, even if we could definitely win, it's not an option. We are on a yearly lease and they could easily put the rent up (to get their money back) or even worse, cancel our lease (we all have a 3 month get-out agreement from August). We do like our house.

raskazz

The 'accidental damage' question is irrelevant really as accidental damage was not the cause of the loss. More accurately, the cause of the loss was apparently lack of maintenance on the part of your landlord or faulty workmanship/design/materials if the roof was recently installed or worked on.

This type of water leak is not covered under any household policy. So regardless of whether you included accidental damage cover, it falls outside the scope of the policy cover. If you check your policy booklet it will probably contain a 'general exclusions' section which will exclude any loss/damage from such causes.

The only way in which you can recover the costs of the damage is to find a negligent party to sue - i.e. your landlord or the company who installed/worked on the roof. This is the type of situation where insurance would only be involved if you had included legal expenses cover in your policy.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Raskazz is correct and this claim would not be covered even if you had accidental damage.

Accidental Damage can also be defined as "damage caused by a sudden, external source that was unintended" and this tends to be the definition that the Ombudsman follows.

The damage was certainly unintended and on the basis that as a tenant you cannot be expected to inspect the flat roof or maintain it, the damage was both sudden (unforseen) and external (out of your control).

The problem you have is that all Accidental Damage covers exclude Defective Workmanship. On the basis that the roof was of recent installation and required repair, the roofing contractor would be the one responsible for the damage.

I suggest you speak to Tesco again and see if you have legal cover. Then speak to your landlord and ask him for the details of the roofing contractor, but make it clear to them that it is your intention to claim off their public liability insurance for the replacement of your damaged goods (if he is a friend of the landlord, you may want to change your mind about making the claim and come up with another excuse such as "oh my mum/friend/work colleague needs a roofing contractor and I was going to give them his details").

Remember, the law only allows you to claim indemnity (old for old) rather than reinstatement (new for old), so if you are claiming for a 5 year old sofa, all you are entitled to from the roofer is the value of a 5 year old sofa rather than a brand new one.

sillyvixen

does this not come under landlords insurance - after all the damage to your property was caused by his/her roof!!

newsgroup_monkey

Thanks for the info guys. Well written and factual, so I appreciate that.

I can't phone Tesco at the moment, but will try later on and find out if I've got legal cover (funny enough, except for accidental damage, I appear to have most other options).

It's not under the landlords insurance because they have buildings cover only.