Anyone with experience with home insurance after claim?

JabbaTheHut

The heating pipes in the house are leaking under the concrete floors(nothing to do with the frost.They're made of gunbarrel metaland have come to the end of their life, it seems)

To do the job right, all the pipes will need replacing, which means a lot of the floor will need to be ripped up, replaced and so forth. Guesssing it'll be an expensive job.

We were thinking of claiming from the house insurance for this. Does anyone have any experience of this, in an instance like this, and what was the next renewal quote like after the claim?

oldyouth

If your pipes have come to the end of their life, you do not have cover to replace them under your policy. That is maintenance and a specific exclusion.

You do, however, have cover for the damage caused by the escape of water to other property in your house

JabbaTheHut

Ahhh. Ok. So some of the paint came off the walls, so that's covered, but taking up the carpets and floring will not, as they were not damaged by the leaks. Might not be worth our while claiming for just that alone.

oldyouth

Do you have timber or concrete floors? Have you established exactly where the leak is? I ask this because many policies have provision to compensate you for trace & access, even if the eventual repairs to the pipes are excluded for wear & tear.

JabbaTheHut

I don't have it pinpointed, but have a very good idea where it is. But as I said, it'd be best to replace the lot now, as this is the second leak that has happened in the last two years. I repaired the first, but now with this one, I'm reckoning that it will not be the last. All the floors are concrete, and it's the thought of having to chase them and break out the concrete that's depressing. If the insurance would cover it, I'd pay someone else to do it.

harr

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

I don't have it pinpointed, but have a very good idea where it is. But as I said, it'd be best to replace the lot now, as this is the second leak that has happened in the last two years. I repaired the first, but now with this one, I'm reckoning that it will not be the last. All the floors are concrete, and it's the thought of having to chase them and break out the concrete that's depressing. If the insurance would cover it, I'd pay someone else to do it.

another point to look at is if you claim they prob increase your premium next year and maybe for a few years down the road.we claimed in 2008 for a burst pipe upstairs there wasn't a huge amount of damage just needed a new carpet and some stuff in the attic got destroyed our claim was less then 2 grand i know that for sure.we are with the same company for the last 15 years and never had a claim up till then.last year our premium went up by 250 and the same this year and they have but a clause in our insurance that we now are not covered for any kind of water related claims be it from burst pipes or heating system or overflow and that was our first claim ever from any insurance company and when i rang around for new quotes nobody will even listen to you unless your 5 years claim free,so we are stuck with this crowd for another 2 year or so.just keep that in mind before you claim.