Having to make a second claim on Insurance!!

Irishcrx

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice, about 2-3 years ago I had a leak burst through my ceiling in the sitting room from the upstairs bathroom which destroyed the ceiling as well as the flooring downstairs. I had to claim on the insurance for the repairs which was fine. I had the leak repaired , the ceiling repaired and the flooring replaced.

3 years on and the exact same thing is after happening again, in almost exactly the same place. Once again the ceiling has come through and the damage has re-occured. I am now thinking that the problem is with the bathroom itself or with the pipework under the bath being faulty and that I may need to have the whole lot replaced. After this second leak I am also worried about the stability of that ceiling as a whole as I am unsure as to how long it has been under water duress between the two leaks. Is my insurance company even going to cover this a second time? I have full cover.

Thanks!

ravima

are you quite sure you had the leak repaired or was it just the damaged ceiling that was replaced? did you have a plumber as well as a decorator?

your insurer will probably still pay for the damage caused, but not to repair the damaged bath.

Irishcrx

Yeah I had a plumber in to replace the damaged pipework and install a brace on the bath and make sure it was secure. I then had the ceiling and flooring repaired by a seperate company...

Insurance Works

You should be still covered in this case, if the leak came from the exact same location as what the plumber had fixed then your insurance company may decide to pursue the plumber.
However if it has come from a different fitting (even if it is on the same pipe) then even though you already had a claim the insurance policy will most likely have to cover the damage. The one thing to bear in mind is that the insurers are not going to be happy with this scenario and may decide to do their utmost to challenge this claim so it may be worthwile to obtain specialist advice on this matter as it could get somewhat complicated and it is important to be able to compare what was claimed for first time round Vs. what work was carried out Vs. what is now damaged. There could be subtle differences here that will have an impact on the claim.

Hope this helps !!

greenet

I have had dealings with insurance companies and I find that if there is anything not straight forward involved you are better off getting someone who knows exactly what you are entitled too and the lingo! I got in a loss assessor who was a great help, even if it is just to get advice initially. I can pass on their details if you are interested.

menance

I found a great company that deal with claims and repairs, I can PM you their details if you like.
We had huge damage due to frost last winter and we decided to manage the claim ourselves, bad mistake, I though I would be fair on the insurance company so offered to do labour myself for free so only included for materials then they slashed the value of the materials and said the property was overvalued by 25%... ended up offering us a miserable €600. At this stage I refused the offered settlement and decided to get professional help.
I also omitted a lot of damage that wasn't apparent until I had a professional check it out..
I am now due to get the full value of the repairs and have the repairs done professionally thanks to the help of this company..their service is free aswell when they carry out the repairs.