Have you ever come home from holiday and opened you front door on disaster?

[longearedbat]

Or something unexpected? The only time it happened to me was when my electrics went off while I was away. I was hot and tired, it was early evening and I knew there was a cold tin of lager waiting for me in the fridge. Couldn't wait. However, I opened the front door to the most horrendous smell. I would say the freezer had been off for the nearly 2 weeks I had been away. I spent the rest of the evening disposing of rotten food and the pool of mouldering blood and gunk in the bottom of the freezer.
I always think of that (now very old) episode of 'One foot in the grave', where they come back to find their house had burnt down. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I see ours is still in one piece, and can't relax until we've had a good check round. (That might be just me though being a bit of a worrier).

@Spinnaret
@MulticolourMophead
@Cherrysoup

There's just no way I'd claim on insurance something worth £500 but I guess it depends on your circumstances. I just don't think it's worth it when the insurers are likely increase your quote for the next year. Did they do that to you? And I know if you start looking elsewhere you have to inform any insurer of claims made in previous years so as soon was you do that they'll increase the quote. In the long run you wont really have covered the £500 cost back I don't think.

I did just make a claim though, £15k worth. That was worth it but I'm dreading seeing what they want to charge next year!

My premium increased by all of £5 approx. Was worth it.

Last week I came home from Bali after 3 weeks to find the kitchen flooded. Judging by the kitchen door the water level had been quite high.
About 15 years ago came home to a totally flooded downstairs. The water tank in the loft had overflown, water had come down through the whole house destroying all carpets and laminate and the 3 piece suite. Massive insurance job. We had only been away 2 days that time.

It's a load of nonsense worrying about increasing your premium though! I made a £40k + claim for mine and it went up by about £70 the first year £30 the second year then back to normal. Still worth claiming for £500 food.

I dont think it is nonsense. I think if people didn't make small claims then the price we all pay would be reduced.

Meh. Just not something I'd claim for 🤷‍♀️

But what's the point of insurance if you don't use it? If I have to claim on insurance I am not concerned about other people's premiums - not my problem. @Horehound, are you seriously suggesting I should pay for things out of my own pocket so your premium isn't so high?
I have claimed for a freezer full of food (contents ins.) and for the electrician who fixed my buggered electrics (needed a lot replacing under buildings insurance after a lightening strike). I simply couldn't have afforded to pay for it myself.

To the people who came back to a flood from a burst boiler or a flood from a water tank

were you able to identify a cause? Was it old age failure (if so how old)?

Is there anything you could identify that would predict this or to look out for?

Not as horrific as most of these, but me and DH came back from our honeymoon to find everything in the flat moved around. And I mean everything, beds, furniture, pictures, tv, chairs rugs, photos, my make up, cupboards and drawers rearranged. Personal papers, mortgage etc thrown out.
It was my MIL.
I had handwashed some delicate jumpers and left them drying flat over the bath, she had put them in the machine and then tumble dried them.
There wasn't much she could change in the small bathroom so she repainted that including painting the tiles.
I collected Prince records and she moved them to a cupboard where the heating pipes were and turned the heat on and ruined them.

@BlackberryBeret Ours wasn’t the boiler it was the main water tank in the attic that held the water supply for the house. We had no idea there was anything wrong, it was just bad luck it happened whilst we were away for three weeks on honeymoon. Even if we’d been home we couldn’t have stopped it once it started, it was gallons and gallons of water and we would have had to be in the attic waiting for it to happen. It was an old lead lined tank.

Cat flea infested sheepskin rug - very very hungry fleas as cat was in a cattery

I went away for a fortnight, my housemate / landlord switched the power off to save money, didn't empty the fridge.

Literally an inch thick covering of blue-green hairy mold over the entire inside...

@Cocolapew

What?! Why did she do it? God, I would be seething. What did you say to her when you came home and saw what she'd done?

First time we left our lad by himself to go away her had a party. Came home to find antiques smashed or used as ash trays . Broken glass everywhere, dinning room door had been kicked in, some twat had tried to get my oak dining table through a door way and scuffed all down the sides. Vomit in my bed. Tumble dryer door had been snapped off the hinges and some idiot had smashed the paving slabs in the back garden.
Second , we have/had a holiday home. Got a phone call in March to say it had been broken into. The bastards took everything. Emptied the house , even took my clothes and tooth brush. Ended up staying in a hotel. The worse bit was the police telling us we were English so we can afford to replace it all 😡

Thanks @Alpacathebag

Wow, this thread is jaw-dropping!! I had been going to proudly contribute the giant spider (literally the size of a soup plate!) that was waiting for me behind the bathroom door after a couple of weeks in Cornwall. I didn't notice him until I was halfway through my wee. My family thought I must be being murdered by an intruder by my terrible scream! But he pales into insignificance after the rest of these stories.

The only other incident I can remember was coming home from a hike one Christmas time. It was a tradition we had to go on this looooong walk, of maybe 3 hours or so sometime between Christmas and New Year. Unfortunately it'd started totally pissing it down when we were half way round. We got utterly drenched and completely frozen. The only thing keeping us children going was our parents promising us hot baths and a cooked meal and a lovely cozy house to relax in all evening. We got home to find the boiler had died. No warm radiators, no hot water. Thank God we had a gas fire in the living room. We huddled round it wrapped in blankets, and toasted crumpets on it for tea. It was actually quite cozy and exciting in the end!

@Cocolapew that is the most horrific post on here. What did you say to her? Is she now under the patio? Are you still married?

So, so many questions.

Not as drastic as some but we had given dd a baby bath in the living room in front of the fire (pre having central heating) and we/she managed to tip the whole thing over the carpet as she got out.
We nipped as best as we could and thought nothing of it.

Got home to a big mouldy patch on the carpet. Which luckily vacuumed out.

Bought a carpet washer after that to deal.with spills

Came home to a gas leak the smell was horrendous and electric had also cut out very lucky indeed

Haha yes! Came home after a 10 day holiday to find the hamster had escaped, managed to get under the floorboards upstairs and chewed a massive hole in the floor so there was a huge crumbling hole in the dining room ceiling😤

The friend who was feeding the hamster while we were away had obviously not closed the cage securely even though she maintains she did! We didn’t catch the hamster for another few weeks after that- found it in the kitchen sink

I dont think it is nonsense. I think if people didn't make small claims then the price we all pay would be reduced.

Meh. Just not something I'd claim for

Right now I'm a single parent, and I don't have the spare cash that you clearly do, to be able to just write off the sums involved. I don't give a fuck about your premiums, but I will use the insurance that I've paid for, for the purpose for which it's intended.

If you're worried about premiums, concentrate on the fraudulant claims first.

Anna DH phoned MIL absolutely raging and said we were on the way up and I was fuming.
FIL opened the door to us and she was peeking around him laughing.
There was an almighty row but she has a hide like rhino and wasn't bothered. She tried the tears act but DH was wise to her. She seems to get some sort of perverse joy out of enraging people.
DH has had no contact with her for a few years, I stopped talking to her long ago .

I dont think it is nonsense. I think if people didn't make small claims then the price we all pay would be reduced.

People who need to claim do so, people who don't need to claim end up subsidising them, but take the risk in case they are the ones in need. That is what insurance is. Making an honest claim on your insurance policy, according to terms that were made clear to everyone before they bought it, is 100% fine. Jeez.

Cocolapew, send me her address, I want to go round there! I'm raging for you

I know it’s not in the spirit of the thread, but we got home one Christmas after reluctantly leaving our teenage son for a few days... to find that he’d cleaned the house from top to bottom.

Everybody wisely told us that he’d probably had the mother of all parties and had to strip the place down afterwards. Maybe. But it looked brilliant —for about a week—.

That wasn't wasn't even the worst thing she's done..