Anyone knowledgable about buildings insurance?

[CountessFrog]

We have what I suspect is a leak behind the tiles in our bathroom. I’m going to get somebody out to have a look, but I think it’s possibly soaked the plasterboard stud wall and the whole lot will have to come off. We have some spare tiles in the attic, but not enough to cover this area, in which case I’m thinking the whole bathroom would have to be retiled.

I suspect it’s tracking down into the floor, so it needs sorting out.

I’m assuming this would come under buildings insurance? We have just switched insurance providers, I’m a bit worried that if I try to mage a claim, they’ll say the problem must have been there for a while and it predates the policy with them.

Would we have to get somebody out to remove the tiles and confirm the problem before speaking to them?

Thanks in advance

I'm afraid I would class this as wear and tear rather than an insured peril, so it probably wouldn't be covered under your policy anyway, although you should obviously read the policy wording to see exactly what it does cover you for.

If you had some slates dislodge from your roof as the nails securing them had rusted and you needed a builder to come and repair it before rain got in, that's standard maintenance which you should be doing anyway. If there was a storm and tree branches came down and tore slates from your roof, that would be covered by the insurance because storm damage is a covered peril. You can see there is a difference.

Unfortunately insurance isn't there to pay out for normal building maintenance, and I'm fairly sure that your leaking plumbing would be considered part and parcel of house ownership, sorry!

Thanks for the reply that’s helpful!

Check your policy to see if you have a section called Trace and Access. That’s designed to cover finding the source of a leak and repairing the damage afterwards.

Have you checked whether you can still buy the tiles?

Thanks - no I haven’t checked, but they are ten years old - I will look though.

Great advice again thank you.

Check what your policy excess is - you might find it isn't worth claiming anyway.

I've been dealing with insurance claims for over ten years (in an associated part of my job rather than as a claims handler) and I've never seen a bathroom leak behind tiles knocked back as wear and tear.

As a pp said - look for trace and access cover under your insurance policy. It doesn't cover the cost of actually fixing the leak but will cover the cost and repair of any damage you've had to cause in finding it (which most often happens in bathrooms).

Most household insurance policies will cover the trace and access costs but not the leak repair. The escape of water excess tends to be higher than the standard excess so do check this out.

Your insurer will normally cover you for damage resulting from an escape of water, however often the cost of investigation / trace and access is your responsibility . Furthermore your insurer is unlikely to cover the cost of retiling the entire area if matching tiles are no longer available. Sorry

I work in insurance.
Doesn't sound like wear and tear to me.
You say it's a leak and if you've just discovered it it will be covered on this policy.
Yes often you will have trace and access cover like above. This is the actual finding of the leak if you don't know where it's coming from.
And if you claim under escape of water then you can claim for the damage that the leak has done to your buildings, if you need to

Thank you.

So if we can’t replace the tiles and had to retile the whole bathroom, the insurance probably would t cover it? 🙈

Wouldnt

@CountessFrog

Thank you.

So if we can’t replace the tiles and had to retile the whole bathroom, the insurance probably would t cover it? 🙈

A lot of the time the insurance would just cover the damaged part, even if that means it doesn't match. But that will be in your policy wording somewhere

I would say not, look for the matching sets clause under general terms and exclusions of your policy

Ok, thanks for your advice everyone!