Wwyd? Hypothetically

[nowaydudde]

So this is a hypothetical question loosely based on genuine circumstances....

You buy a house, you take out buildings and contents on you new house.
A few years later you hire builders and they knock a supporting wall down(following correct procedures etc) creating a kitchen/diner
2 years later a significant water leak causes structural damage to one part of house and water damage to a number of rooms. This does not affect the kitchen/diner and it is in no way responsible.
Insurance claim starts, while reading up on what to do you discover that you should have spoke to insurance before starting any structural changes and your insurance is potentially voided.

Do you
A, say nothing pray the insurance doesn't find out.
B, confess to insurance company but risk losing payout which is expected to be 150k plus.

Are you still with the same insurance company that you were with when the building work was done? If you’ve changed insurers since then the work was pre existing

B. Say nothing for 2 reasons:

1. Insurers want you to tell them about building work at the time because they may increase your policy cost eg if your house is unsecure whilst the work is done because there's no lockable door anymore and for damage associated with the work at the time. If you had extra rooms added (usually bathroom and kitchen) that can also impact the policy price once work is done. They're not asking for the sort of scenario you're outlining, where the damage occurs years later. I'm not sure if they'd even cover damage at the time, though you'd hope so, as you should be using traders/companies with good third party liability insurance. Which brings me to point 2...

2. If you think the leak now is caused by substandard work by your builders two years ago, you could go after them. If you don't, I wouldn't tell the insurer.

Now, if they ask you if you've had any building work done recently you should tell the truth obviously because insurance fraud is a crime. But I think not telling them now, in the circs you've outlined, is reasonable.

Hope you get it all sorted at minimal cost and hassle to you.

Agree with pp totally and I've worked in home insurance claims. You had the work done professionally, it's a few years later and the work was unrelated to the 'incident' - so it's irrelevant in these circumstances.

I wouldn't say anything. I did tell our insurer when we were getting structural work done in the kitchen but they weren't bothered. With our old insurer I called once because a fascia board had blown off in a storm, he then went crazy that our house was in a bad state of repair at the start of the policy and referred it to underwriting. It's a safe, solid house so a loose fascia board is not a sign of poor state or repair. I was pretty offended! So it can be taken the wrong way. Don't lie about anything but don't volunteer anything unless asked. I have insurance qualifications myself but the state of some of the companies is awful. Good luck