Worried sick , re home insurance

[Upsidedownroundandround]

Posting here for traffic as no luck on property
So to cut a long story short , renewed home insurance July this year as premiums on previous we too high. We have since now got a pipe leaking through our kitchen ceiling so have contacted home insurance as it's becoming quite distressing. They have sent emergency people out who have tested the ceiling to see if it's safe to take down to find this leak.
Any way to cut a long story short have been contacted by insurance to say we didn't declare previous claim from last year !? We had asked advice about our porch as a neighbour noted the glass had slipped and looked like we had movement in the porch as there was cracking (only lived here 3 years ) so insurance sent a surveyor out and resulted in them saying no claim will be made as it's clearly an old issue and why would we want to claim ? ( We just wanted to know if it was something we were covered for as panicked out porch was going to fall down ) Now I'm worried sick they will cancel this policy and we are left with an ongoing leak. I have explained I genuinely didn't think that it was a claim as they hadn't actually done anything about it ? And said they weren't going to ? Advice please 🥺

I don't think I can afford an emergency plumber , we are hoping home serve will come back to us Monday , their engineer saw the situation when he came last monday I've already spent 340 to reseal the shower tray which was a wrong error on home serves end , despite me saying our plumber was adamant it wasn't the seal of the tray , I'm just at a loss with it all and just don't know where to turn anymore

I agree with this. Get Homserv back as they haven't done the job properly. Or they need to explain to you, clearly, why it's no longer their responsibility despite coming out previously.

But you do need a plumber asap before the whole ceiling collapses.

On the insurance front, if you’ve got a letter from your previous insurer saying it’s not a claim, then you can share that with your new insurer and say you answered their questions in good faith.

Firstly, it would never occur to me to contact the insurance for a leaking pipe. I would think this is part of property maintenance and up to you to deal with. However, I may be wrong, and if I am and it is a normal insurance thing to claim for then you are within your right to escalate it to their complaints team and explain exactly what you have explained here and they will give you a decision so you know where you stand. I was rejected a claim by my insurance earlier this year and went through the same process and it was granted immediately through the complaints department who apologised profusely and even gave me a hundred pounds in compensation for declining the claim initially.

You are getting yourself worked up, it’s a stressful situation but it’s ok. Call homeserve again and tell them that the you have constant dripping through your ceiling and the last fix didn’t help. It’s already been several days and you can’t leave this until Monday. If they won’t come out you will have to borrow from a friend or use Christmas money to get an urgent plumber otherwise it will cost you more money the longer it is doing damage.

Re insurance I had similar where I asked a question and they started a claim. I had to go back to the previous insurer to ask them to close the claim and then all was fine. Is that what they’ve told you to do?

Home serve are coming back as soon as report on asbestos comes back clear

how much water are we talking? A drip?

If you turn the water off at the mains stop cock does the water stop dripping ?

We had this a few years ago

• take photos of the leak, showing in as much detail as possible both the leak and any surrounding damage it has done.
• get a plumber to repair the leak and take photographs of the repairs in stages. Pay the plumber and keep all the receipts.
• get a plasterer/painter to come and repair any damaged plaster work and paint, and take photographs of their work. Pay the person and keep the receipts.
• submit photos of all the damage and repairs to the insurance, along with the receipts and they should pay everything back to you minus the excess on the insurance premium.

They've written to previous insurers to ask what this claim was so no idea what's going to happen , I wish I'd never called them now I just panicked

I rang to check if it was worth claiming for a smashed iPad versus the cost of a replacement screen and it wasn't so I left it there. This was recorded on my file and potentially affected my premium.

So no I don't think you're stupid at all. I would never have even called them had I realised. I thought you just had to declare a 'claim' meaning you had received some payment from them for a successful claim.

@Upsidedownroundandround as this ie all quite new to you it's understandable that you've maybe expected too much from home insurance. It will only ever pay out for damage that isn't related to lack of maintenance or damage not caused by wear and tear. If HomeServe is additional cover for home emergencies, that will in most cases just provide a temporary fix but not the permanent repair. It's never worth claiming for small amounts as the premium will then shoot up next time.

Hi OP

Can I check I've got this clear

You had an issue with cracks on the porch with previous insurer
You called them and they came out to check
They said that it was an old issue and (presumably from before the policy was issued) and you couldn't claim
You now have an issue with a leak
The new insurers are saying they won't cover it because you never declared the previous issue

Are the two issues related in any way? I.e. a pipe may have cracked because something has shifted? Or to the best of your knowledge are the two issues unrelated (because one is in the porch and one is in the kitchen for example).

I think the key detail here is

1. what the person who visited for the first issue actually said. Did they say it was likely to be subsidence (just not covered because it happened a long time ago) or did they say it was just settlement cracks to the porch for example.

1. What information did you declare around questions about cracks and subsidence on the current policy (this should be on a statement of fact or similar document). If you have answered incorrectly (e.g. there is a question that says is there signs of cracking and you said no, but there actually is) then they may be entitled to cancel the policy but usually only if they can prove that this was deliberately answered incorrectly, or if they can prove that they wouldn't have insured you if you'd told them the full detail.

If they dont think you were deliberately tryinf to commit fraud and would have insured you, but they would have excluded subsidence or applied a bigger excess etc, then they can't cancel the policy or decline the leak claim because its not related to the cracking.

You need to read the part of your policy that references insurance act, material facts, and deliberate and innocent misrepresentation. And make sure they are following their own stance set out in their wordings. Then, if you have mis represented the facts (which will depend on the answer to 1 and 2 above) you will need to be honest and explain why it was innocent (eg you were advised it was normal settlement and historic so didn't realise it was a material fact)

Their wordings are :
As part of their report they look at historical images of the property such as Google images. These images have been reviewed and Google images taken in 2016 clearly show the porch coming away from the main home. The surveyor attended your property also stated that's their are multiple historic mastic fills within the internal porch , indicating there has been issues over an extended period.

Can't you explain why you have attempted to claim for damage that occured before iu has a policy with us ?
(We moved there in 2021 )

Did you copy and paste that as it’s full of errata? If it’s you paraphrasing then fair enough but I would be dubious to enter into anything contractual if that’s their actual wording.

That was their wording yes

Thats worrying - ‘can’t you explain why’ / ‘stated that’s their are’?

Can you turn the water off at the mains to stop the leaking?

When did you notify them about the porch issue vs when you moved in? If you're asking about how you should respond, you say you moved in on x date, you noticed an issue around y date and you weren't sure if it was a serious or structural issue or not so after researching / monitoring / whatever you did within that time period, you considered it was prudent to notify insurers which you did on z date. You followed their advice ans didn't submit a formal claim and consider the matter closed

Exactly and that's what I have said and now it's with an underwriter , so I've no idea if he / she will think im some sort of criminal ,.which I'm not, but they have made me feel I am

We had water through kitchen ceiling from bathroom above.
Plumber for the water leak before it starts going anywhere else or near electrics.
We then decided to repair ceiling ourselves as our excess and any potential rise in premiums wasn't worth claiming.
We were told that the water leak wouldn't haven't been covered anyway only damage repair.

They won’t think you’re a criminal. Sounds like a very genuine error.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far, just called homeserve again they still haven't had the results back as of yet , I'm at a loss as to weather just see if I can find a plumber and pay on the credit card or wait home serve who said as soon as they get the results they will send 2 engineers out 🤔

If your ceiling is getting wetter and wetter it will be getting heavier. Might be cheaper in long term to get plumber out now to stop further damage