Which insurance would I claim from?

[ItsNiceItsDifferentItsUnusual]

We've had a pretty big leak in our shower, behind the wall, which has meant the shower has to be ripped and replaced. Big job, lots of new materials, cost about 2.5k.

Asked dh for home insurance details to see what, if anything, we're covered for. But he'd taken out a new policy a few weeks ago, with the old cover expiring last night and the new one starting today.

Leak discovered last week, but remedy work started today.

Are we covered for this? My instinct is that it should be covered by the old insurer, but will they pay out if we're no longer with them? I can't find anything definite online or in t&cs, though I may have missed something as I'm trying to sort this with two poorly children hanging off me.

Any advice appreciated!

Your old insurer would be the one to cover (if policy covers such issues) as it goes off date of incident but usually they need to be involved/notified before you start remedial work. I'd ring them asap

Thank you.

I was worried they'd need to be notified first. We're complete idiots - we've never claimed on HI before and to be honest totally forgot it was even there.

We couldn't claim in the same situation. All they would pay for was new floorboards which wasn't worth the excess.

Did you take photos of the damage before or during items being ripped out? If so that’ll help the insurers

Do you have trace and access cover, if so that’ll cover the fact you needed to trace the problem down and get it repaired

The insured peril will be escape of water

The issue will be coverage and lack of notification, and I expect you’ll struggle on this. You need to go to the insurer in place at the time of discovery, but be prepared for a bit of a situation where they may refer to t&c for notification timelines

Good luck

Thank you. Not sure about track and trace, although it doesn't ring a bell from what I've read.

I do have pics of the problem (water damage on wall) before I called the plumber, and a pic after he's ripped part of the shower off to show the water damage underneath - ie that it's necessary for it all to come out.

We were on hold for over 2 hours last night, got cut off, and when we called back it was only the overnight holding team. Dh will apparently be called by the claims team today.

Will report back!

Feel so incredibly cross with ourselves that we didn't call them straight away. We were so fixated on trying to sort it that it didn't even occur to us that this is exactly why you buy home insurance

You will also need to notify your new insurer that you have made a claim to ensure you have given them full information to quote terms on your new policy.

If it’s any comfort we had exactly the same issue. Insurers paid for taking out the shower and replacing the tray, replacement tiles ( or 50% contribution if we wanted the whole bathroom redone) plus all labour. They didn’t pay the cost of the leaking pipe as policy covered damage from escape of water. Whilst they were doing the work we replaced all of the hidden pipe work and shower valves ( which we obviously paid for) to ensure there was no recurrence. Flooring ( tiles) wasn’t damaged but they would have paid for this as well.

Thank you bouncy - crossing fingers we have a similar result.

And very good point about new insurers, thank you.