Water damage home insurance claim - not enough?

[ShesNotDead]

Hi there

I've never claimed home insurance before so I don't know how it works or if this is right.

A burst pipe basically took out our dining room. It destroyed the laminate floor, the wall is damp and needs replastering, the skirting boards were damaged, the electrical socket near the pipe is wet and the built in cupboard that was in front of the pipe was also destroyed as it had to be broken apart to reach the pipe.

Our insurance have only offered to pay out £2700 - this doesn't include drying costs. The laminate flooring runs all the way through the ground floor with no bar or barrier and the damp report from the water shows it's also gone under the kitchen floor tiles.

How do I challenge this? Given new flooring, labour costs, a cupboard, plastering and decorating, it seems very little?

Why not the full cover? How did they come up with that figure.

I'm not sure, I haven't seen the report yet. It feels insanely low, it destroyed the room.

I can only go on a leak pipe insurance claim I had. They didn’t pay to trace and fix but paid to put right all the damage, drying, new floor, even moving out for months due to the asbestos in the floor glue.
Check your policy otherwise this is a bit of a pointless what can I do

There's nothing in my policy that would explain such a crap amount. It's a £300 excess. There's cover for trace and access which £300 of this is for. So it's really £2400 to fix all that damage.

Have you had quotes for all of the work? What do they come to?

Is there a maximum amount under your policy they pay per water leak claim?

Get some written quotes - for everything, including the drying out, all the repairs and redecoration - and go back to them.

This is assuming you had enough cover in the first place.

We had a pipe leak and had to get 2 quotes. As long as that matched the value that their assessor placed on the repair they would pay out the lower quote.

Ours was in the region of £3500 and there was damage to kitchen, hall and living room walls. And kitchen floor.

Our boiler leaked into our downstairs living room. The insurance paid and sent all drying out equipment replastered walls in the room and the stairs wall. Laminate flooring replaced in 2 rooms due to seepage, electrics and all redecorated. Also accommodation due to asbestos in floor tiles glue for 3 months. We will never change from Churchill, they were brilliant. We also had new sofas and rugs due to them being sodden. This was 2 days after Christmas a few years ago. Luckily all presents had been taken upstairs.

I had a similar water issue. I got an independent quote (broken down for individual expenses) I read it to them over phone and it was enough for them to bump up from £600 payout to £1100. You need someone who can see what exactly needs done (things you wouldn't think about unless a plumber/joiner etc). They (insurance) have a range of prices and will base your payout at lower end. So challenge it. And ask them to meet you in middle if still a bit short. If you don't ask, you don't get. Good luck.

Get quotes for the repairs. Two of them, comprehensive ones. Present those to the insurers and ask which one they'd prefer you go with. Them offering you a sum is ridiculous, you need a price for the works first.

We had a leak that brought down the dining room ceiling and leaked sideways into my daughters bedroom and wrecked her flooring. We got nearly £6000 but we had the assessor round and he said to get quotes and he agreed them once he had them all. We got new ceilings and walls plastered in the dining room and new flooring in the bathroom, my daughters bedroom and the dining room. We also had the kitchen ceiling painted as it seaped along the joists.

A relative had a water leak from a pipe, her whole bungalow needed redoing. The insurers even paid her electric bill as she had to move out, and the huge bits of equipment they used to dry it out cost a fortune to run. They paid her council tax when the council deemed her bungalow to be “habitable”, a 6 month lease on the flat she had to stay in, redecorating, new carpets, taxi fare and even a removal van to move her back in! I did have to be pushy to get it for her, but her claims handler told me what we were eligible for. The whole lot cost the insurers around 10k. They even let us choose a new flat within reason.

You usually have to get quotes for the work and then they give you a sum in the ball part of your quote average.

With these things their opening offer is always a rough guess to resolve it quickly. The more you can argue and provide further evidence, the more likely they are to take it more seriously and increase their offer. If you can make it easy for them to justify a higher offer then they're likely to give it