Home insurance claim

[Blaise123456]

Hi! I'm hoping to get an answer from someone in the insurance job. We recently had an escape of water and it's totalled our kitchen. We've given our quotes they've been accepted and insurance are with holding vat till completed. My question is could we move the kitchen to a different room and pay any extra or is that fraud? And our quoted builder is not able to do the job but has given us details of a different builder willing to honour price minus vat as he is not vat registered... Do I get the work done and then let insurance know I can't claim for vat and does that then settle the claim? Many thanks!!!

Technically fraud. Your insurance is to replace what you’ve lost, not remodel your house. Plus you could get the work done but 2 years down the line have another Leak your insurance will be questioning what the hell happened to the previous kitchen they’ve paid out for. You’ll end up in a mess with insurance if you do this.

Thanks for your reply! We were saving up to move our kitchen anyway and i just thought it seemed crazy to replace the kitchen like for like and then have to rip out a perfectly good kitchen to move it, but I don't want to be committing fraud. Any ideas on the whole changing builder thing? I've never claimed for anything so I'm not sure how it all works!

I'm not in the insurance business, but personally in your position I'd ask them! They might assess the cost of replacing your existing kitchen and agree to you paying for the extra work. They certainly wouldn't penalise you in any way for asking. As Ivy48 says, to do it on the sly could bring up problems in future.

I am in the insurance world, albeit not home insurance. Call them and ask, they may offer you a cash settlement to do what you want but no guarantees. Definitely don't do it without telling them

Reinstatement on commercial property can take place in any way that is suitable for the needs / wants of the business so long as it doesn't increase the overall cost of reinstatement. So yes, they'd be able to move their equipment around / relocate instead, etc, etc. Without reading your policy I won't know if this applied on your domestic policy, but I don't know why it shouldn't. Call them!

... I should have said, if there is any betterment, like you are suggesting, for a commercial insured, they'd just pay the extra themselves.

Thank you all, I just didn't want to phone them and have them reject my claim because they thought something was wrong. Any kitchen is better than the bare brickwork that is currently there. Equally it's now been over two months of all of us living with my parents and I don't want to make it any longer than it has to be 😂 does anyone think there would be a problem changing builders? As the builder I got a quote from is now fully booked 😬 this whole thing has been a complete nightmare!