Insurance question/ affect on cost of premium (re hidden leak under bathroom floor)hroom.

[shadypines]

DH noticed some mould in downstairs room about a month which turned out to be damp patch getting slowly bigger. Few days ago gently pressed the area and put his hand through the ceiling! Pull away some of the plasterboard to reveal a slow drip off one of the copper pipes.

Now wondering whether to get a plumber for pipe work and tackle the ceiling repairs ourselves or claim on the insurance and get the whole thing done through them? Never claimed on insurance before and wondering how much it puts up the premiums? Grateful for any advice.

As fair as can tell it looks like a fairly straightforward job to repair the leaking copper pipe (famous last words), whereas the ceiling repair will be quite big.

Call the insurance company. They can handle everything. They might be happy for you to call your plumber

Water loss often has a higher excess so I would check first that it is worth claiming anyway

We had similar a few years ago. Insurance (direct line I think) sad they would pay only to fix the leak. Nothing else. Not finding the leak or any damage caused while finding it. Given the cost of the plumber for the leak itself was only about £100 and we had £150 excess we just got it done ourselves.

I had the same experience as iwishiwasafish. Read your policy first as it is probably not worth claiming and just enquiring may put up your policy renewal quote next year.

very grateful for the quick replies, it's a mixed bag

Normally the insurance will cover the damage caused by a leaky pipe but not the pipe itself, so you'd need to check your policy wording first. It would be worth getting a couple of quotes for the work so you can work out whether it's worth claiming, as you'll have an excess to pay first, the amount may vary depending on how your insurance viewed the situation ie. Escape of water or accidental damage x

thank you, yes, it is about weighing it all up.

My insurance didn’t increase much at all but the excess for similar damage increased significantly - mine was a leak behind the kitchen sink so the whole tiled floor needed to be lifted up and replaced

my policy would consider this household maintenance and NOT cover any portion of it. i also have a very high deductible, and for most events am liable for the first 1K.
decades ago i had a huge flood in the basement (as did the entire community) and insurance companies (not just mine) wormed out of all "claims" and paid out a fraction of what people had hoped for SO lesson learned never again will i pay huge annual fees OR get coverage for more than fire and total loss.

Personally unless it looked like there was significant damage to the whole floor/ceiling I’d get someone in to fix the pipe and re plaster. Not worth the hassle of insurance.