There’s water appearing on the hallway ceiling. Possibly due to the recent rain. The house is 8 years old and supposedly still under guarantee. We’re the original owners.

1) Is it worth trying to claim on the NHBC insurance? Anyone tried this? I’m buggered if I can find the policy document. It says there’s a minimum claim value but gives no clue as to what sort of figure this might be.

2) How expensive is it likely to be? Seems like a builder would have to tear out half the interior to find it. Any ideas for DIY?

3) Is this the kind of thing you can claim on home insurance for? If the adverts are to be believed you can…. Any experiences?

Most household insurance policies will have cover for “escape of water” and its extended definition and this usually (unless you bought dirt cheap) will have a “trace and Access” extension which would pay of the investigative work & reparation.

I think the NHBC thing is just for building defects so you would need to ascertain the root cause first. It is entirely possible that if you were to claim under your policy and the investigation showed it was a building defect then your insurer could go back to the NHBC to get their outlay back.

Home insurance I would say.

For NHBC, it really is only major building issues or violations of building control etc. Could be wrong, but it’s not a substitute for home insurance that would cover leaks etc

After 8 years and a leak appears I think it would be classed as wear and tear rather than shoddy building.

Pretty hard to say how much it would cost without seeing the issue or house structure

Ah.. she says she’s found the leak – it’s the toilet upstairs.

Change the ecu on the toilet and you’ll be sorted…. 😉

Excrement control unit?

I’ll call around for a cheap mobile plumber, that’s bound to be better than taking the house to the main plumber.

mobile plumber you say 😯 never seen a static one

That was a joke reference to my earlier car problems. I obviously can’t take my house anywhere 🙂