Along the eaves? of our roof where the tiles overlap at the edge there is a layer of concrete to seal the area which has started to crack and now fall out. last week we were hit by some pretty bad weather including hail, strong winds and hard rain fall. Which has made it worse.
Is this likely to be covered by our insurance?
The wife will phone them later today but i thought if i could gleam some information from you guys to be armed with we may have a better chance.
Can some one give me the technical name for the area im describing?
I think its a long shot, but you never know.
Thanks
Wouldn't have thought so as it was in bad / aged condition before the strong wind etc. Insurance wouldn't replace windows etc when they wear out and need changing.
Its not a particularly big job to remove the ridge tiles and reset them, depending on the size for your roof etc.
If its along the top of the roof - Ridge
If its up the side/edge of the roof - Verge
By the sounds of it its the Verge that needs re-pointing. Not a big job, easier to do off a quick alloy scaffold but you might get someone who'll do it off a ladder. Prob looking at half day labour, + scaffold costs and say £15 for materials.
Can't see the Ins Comp paying out for it mind.
OK guys. Im out with my Pal who is a builder tomorrow so i will buy him a pint or two then ask how much to sort it out for us.
Prob still worth a phone call to the insurance anyway.
Thankyou
Prob still worth a phone call to the insurance anyway.
They'll laugh at you and even if they did pay the excess would probably be more than the repair bill and your premium would go up next year.
get a couple of prices or do it yourself.
Well there sending someone out on Tuesday and the wife didnt hear anyone laughing.
So whle i still agree its a longshot the phonecall hasnt been a waste of time just yet.
I wont hold my breath. 8)
nosemineb
Your wanting to make a storm claim. Storm is usually defined by Insurers as winds of at least 55mph and/or 25mm rainfall in any 24hr period.
A good starting point would be go onto the met office website or similar and find a date fairly recently where weather that would met this requirement prevailed. Thereby, evidencing that storm conditions were present on or around the date you discovered the damage.
The next challenge is the condition of the pointing to your verge tiles. Often this area fails once the pointing starts to crack, frost causes further damage, etc until it leaks and your alerted to the fault.
Insurance is wanting to cover a singular incident of storm damage, not damage caused gradually over a period of time.
A possibly outcome is they may decline the roof repairs, saying the pointing to the verge tiles has failed through wear and tear. Albeit you could argue, if strong winds were present, that the verge tiles were lifted by said strong winds and this caused the failure of the pointing to the verge tiles.
Normally though an Insurer would still accept a claim for the internal damage, even if they decline the external work.
They are most likely sending an unqualified surveyor (its worth asking what qualifications the person who visits has), or a builder to inspect your roof, from ground level, and offer an opinion back to the Insurance company. A cup of tea and biscuits can go a long way to having an influence on the outcome.
consider your No claims discount and excess when thinking about claiming, as a rule of thumb if its under £500 its not worth claiming if you stand to loose some no claims discount.
Hope this helps. I work within the insurance industry (ducks head to avoid rocks being thrown ...)
I am not even going to start on why all insurance is so expensive.
Oh yes its because people beleive it is their right to claim for stupid things and even worse the insurance companies let them.
Part of your house falls off due to age, fix it or leave it on the floor your choice!
Thanks jp.
I've got life, critical illness, car and pet insurance from he top of my head that I've paid for the last 10 years with a claim for freezer food and a bust boiler in that time. So please do forgive me for asking the insurance company if I'm covered!
As I said think I said, we have had some freak weather in th area lately. Pictures to prove it.
Thanks all.
the assesors coming to avoid paying out not to write a cheque. unless the damage was done in a specific incident then you aint going to get nana he will take into accoubt the damage and the condition of the rest of the roof ( surprisingly your expected to keep it in good condition...) check out your policy for your excess 150 - 500 even a grand is common. as the work described will easily be accomplished in half a day for a couple of hundred that will almost certainly be better than letting the insurance company do it for 1500 and you aving to pay them the grand up front..
Thanks jp.
