Buildings Insurance, what is it good for?

Apart from the obvious: your house burns down, floods, gets blown away… what are the parameters for making a claim?

Paid it for 25 years and actually i have no idea.

In my case, i was investigating a leak in an extension, it has a vertical steel in each corner. Removing the cladding revealed the steel has rusted and the bottom half is now missing, is this something that would covered on a standard policy?

To get a mortgage on the property, you find that there are actually specific insurance policies covering several things for your property that aren’t actually covered properly in your buildings or household insurance, it’s only when you go make a claim you find this out of course!

If their first answer is “no”, don’t take it.

Keep pushing and appeal to the ombudsman if necessary.

A family member got a big payout after many months of arguing. Ombudsman ruled in their favour.

I got stung 5k for a re-wire.. Not insured as it’s not a fault that happened following an event as such just old/ wear and tear.

Makes me worry if the roof ever needs replacing.. I guess that would be the same scenario, unless I let it go too far an I guess then they would argue negligence?

Absolutely nothing! 😉

It is to cover what you state as the obvious.  And because my thatched cob cottage is much more likely to burn down that a ‘regular’ house I have the pleasure of paying £2,500 a year to cover such an event.

Seems a lot but then I guess if my house did burn down I would be very glad I paid it.

I had some subsidence on an out building, contacted them they and they investigated (i.e. dug a hole against the house and the outbuilding, buggering up the patio grout in the process, said they’d fix the grout. Then the claim got rejected as whoever built the outbuilding (before I bought it) didn’t dig the foundations deep enough. So presently the only thing it’s been good for is nothing and it was actually me who had to sort out the patio grout at the cost of a full load of grout as you can’t buy one slabs worth.

I hate crap like this, now the outbuilding that attached the garage is just falling down slowly as I haven’t cleared it and the insurance company couldn’t care less, even though it’s attached the side of the house and will potentially cause damage to that too.

If the corroded steels are as a result of a leak, then you might be covered under your ‘leak/escape of water’ clause.

If that leak is a result of wear and tear then you probably aren’t covered.  If that leak is a result of an incident/subsidence/something that you are covered for, then you have a chance.

As per the previous poster, don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  We recently got the ombudsman to force an acceptance of a subsidence claim. The insurers policy seemed to be to bare faced refuse our claim, send out unqualified engineers to try to back up their assertions, make us commission and pay for our own engineer report,  then ignore it, then ignore our complaint, maxing out the timeframe at every occasion. They only took it seriously when we took it to the ombudsman.

Write it all down before you speak to the insurers.  Don’t make the mistake of even mentioning wear or tear or gradual damage, and point them towards a mechanism that you are insured for.

Good luck. It will take a while even if you are covered.  Take lots of photos and file them.

We are currently 3 weeks into a 12 week stay in rented accommodation (£3850 PCM for 6 months) due to a dry rot issue in our house.

Caused by a leaky washing machine waste which went un noticed for an unknown time.

The claim is currently going to be over £100k.

I would say I would previously have said what is it good for but I have 100 000 reasons what it is good for now.

You need to go through the policy document very carefully.

In our case Direct Line do not cover for Dry Rot. They do cover for damage to the property due to a leak from an appliance so we are covered. Yes, that was a stressful wait while they decided to cover us or not. You need to find the clause in your policy that covers the damage you have. We had to fight quite hard and be quite persuasive to get them to look into this fully and give us cover. They aren’t going to be too helpful. The loss adjuster works for the Insurer not the Policy Holder. Never trust a Loss Adjuster.

Absolutely nothing! 😉

Say it again.

It’s not there to replace faulty workmanship or replace maintenance obligations, it’s there incase the worst happens and your house is flooded or burns down.

Get your own loss adjuster in to fight your corner!

I think it comes down to when an insurable incident becomes a maintenance issue. If your roof breaks one day and the room floods, ruining your carpet, its an insurable loss, but if the steel beam has rusted away, I’d be asking

1) why wasn’t it rust-proofed in the first place? – if it was built in accordance to building regs it would be
https://nhbc-standards.co.uk/6-superstructure-excluding-roofs/6-10-light-steel-framing/6-10-7-steel-and-fixings/ (this reg might have been added since your extension was built, who knows?)

2) how long have the steels been in water for them to have completely rusted away? Steel (especially of the thickness required for structural work) takes years and years to rust through – I think there’s a question of whether correct maintenance was adhered to (ie not allowing a leak to persist for years), mitigating the impact of a water leak

@toby you will also now have to declare ‘yes’ to subsidence in future insurance quotes and when you go to sell the house.

Get your own loss adjuster in to fight your corner!

And take a cut of your settlement.

5lab covers it nicely.

1) why wasn’t it rust-proofed in the first place? – if it was built in accordance to building regs it would be
https://nhbc-standards.co.uk/6-superstructure-excluding-roofs/6-10-light-steel-framing/6-10-7-steel-and-fixings/ (this reg might have been added since your extension was built, who knows?)

2) how long have the steels been in water for them to have completely rusted away? Steel (especially of the thickness required for structural work) takes years and years to rust through – I think there’s a question of whether correct maintenance was adhered to (ie not allowing a leak to persist for years), mitigating the impact of a water leak

Extension was built in the 80’s. I’ve owned house for 4 years. I only found out as i had to remove cladding to reseal the edge of a window that started leaking over the weekend.

I’m happy to put right but would rather not sink several k out of my savings only to find out its somthing that would be covered on the insurance had i claimed.

Extension was built in the 80’s. I’ve owned house for 4 years.

I think you’d be hard pushed to prove that the damage wasn’t existing when you purchased the house in that case – and insurance would certainly expect that to be the case (hence the idea of an insurable “event”). If there was some storm that happened last winter and caused damage to the roof, you’ve more of a chance

thanks @5lab

oh no it was 100% an existing issue before i bought the house, can’t / wouldn’t try to prove otherwise. Its only come to light after removing the cladding. Only a hypothteical question as to whether its covered.

Can’t give any specific info on grade of steel that was used but judging by the other bodges i’m uncovering along the way it was probably shite. Think the trouble is that its boxed in by that cheap plastic shiplap cladding and the wind drives the rain up under it so the steels have probably been damp after rain for years

Apart from the obvious: your house burns down, floods, gets blown away… what are the parameters for making a claim?

completely dependent on your policy schedule & wording – have a read and see where you think you might be covered

In my case, i was investigating a leak in an extension, it has a vertical steel in each corner. Removing the cladding revealed the steel has rusted and the bottom half is now missing, is this something that would covered on a standard policy?

it likely depend on what the cause of the leak is and if that is a peril that is covered under the insurance. the insurer will be looking for the proximate cause – useful definition below:

“Proximate cause refers to the primary event or series of events that directly leads to an insured loss. It is the direct cause that sets in motion a chain of events, which ultimately results in the damage or loss covered by an insurance policy

however, as highlighted above, i would assume the time it would take structural steels to rust to the point of needing replacement due to a water leak would be significant. you may get into sticky ground regrading gradual causes (vs sudden & unforeseen) and maintenance

in the first instance put a claim in but don’t speculate what the cause is unless you are pretty convinced that it is an insured peril. let the insurance lay their stall out first before you provide arguments / counter arguments. as above, go to the ombudsman if unhappy with the outcome. you will likely have to go through the insurance companies complaint procedure first though – i’m out of date on ombudsman stance on personal insurance

EDIT – just seen your updated post, and sounds like this is existing damage form before you owned the house or had a policy insuring it – if so it’s not hopeful. however always worth putting a claim in – insurance is there to be used. also be aware that now that now you are aware of the damage, unless you try and remediate the issue, if there were any future claim that could be attributed to the steels rusting the insurers would likely take a dim view

thanks @sofaboy73, guess i’m off to the bank then 🙁

If you’ve got RAAC, absolutely nothing.

My wife turned on a tap in the upstairs bathroom one morning and the pipe burst. I was already at work and she couldn’t turn the supply off. The kitchen ceiling fell in just as the emergency plumber ran in. On the plumber.

So arguably it was our fault in that we should have turned off the supply faster, and also the bathroom tap was probably dodgy diy plumbing from the previous occupant.

Thankfully we were able to claim on buildings and contents insurance anyway because for once we were covered by Aviva rather than GenericInsurance4You.

(plumber was alright btw)

I claimed a couple of years back for a roof light that went pop during that hot summer.

Was a pain to resolve.  They offered me £2k to go away, I wouldn’t accept and made them sort it out, I priced it myself and came up with at least 3x as much.  Turns out they claim it cost 11k, definitely inflated prices but I wouldn’t have got anywhere near if I’d accepted their offer.

20 plus years of paying so glad to have finally hot something back!

I have an ongoing insurance claim for subsidence. So far it’s cost me £6k and will probably cost me at least triple this amount again.
The insurance claims handling company has basically found every way possible out of paying out, things to do with poor build quality meaning that one wall/aspect is not covered (end terraced end), inadequate rainwater drainage and now a retaining wall is not covered as technically it’s not part of the house but just retaining the soil below it from falling into my neighbours garden.
From an insurance point of view, they will limit their liability wherever they can. From a customer point of view, it just seems that you are only really covered for fire and theft.

Bumped into a mum from school who’d dropped a bottle of Calpol into her bathroom sink, smashing it.

She was moaning about getting her brother in law to do a foreigner to get it replaced, with unit beneath.

I asked her if she’d realised it was possibly an insurance job – she hadn’t. Not much point having cover if you’re never going to use it.

I have an ongoing insurance claim for subsidence.

Doesn’t sound like it. Sounds like you have a loss due to subsidence that your insurance isn’t covering.

What has the ombudsman said?

oh no it was 100% an existing issue before i bought the house, can’t / wouldn’t try to prove otherwise.

You don’t necessarily need to.

If you make a claim, it’s the insurer’s job to prove why something isn’t covered if they want to turn it down.