Don't you just love how insurance companies wriggle out?

[RogerS]

Just had the drain man in. Looks like there's a lot of tree roots in the sewage pipe from house to septic tank. Jet washing and rodding has, so far, failed and so Plan B is a spinning cutter on the end of a rod. If that fails we're looking at replacing. The drain guy suggested that I see if my house insurance covered it.

Spoke to a lovely lass in customer services. Bottom line - if a pipe is damaged by accidental damage.....like how do you accidentally damage a pipe buried in the ground and 6 ft deep ? Ask The Donald to send a bunker-buster bomb over ? Anyway accidental damage is covered.

Anything else, such as presumably the worms jumping up and down the pipe in a conga causing it to shift, is not.

You couldn't make it up

 

[TrimTheKing]

So it got accidentally damaged by the digger when looking for another utility conduit...

 

[Blackswanwood]

Roger - it’s worth taking a quick look at this and checking how accidental damage is defined in the policy.

Chloe and her buildings insurer disagree on gradual damage exclusion

When Chloe spotted a partial pipework blockage, her home insurer argued that the damage was gradual and so not covered by her policy.

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

This also adds weight to the point that invasion by tree roots may be classed as accidental damage.

Pardon Our Interruption

Cheers

 

[HappyHacker]

I had a blocked drain, a drain survey identified roots in the pipe adjacent to a large tree on the boundary of my land and where the pipes start to go deep to connect to the main sewer in the field. The fix was to clear the pipe with some sort of device on the ed of the rods and then line the pipes with fibre glass.

My insurance paid for it all without any hesitation.

Can't remember who I was with as it was a few years ago.

They probably are looking for more ways to make money by excluding common occurrences.

 

[RogerS]

Roger - it’s worth taking a quick look at this and checking how accidental damage is defined in the policy.

Chloe and her buildings insurer disagree on gradual damage exclusion

When Chloe spotted a partial pipework blockage, her home insurer argued that the damage was gradual and so not covered by her policy.

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

This also adds weight to the point that invasion by tree roots may be classed as accidental damage.

Pardon Our Interruption

Cheers

Fantastic Robert.Thank you

 

[Lons]

Always worth arguing.

We've only ever had a couple of claims, one was a freezer breakdown while we were away, it was full and I laid everything out on a tarp, listed and photographed it but didn't include all the frozen apple and other home made stuff. A young lad rang me with reduced value and when I asked for an explanation he said it was unnecessary to keep loaves of bread frozen and several tubs of ice cream was excessive. I took exception to his attitude, told him to go forth and I spoke to his supervisor who settled the claim immediately.

The other was a syphonic WC pan, one of the kids dropped the heavy seat and it cracked. the colour was discontinued and would cost £500 to match and replace plus new seat and fitting costs. I rang and said I'd buy a new white handbasin to replace the existing blue one and fit the WC myself if they paid the £200 for a new white non syphonic WC cistern, pan and seat but they flatly refused. They sent out an assessor who agreed with everything I'd suggested and signed it off but what a waste of time and money as my initial proposal would have saved them at least £500. I guess they thought I was trying to pull a fast one.