I wish to make a buildings insurance claim for our current chimney...which apparently needs repointing, capping and the sailing brick work around the pots rebuilding as it has buckled over the years.
I know that there is this thing called a pre-existing condition under which the insurance company will not pay out. Understood. However, if I were to leave the situation, the chimney will likely crash through the roof one day causing untold damage and cost.
So I would like to make a pre-emptive strike and claim now to fix the situation. The question is do I
a) Get the work done and submit a bill to the insurance company (since there is evidence of repointing necessary and this could quite likely have been caused by high winds)
or
b) Ring the insurance company, explain there has been a bad storm and as a result the chimney needs repointing (not entirely untrue) and risk them sending an assessor to check the damage
Help?