Insurance claim advice...

[nonymouse]

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?

[nonymouse]

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?

[Peter Crosland]

That would be fraud.

That would be fraud..

The bottom line is pay up and accept that cheating the insurer is a bad thing.

Peter Crosland

[nonymouse]

Thanks for your advice and honesty. Truth is, we honestly don't know if the current repairs are necessary due to a previous storm...but it's only recently that we've noticed it. So there is an element of truth in what I'm saying. I am not deliberately trying to defraud the insurance company.

[Tony Bryer]

At which point the InsCo could refuse to pay out on the grounds that the house had not been properly maintained.

IMO they won't pay out now on the grounds that (a) it's maintenance; and (b) next year you might change insurer so they wouldn't have had to pay anyway.

[manatbandq]

That's maintenance, not an insurance claim.

That's something you do if you've blocked up the fireplaces, again not a valid reason for an insurance claim.

Again, sounds like you/former owner haven't looked after it properly.

So if you know it's not covered, because it was pre-existing, get it fixed. If it does fall down you wil be looking at a much larger bill which the insurance co will still not cover. They probably will not cover the consequential damage caused by a pre-existing condition.

Neither, you get it fixed at your own expense.

MBQ

[Andy Wade]

An insurance company would only pay up for this if you could produce a structural engineer's report stating that the damage was caused by a storm, or lightning strike, etc. Otherwise natural deterioration of the pointing over a period of time is what they will term a "gradually operating cause" - this is something which all insurance policies specifically exclude.

[Stuart Noble]

If this were true, they wouldn't have to settle any claims on older properties which, by definition, are all suffering from gradually operating causes

[Christian McArdle]

It is.

Nonsense.

You can't claim for gradually operating causes, which is effectively code for "wear and tear", like needing to repaint windows due to weathering, or needing to renew pointing.

You can claim for non-gradually operating causes, like subsidence, a tree smashing into the bedroom, a lorry in the lounge, storm damage or flooding.

Christian.

[Stuart Noble]

But storms damage older properties more easily. Slates blow off because the fixings have gone. Chimneys blow down because they're not as strong as a modern house. In other words, the root cause is gradual. I've no doubt the insurance would pay up if his chimney fell through the roof even though, with hindsight, you could say it was due to neglect.

[Andy Hall]

This is why they use one of the lowest life forms of all, the loss adjuster.

The principle is that there should not be any betterment of a pre-existing condition.

[meow2222]

pay for your maintenance like a grown up, dont waste the company's time. This kind of childishness just adds cost onto all our bills.

NT

[Stuart Noble]

If you get one of those knocking on your door, you need to employ a rotweiler of your own. No different from solicitors really

which is fair enough. Fortunately they don't seem to get involved in smaller claims (under £5K), most of which are settled without argument.