| Home Insurance Advice Needed 07:04 - Oct 30 with 1148 views | dickie |
We have a had a bit of a roof leak to an inaccessible area of roof space on our house recently. The roof is going to be about £500 to repair, plus there's a bit of drying out/making good to be done underneath and I'd like to put in a loft hatch to gain access to the area. All in it will probably cost about £1000 or so. I've never claimed on home insurance before and was wondering if this sort of amount was worth claiming or if the increase in premium negates bothering? Anyone got any relatable experiences they can share? |  | | |  |
| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 07:45 - Oct 30 with 1097 views | Bluefish |
I've never claimed either because I think you will at least pay it back over the next 5 years through premiums. Probably depends if you want to spread the cost. |  |
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| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 08:08 - Oct 30 with 1075 views | BloomBlue |
Your premiums will increase whether you make a claim or not if you stay with the same company. Building insurance doesnt automatically increase because you make one small claim.
If you make lots of claims then that's different.
I know people who have never made a claim on building insurance in 50 years and every year their premiums increase.
There is a school of thought to get your money worth from building insurance you should make a claim every 4 years
Make the claim.
Note; if your excess is £1000 then suggest its pointless making the claim. [Post edited 30 Oct 2019 8:11]
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| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 08:41 - Oct 30 with 1032 views | dickie |
| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 08:08 - Oct 30 by BloomBlue |
Your premiums will increase whether you make a claim or not if you stay with the same company. Building insurance doesnt automatically increase because you make one small claim.
If you make lots of claims then that's different.
I know people who have never made a claim on building insurance in 50 years and every year their premiums increase.
There is a school of thought to get your money worth from building insurance you should make a claim every 4 years
Make the claim.
Note; if your excess is £1000 then suggest its pointless making the claim. [Post edited 30 Oct 2019 8:11]
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Good advice, thank you. I shop around every renewal to avoid the annual insurance con. Will check my excess | | | |
| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 08:46 - Oct 30 with 1025 views | clive_baker |
Insurance companies must love people being fearful of making claims due to premiums going up. The way I see it is that's exactly why you pay your insurance. When you think about what you've paid over the years, when you need it you should make a claim. And at renewal time make sure you shop around for the best rate, use comparisons sites online etc. It might be an idea to do that now, working on the assumption that you've made the claim already, just to get a feel for the prices that come back. |  |
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| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 11:05 - Oct 30 with 972 views | BlueStreak |
If it is deemed that the damage to the roof was just caused due to wear and tear then although insurers will pay for the subsequent damage to the property (ie the drying out and redecoration) they will not normally pay for the repairs to the roof.
Reason being is that it is an insurance policy and not a maintenance contract and therefore as a prudent property owner you should be ensuring that the property is well maintained.
I would probably still chuck a claim in regardless (subject to the excess not being too high) and you may take a little hit on your premium next year but it won't be a case of insurers getting that money back in the way of rate increases. |  | | |
| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 11:15 - Oct 30 with 959 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
Few points to add to the general comments in the thread:
- BlueStreak is correct that wear and tear wouldn’t be covered, but worth asking the question if you choose to claim
- always shop around at renewal, although fortunately the FCA are beginning to clamp down on the practice of increasing renewals out of hand
- claiming will still affect your future premiums despite shopping around as you won’t have any claim free years and will have to disclose the claim - far less significant than NCD on motor but it does still impact
- you won’t be able to claim for the loft hatch (short of some very creative estimating from the builder but I wouldn’t advise this as insurers are rather hot on what is a reasonable estimate and using approved repairers), so really only balancing against the cost of repairing the damage, or whatever is deemed to actually be covered. Therefore actual claim is likely to be much lower
My best guess is that anything £300+ is probably worth claiming and less not, but worth bunging a couple of quotes through comparison sites with and without the claim to see what difference it makes and judging from there (remember if you claim it will stay on for 5 years and claim free years will have to be built back up)
Good luck either way |  |
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| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 11:20 - Oct 30 with 953 views | Pinewoodblue |
| Home Insurance Advice Needed on 11:05 - Oct 30 by BlueStreak |
If it is deemed that the damage to the roof was just caused due to wear and tear then although insurers will pay for the subsequent damage to the property (ie the drying out and redecoration) they will not normally pay for the repairs to the roof.
Reason being is that it is an insurance policy and not a maintenance contract and therefore as a prudent property owner you should be ensuring that the property is well maintained.
I would probably still chuck a claim in regardless (subject to the excess not being too high) and you may take a little hit on your premium next year but it won't be a case of insurers getting that money back in the way of rate increases. |
It is going to depend on the wording of the policy. Have claimed twice in fifty years on buildings policy. First time was over 30 years ago. Away on summer holiday didn't turn water off. The cold water tank burst in the loft by the time we got home bedroom and lounge ceilings had gone. Insurañce paid everything apart from cost of the tank.
Second time was flat roof failure, stormy weather four days before Christmas. We hadn't been there long. Insurers declined an invite to inspect ended up paying every penny apart from excess. |  |
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