A Pipe Dream !! ?

[vivandorron]

I had always thought that the purpose of Household Insurances was "To be placed back into a position which one enjoyed prior to an unfortunate incident". The truth is that such a belief is a 'pipe dream' ; especially if one Insures with ' Homeserve' for drainage problems.

It is the case that a fracture of the pipe from my house to the Welsh Water's main sewer wasestablished ,following a deep hole which appeared in the driveway, after my wife had driven the car from the garage and over what had becomea bridge of tarmacadam.( Hole about one foot across, 18 inches deep and 3ft in all directions.)

Homeserve accepted liabillity for repair of the actual pipe and, after a delay of a month, work has been completed so far as the Insurers are concerned; although the driveway to my house has been left in a deplorable condition. Homeserve has contended that water was escaping from the pipe and caused subsidence for which it connot be held liable. Furthermore, the firm of Insurers will not contribute to the cost of additional in-fill material which I had to purchase and it remains a matter for me to arrange and pay for any re-surfacing of the drive'.

For your information , Homeserve has claused its policy against any consequential loss and say that any damage which came after the collapse of the pipe from my house is not covered by the Insurance. Consequentally, I now have to sort out the re-instatement of the driveway to my house, which I consider has been severely damaged by the JCB type digging appliance which was employed on site to dig down to a depth of 6ft.

Have any other AB'ers experienced something simillar or would wish to comment on this matter ?.............Ron

[shaneystar2]

Oh don't get me on my soapbox about insurance companies.
The premiums you pay are practically legalised theft because when a push comes to a shove they will do anything to wriggle out of a substantial claim .We have been married for 36 years and never once had cause to claim on our household insurance until the deluge a couple of years ago when the the force of the water smashed through the extension roof washed tiles away and flooded us out .
.It ended up with the Ombudsman who found in our favour but we went through eighteen months of sheer aggro .And we are now paying heftier premiums because we live in a flood area We were lucky it just came through the roof .Poor devils over the bridge in Yarmouth who were flooded at the same time,but the water was pouring into their properties from the river,are still in dispute with insurers.
I am sorry to hear of your problems Ron and Viv and hope you can get it sorted it out .You could do what we did and put your case to the Ombudsman ...worth a try .
Shaney xx

[donn1901]

all i can say is i'd be unhappy to and i've had similar trouble with more than for my car insurance. What you need to do is complain to your insurance company in writing and wait upto 8 weeks for a final decision letter. Once you have this yoy can contact the insurance ombudsman who will look at your complaint as an outside and higher authority and there number is 02079 640500.
only open mon-fri 10-4 though.

[vivandorron]

Hi shaney and donn.........It's always nice to hear again from folk who have responded to other postings we have made in AB.

Sounds as if both of you have had problems with Insurers which have been far greater than ours. We don't really have a case for the Ombudsman, but we do appreciate your advice.

Truth is that our 44yr old drive was beginning to look a bit rough and we have been putting-off a re-surfacing job; which now needs further consideration.

The main purpose of our posting was to draw the attention of other AB'ers to the fact that Insurance is often a 'con' job; a point on which you both appear to agree with us.

Thanks for your worthwhile comments.....Best wishes.....Viv & Ron.

[flip_flop]

I have nothing but praise for my insurance company - see http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Insurance/Quest ion561981.html

[vivandorron]

Good evenimg flip_flop.....We really do appreciate your view on the matter and whilst we may appear to be knocking all Insurers, we would make the point that we are very happy with our House and Contents Insurers but are now very sceptical about being Insured with 'Homeserve' for plumbing and drainage problems; because " we have not been placed back into the position which we enjoyed prior to the unforeseen incident".

As a point of interest, we have always held the view that over-insurance is far safer than being under-insured. However, we have always Insured in the belief that we would be put back into the state which prevailed originally.

Unfortunately, 'Homeserve' does not act accordingly.

V & R.