UK Insurance News

Anyone who uses a mortgage to purchase their home in the UK, must take out Buildings Insurance cover as a legal requirement from their lender.

This ensures that should the building collapse and you can no longer live there or pay the mortgage, the lender is happy that their ‘investment’ in your home is safe as the insurance policy will pay out to have the property rebuilt.

Buildings insurance also allows the policy holder to claim for less dramatic damage to their property however and most people would consider it an essential cover to have if they own their own home.

The house that I own has a professionally built attic conversion that has all permissions and permits in place and was added to the house soon after it was built in the seventies. The flat attic extension roof is in line with the ridge of the standard roof.

This work had been carried out long before I purchased the property.  About eight years ago noticing the flat roof above my garage was in need of replacement I had a roofer replace both the garage and attic flat felt roofs.

It is impossible to see the flat roof on the attic without climbing across the tiles to the ridge, something I have never felt the need to do.

For eight years I have had no problems. I regularly check the garage roof as a guide to wear and tear. However two weeks ago after some severe but short gusts of wind the flat felt roof from the attic detached itself completely and landed in the back garden.

On the way down the heavy felt scratched the two double glazed windows and the PVC window frames. Total cost of the roof and window damage estimated at around £1700.

My Buildings insurance is with Nationwide and their first response on a Sunday evening at 7.30 pm was good. I was told that I could get someone out to cover the roof  and make it water tight  which was covered by my add on Emergency cover.

I was given a claim reference and told a loss adjuster would contact me next morning.  At mid-day Monday I had not received a call and had to call Nationwide and pay for the privilege of using their 0845 number (thats another story).  Predictably they did not recognise the claim number I had been given and had to start again with a surly representative who suggested that she doubted the insurance would cover me as it sounded like normal wear and tear.

The roofer I got out to make the area water tight suggested that the roof had been fine, the felt was in good condition and he suspected that the weather was to blame.

On the Wednesday when the loss adjuster arrived he looked at the damage, went onto the roof etc and then informed me that … you guessed it, I am not covered as in his view it is down to normal wear and tear. When questioned he agreed that the wind may have been the final straw, but in his opinion the damage had happened over a period of time.

When asked about the damage to the windows the loss adjuster from Imperial Consultants shook his head and said that I couldn’t claim as the roof that caused the damage was not covered by the insurance!!!

What are your experiences of Buildings Insurance claims, please let us know.