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Cold weather, burst pipes, insurance claims - the annual winter's tale of woe is with us again. For most people the prospect of selling life insurance policy, perhaps under two insurance policies, is almost as daunting as having to clear up the mess from burst pipe, but there is a lot you can do to make sure that your claim goes through smoothly.
Your first problem, of course, is to deal with the leak. You should ensure that the water is turned off at the mains and you should try to minimize the damage to your house and your personal property. The insurance companies strongly advise that you call in a plumber, builder or electrician to carry out any remedial work as soon as possible. If you do this, make sure that you get a receipt for the full amount.
You should also sort out what is salvageable and what is not. Try drying out carpets, get estimates for the cost of cleaning them and so on. You should then inform the insurance company that you will be making a claim, and you should do this within a day of the burst happening.
You will probably find that the damage is covered under two different policies. Damage to the house, the floor, ceiling, pipe work and fittings will be covered under your buildings insurance policy. If you have a mortgage, your bank or building society will have made sure that you have an adequate building insurance policy.
Damage to carpets, furniture and other personal property will be covered by a household contents policy. This will have been your responsibility to arrange and keep up to date. You need to know your policy numbers (these should be on the policy documents) or your mortgage account number if your policy was arranged through a building society in conjunction with a mortgage. If you arranged either of your policies through insurance broker or other intermediary you should also inform them that you are making a claim.
Having got this far and asked for a claims form from the companies concerned, the next stage is to gather as much information on your claim as possible. This means getting estimates for repairs from builders and for the cost of replacing any items damaged beyond repair. You will also need to get cleaning bills for carpets, sofas. Keep all of these and send copies in with the claims form as soon as possible.
If you have a new for old house contents insurance policy the insurance company will need to know the cost of replacing whatever is irreplaceably damaged with the nearest available equivalent. If you have a standard policy they will need to know how much the item cost when you bought it how old it is and possibly, some indication of its usual life expectancy. Using this information they will then make a deduction for wear and tear.
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