House insurance?
Question:I moved into a property about 8 months ago and it wasn't until last week that i was up in my loft and discovered that the roof is in a very bad state of repair.
Some of the slate batons are rotted almost right through and the slates are slipping all the time.
My question is;Can i ask my house insurance company to come and have a look at it and could i put a claim in to get it repaired?
I did get a survey done on the house,but it was only the basic one as i couldn't afford the full one at the time.
So even though this damage hasn't occurred in th form of an accident, what do you think they will say?
Answers:
No harm in asking and I don't totally agree with the other two contributors. The roof battons have rotted due to water damage - a leak. If it were a slow water pipe leak, you would be covered for damage to the fabric of the house, so on the same principle you may find you are covered for a rain water leak in your roof. If that water had come down through your ceiling and brought it down you would be covered. See where I am coming from! The main problem I see is the length of time the water has been getting in. If the insurers start arguing that the leak was probably there before you bought the house and took out your insurance, you may have a problem. However, nothing asked, nothing gained.
i know they will say p.i.s.s off. it is not accidental damage and if the roof collapses through your ceiling and damages things in the house you wont be covered for that either as your house insurance states that the property must be kept in a state of good repair. you will have to pay for the repairs yourself, or hope for a nice strong hurricane to rip the roof clean off. you should have gone for a full inspection report and you could have saved the money by offering a lower price for the house due to the work that needed to be done.
You could ring them and ask, but I would save myself the embarrassment because it's pretty much as Dolly has said above.
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