# Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good faith?



## Lollyflash (19 Nov 2008)

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone knows if normal home insurance policies cover leaking (and dodgy) roofs that are basically leaking because of bad workmanship? We bought a red brick terraced house last year and paid to have it completely renovated. The main roof is fine (we did not replace or change it) but we had to put a whole new roof on the extension of the house as the old one was rotting and in poor condition. The roof is technically a flat roof (but at a bit of an angle) with a roof garden deck built over it (this was allowed as there was a rood garden there for 30 years prior to us buying it so we just had it all rebuilt in the same way but from scratch).

Basically the overall house project turned into a nightmare and we paid in full and the builder (a "friend") took our money and did not finish the job and we have had to pay already to redo many parts of the house. So we had some leaks coming in from the roof into the kitchen in 3 different areas so there is staining, mold, etc. It turns out that the builder did not know what he was doing I think and he did a terrible job so we were negotiating to try and get him to get someone qualified to fix it and we were trying to avoid legal action (although we had consulted a solicitor and we had a clear contract). Anyway, in a very unfortunate turn of events the builder actually died a few months ago so that has put an obvious end to us pursuing anything. He worked for himself so was not part of a company and his wife is (was) a friend of mine so we will obviously not pursue the issues further with her.

However, we are left with a leaking, shoddy roof and we had two trusted friends who are roofers that live and work in the country come look at it to try and fix it and they said it is a horrific job and cannot just be patched up. They already put a velux into it for us as the builder had just left a hole boarded up instead of finishing it and the velux is the only area that is *not* problematic. The roofers have said that the whole roof needs to be redone to correct all the issues that are there and they suggested claiming on our home insurance. I have looked at our policy though and it seems unclear? Our roof is less that 1 year old and we paid in full in good faith to have it well constructed so if there are these issues now surely we should be covered?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.


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## Jimbobp (19 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

Did the builder have any liability insurance in place when he started the job? Did you advise your insurance company of the work that was carried out? 

Generally a home insurance policy will cover  the liability of workers involved in the maintenance & upkeep of your house but not a refurbishment such as yours. I would try claiming from the builders liability policy first, if he doesn't/didn't have any then you could try employing a loss assessor to see if they can get the claim thtough your insurance company. These assessors will usually give you an inital consult free of charge and only charge if they get a claim through, they will let you know if it is worth pursuing your own insurer and might save you a lot of hassle.

Best of luck with it all


www.powerinsurances.ie


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## Ed054 (19 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

I am a loss assessor and I do not see how you would be able to make a claim against your household policy as nothing occured that is insured by it.
I would suggest that you contact your solicitor and see if details of the builders insurance was given to them and you could then make a claim for defective workmanship


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## Lollyflash (19 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*



Ed054 said:


> I am a loss assessor and I do not see how you would be able to make a claim against your household policy as nothing occured that is insured by it.
> I would suggest that you contact your solicitor and see if details of the builders insurance was given to them and you could then make a claim for defective workmanship



Hi,

It is my understanding that water damage to our home from a now leaking roof would be something that has occurred that we would be insured for? Why else do people have home insurance but to have protection against unexpected damage that is out of our control? Maybe I am missing something here?


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## MichaelBurke (19 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

Hi, I'm an insurance broker and can tell you no household policy that I have ever come across has ever provided cover for faulty workmanship like this. As Loss Assessor said no insureable peril occured here. You need to chase the builder, best to employ a solicitor.


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## extopia (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*



Lollyflash said:


> Why else do people have home insurance but to have protection against unexpected damage that is out of our control? Maybe I am missing something here?



You've just told us in great detail that the source of your water damage is bad workmanship that you commissioned yourself.

What's unexpected about that? Why should your insurance company (and by extension, all Joe Soaps who pay insurance premiums) bail you out now?

Get a pro in to fix your roof. Surely you've learned your lesson about hiring cowboys.


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## Lollyflash (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*



extopia said:


> You've just told us in great detail that the source of your water damage is bad workmanship that you commissioned yourself.
> 
> What's unexpected about that? Why should your insurance company (and by extension, all Joe Soaps who pay insurance premiums) bail you out now?
> 
> Get a pro in to fix your roof. Surely you've learned your lesson about hiring cowboys.



Bail me out? Seriously? Wow, serious aggression on this forum. Try having sympathy for someone who commissioned work from someone in good faith. Who hires a "cowboy" knowingly? We hired someone we personally knew for over 3 years who had also done work for someone else we also knew and we had a very clear written contract so I think it is fair to say that you have not interpreted my situation correctly at all.

What kind of person blames someone in my situation for the bad workmanship? We are in serious debt now trying to rectify unforeseen problems that have occurred after we paid in full at a very fair price for what we expected to be quality work from someone we personally knew. There is no way we could have predicted this.

Try reading my post more carefully and please think twice before attacking someone for things that are completely untrue. Everything you mentioned does NOT apply to my case at all. And we did try and get the builder himself to pay to sort it out and we consulted and paid a solicitor to start proceedings as the builder was not responding. Then the builder died quite unexpectedly so we have no other recourse - I think we did what we could thanks very much. 

We paid out thousands to fix other things he messed up in our house already and we are so far into debt as it is so when all the leaking started we wondered if this would be covered by home insurance? That is why I posted the question just to ask. So please don't attack me and don't make uninformed comments that only serve to aggravate.

I asked for advice not an attack. I would appreciate any real, helpful informed advice anyone else has.

Thank you.


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## extopia (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

The best advice anyone can give you is to call your insurance company's claims department, tell them what happened, and ask them are you covered.


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## Ed054 (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*



extopia said:


> The best advice anyone can give you is to call your insurance company's claims department, tell them what happened, and ask them are you covered.


 
In a ideal world you would be correct but I have had a good number of claims where the clients contacted the Insurers claims department to be told that they were not covered and subsequently I got the claim paid for them.
In this case the insurers would be correct in advising the insured that their is no cover for the damage.

Best course of action go after the builders liability insurance.


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## ailbhe (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

The builder should have had insurance at the time of working on your home.
Contact the solicitor who was dealing with the claim you had against the builder before his death and try to get the details of the insurance he had in place.
Then pursue the insurance company he was insured with.

Your house insurance will not cover the damage mentioned here.

It's all well and good saying you don't want to offend the widow of the deceased builder but it's the only way of getting any sort of resolution to your problem.


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## Willowchase (20 Nov 2008)

*Re: Will home ins. cover damage from bad workmanship that was commissioned in good fa*

Unfortunately a builders normal liability policy does not cover the cost of rectifying defective workmanship. It should however cover the cost of damage arising from such workmanship.  Your solicitor should advise you on what options, if any, you have at this stage.


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