Home Pipe leak in NEW HOUSE

We bought house 5 months ago. Yesterday we discovered leak from the pipe in the kitchen.
Concrete is wet in the kitchen area, hallway and partly in living room. Our laminate flooring in hallway and living room deformed because water is under it. We have also water under our furnitures in the kitchen and under tiles, wet walls in living room and kitchen. we are not sure about isolation in the walls.Might be wet as well.
Should we contact our insurance company or builders, because they connected water pipe wrongly. Does our Home Bond cover it?
Do we need Loss Assessor?

I would contact both your builder ans insurance. Your builder should cover the repair but if he refuses you can claim on insurance and they will chase builder. Homebibd only covers structural damage. Loss assessor not really required. Just get an estimate to have someone carry out all the repairs and issue this to builder / insurance company

You need to check and make sure your insurance policy covers 'trace & access of leakage'. If it does, get an estimate from a plumber/builder to trace and repair the leak (inc whatever it costs to replace the floor). You will also need an estimate for repair or replace to laminate, tiles, furniture etc. Send all into the insurer. You could use an independent assessor but they will charge you for their services. YOu should be able to handle it yourself or your broker will help if insured through a broker.


www.powerinsurances.ie

Jimbobp said:

You need to check and make sure your insurance policy covers 'trace & access of leakage'. If it does, get an estimate from a plumber/builder to trace and repair the leak (inc whatever it costs to replace the floor). You will also need an estimate for repair or replace to laminate, tiles, furniture etc. Send all into the insurer. You could use an independent assessor but they will charge you for their services. YOu should be able to handle it yourself or your broker will help if insured through a broker.


www.powerinsurances.ie

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If the floor covering is damaged by the water it is covered by the gerneal policy conditions of irish insurers irrespective of trace and access. The trace and access only applies to items that your plumber/builder have to damage in order to repair the leak which would include any concrete floors etc that the water does not damage. The cost of the plumbing repair itself is not generally covered by an insurance policy.

The repairs carried out by the plumber are covered under the trace & access section - that's why I mentioned it..


Www.powerinsurances.ie

Jimbobp said:

The repairs carried out by the plumber are covered under the trace & access section - that's why I mentioned it..


Www.powerinsurances.ie

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The actual repair of the pipe is not generally covered under any of the companies policies if it is a leak. If it is a burst then it would generally be covered. Trace and access only covers tracing and accessing the pipe. It does not cover repair

Same thing happened to my house 9 months after moving in back in '07. We have underfloor heating and the supplier was supposed to come back and commision the system after it being installed but never did, as a result there was a pipe that was never tightened properly in the hotpress and a small leak was coming from the manifold.

We contacted the insurer and they sent out an assessor, we were only going to claim for the damage to the laminate flooring but when he came he pulled out all the funiture that was against whe walls in the bedrooms and there was damage to paint work and plaster. He advised that this was to be included in claim as well as dehumidifier, rental skip higher, replastering to 4 rooms behind and above skirting boards repainting to 4 rooms. Ended up that the claim came to 5 times the original sum that I was going to claim for!

Assessor then advised that they would settle the full cost of claim but would deduct the excess but that they would prusue the underfloor installer and that maybe in 12 to 18 months that they should be able to refund the excess deduction.

We had a similar problem in our house, and as the other poster said we got a loss assessor in. A friend had recommended them to us, I didn't realize that you could get someone independent in. Honestly it made such a difference, we could just hand it over to someone who knew what they were talking about. What we were first offered, which wouldn't even begin to cover the damage, was replaced by a much more satisfactory offer. People are always afraid to challenge insurers but it what you got the policy out for. The loss assessor we used worked on a no win no fee basis so worth giving them a try!

Hope that is of some help.

jd2 said:

We had a similar problem in our house, and as the other poster said we got a loss assessor in. A friend had recommended them to us, I didn't realize that you could get someone independent in. Honestly it made such a difference, we could just hand it over to someone who knew what they were talking about. I'm not sure if you can name names but we used Pro Insurance Claims and found them very good. What we were first offered, which wouldn't even begin to cover the damage, was replaced by a much more satisfactory offer. People are always afraid to challenge insurers but it what you got the policy out for. The loss assessor we used worked on a no win no fee basis so worth giving them a try!
Hope that is of some help.

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without been disrespectful but this looks like an advertisement from someone who only has two posts

Im a long time reader, first time poster! I will remove name! Didn't mean to offend!