WATER DAMAGE INSURANCE FOR THE HOMEOWNER
Owning a home in South Australia comes with many responsibilities. One of the most crucial is protecting it from unexpected events like fires, theft and pests. You’ve likely had one of these events in your house before, and chances are you may have made an insurance claim to help remedy the problem. But how does a claim work with plumbing disasters?
What does my insurance cover?
To make a successful insurance claim on a major water leak or plumbing disaster, you have to understand your specific Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). A PDS is a crucial legal document that provides essential information about a financial product (in this case, your home insurance). Policies vary, so you have to know what’s covered, and what is not.
Sudden vs gradual damage
Most insurance companies make a distinction between sudden and gradual damages. Depending on this classification, some damages may not be covered by their policy.
Generally, home insurance protects you against accidental and unexpected damages. These are known as sudden damages. A prime example is a pipe suddenly bursting and flooding an area of your home. In such cases, your insurance should cover the necessary repairs and any related damages.
On the other hand, slow, ongoing leaks or corrosion that worsens over time are often excluded from standard home coverage. These are gradual damages, and insurers often view them as a consequence of insufficient maintenance, which homeowners are expected to perform.
Specific plumbing problems
On top of the sudden vs gradual damage distinction, you also have to understand how your insurance policy deals with specific instances of water damage and the other various plumbing issues you potentially may face.
For water line leaks, you’ll have to know whether your insurance covers repairs and water damage cleanup. For roof leaks, check for coverage of storm or accidental damage.
How do I file a claim for a water leak?
In order to file a successful claim, you should ensure you’ve completed the following:
- Prevent further damage (to the best of your ability) – If you can safely stop the leak, do so immediately. This might mean turning off the main water supply to a burst pipe.
- Gather evidence – Take clear photos of all affected areas and damaged items and make detailed notes describing the damage, including dates and the potential cause of the damage.
- Contact your home insurer – Have your insurance policy number ready and provide all of the supporting information about the incident and damages you gathered previously. If specific items are damaged, provide details like the make and model.
Once contacted, your insurance company will discuss with you the various repairs and replacements you may require. At this stage, they may send an assessor to your house to assess the extent and monetary value of the damages.
Our water leak insurance report and investigation services for homeowners
Determining the extent of the damages to your home is a job for a specialist. Fortunately, we can complete the insurance report for you.
Priority Plumbing work closely with insurance companies, loss adjusters and remedial builders. Because of this, we understand the process of reporting a claim. If your insurer suggests that you engage a plumber/leak detection specialist, we can help you with this process.
If you’re unsure of whether you’ll be making a claim or not, we can still provide a report so that if you do proceed with the claim, you have the information you require.
Our report covers all the elements of…
- Leak detection and location – Using our specialised equipment, we test and locate the water leak in a non-invasive manner.
- Report on our findings – After we locate the leak, we provide a full report on our findings with all our recommended repairs. This report can be sent to your insurer for the claims process.
- Repairs – Once the leak is located, you can ask us to provide a quotation for repairs. We can either assist while on-site or re-book and plan the repair at another convenient time.
- Invoicing – We split and allocate costs of the works undertaken as required by the insurer so that it is clear and concise for your claim. Eg. time for leak detection/investigation works and time/materials for repairs.
If you want to file a successful claim, please reach out to us or send a request today.
