Accidental damage, what is it exactly ?

[Mrs T]

Our daughter insures her house, no problem. Recently she received a call from the insurers asking if she was covered for accidental damage and would be charged an additional £5 per month for the privelage.

 

So ... do people purposefully damage their property and how does one define "accidental"

 

If I drive a vehicle and have an accident its hardly purposefull, therefore its an accident, does that differ withy a house and its contents?

 

Mt

[kelly58]

Accidental damage cover for building / contents is an add on to cover such things as spilling paint / bleach on furniture / carpets putting your foot through the ceiling whilst up the loft etc.

[Mrs T]

OK, but to us it seems an add on to suit the whims of whoever wants to gain a few pounds, surely damage is damage regardless of how it happened.

 

Does every insurance cover in every walk of life have an add on for 'accidental' or is it included in the general cover?

 

Would an accident assessor then look at a spot of damage and say "Aha but that's an accident and we are not paying"

 

How is an accident defined?

 

If I drop a camera on holiday and bend a part how does that equate, yes its an accident, but would it be classified as 'the owners fault' and therefore outside insurance cover?

 

[CliveH]

The worse the Insurance Company - the worse the small print is.

 

Try to research the company you are insured with - is it financially sound? Does it have a good claims paying history? How many policyholders have been forced to complain about it? What percentage of claims sent to the FOS have been upheld?

 

If not a well run and financially sound provider you are simply buying an expensive bit of paper that states that you have an insurance policy. It may be that that company will fight you tooth and nail not to pay out over a perfectly valid claim. So you have the documentation but are you effectively insured?

 

I am biased of course - but I would suggest a good Independent General Insurance Broker because whilst I do not deal with general insurance I refer clients to a good Broker and they like me - "never want to be sitting in front of a client trying to explain why a policy/company they recommended is challenging a perfectly valid claim".

 

You do get what you pay for in this area. Caveat Emptor applies - unless you use a broker - but do be careful some are only multi-tied agents of a few (or even a single company!) - so do make sure that you confirm their status.

 

 

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

Mrs T - 2013-03-26 10:02 AM

 

Our daughter insures her house, no problem. Recently she received a call from the insurers asking if she was covered for accidental damage and would be charged an additional £5 per month for the privelage.

 

So ... do people purposefully damage their property and how does one define "accidental"

 

If I drive a vehicle and have an accident its hardly purposefull, therefore its an accident, does that differ withy a house and its contents?

 

Mt

I think your daughter should read her present policy with care to see what, exactly, she is insured against. At its most basic she should be insured against "flood, fire, and tempest", though most, if not all, policies will have exclusions regarding flood plains, general condition of the fabric, and possibly smoke/fire alarms. She will probably also be insured against vandalism, malicious damage, and damage caused by illegal entry, but not against acts of war, riot or civil commotion. This will almost certainly be limited if she leaves her house unoccupied for more than 30, maybe 60, days. She may be insured against things falling from aircraft. She will possibly have some cover against subsidence, though there will probably be a heavy excess: £1,000 up. Underground drains and services may be covered in some respects, though again, probably with a high excess. Ditto damage from leaks, the loss of heating oil, etc. The insurance may also cover walls and fences, and even garden sheds (though not their contents). She will probably also have public liability insurance though, without additional legal cover, she won't get any assistance with the cost of fighting a claim.

 

Accidental damage cover is against all those things that fall outside the scope of such basic cover: the broken window, the dropped hammer that breaks a wash basin, the carpet ruined by spills etc. However, it will not cover what is termed wear and tear. Her only course, apart from checking out the insurer, is to read exactly what is on offer. However, £5 per month, £60 per year, sounds high to me. My father in law's house, for example, has accidental damage in the buildings section for £40 per year, with a £100 excess on all claims. If she gets the details of exactly what is on offer for that £5 per month, she'll have a far better idea of whether she thinks it worth buying. She certainly shouldn't buy it before the scope of cover is confirmed in writing.

 

My final thought is that she appears to be buying her insurance on credit, which is usually quite a lot more expensive than paying "up front". The premium will have been paid in advance by a finance company, who will build their, frequently undisclosed, charges into her premium. If she seeks to cancel the insurance, she is liable still to owe the finance company the balance of the payments, or will face a heavy cancellation charge. Generally, insurances are one year contracts payable in advance, so the idea of paying by the month, and then being able to cancel the insurance and stop the payments, just isn't how it is liable to work. Just something else for her to check.