Water damage can have serious and lasting consequences. From structural, foundational damage to interior walls and flooring, right up to the onset of mould and bacteria, the impact of water damage on a property can be severe. Complicated and costly, the importance of having a water damage policy as part of your homeowner’s insurance is imperative in protecting yourself from expensive repairs or entire restorations. Here, we provide a complete guide to water damage, offering expert insight into the main types of water damage claims, how best to make a claim and knowing whether you’re eligible.
Types Of Water Damage
Arguably, the greatest issue faced when it comes to water damage isn’t always the damage itself, instead, it’s the unpredictability of knowing when the damage is going to occur. Water damage can happen in a number of different ways at almost any time, from severe weather, such as flash floods, or damage to your guttering and piping system. Water damage can even be caused by blocked drains or broken air conditioning, it really is that unpredictable. Below, we take a closer look at the primary causes of water damage.
Flooding
Although not an everyday occurrence, severe weather, such as thunderstorms, hurricanes or other strong winds and downpours, can very quickly impact your property and lead to water damage in several ways. From damage caused to your piping and gutter system or even your roofing, right up to the risk of severe downpours that lead to flooding, weather can have a lasting effect on your property.
Flooding can often occur if your property is in an area close to open water, such as a lake, river or sea, and there has been a severe downpour of rain or even a flash flood. However, it can also happen as a result of blocked or clogged drains, or even faulty or broken pipes.
Leaks
Even the smallest of leaks in your piping system can lead to serious water damage, and if this is to happen inside your interior walls, the water damage could have a serious impact on the structural integrity of your property. This is also the case in the event of leaky pipes in the soil underneath the concrete base of your property, which would lead to extensive and costly repair work.
Leaks can happen from many places in the house, from your washing machine supply line, to your boiler, or your air conditioning unit, the risk of water leaks and damage to your property walls can be serious.
Eligibility & Insurance
Generally, water damage insurance is covered as part of your homeowner’s insurance, if you are the owner of the property, helping to cover you in the event of sudden or accidental water damage. Below are some key points to remember about water damage insurance:
- Water Damage Insurance is designed to provide extensive coverage to homeowners against specific types of water damage.
- Policies will often refuse to cover water damage that has occurred from negligence or flood water. Flooding is typically covered by a separate, standalone insurance policy.
- Burst, or leaking pipes, plumbing issues and toilet system failures are often the most common or eligible water damage claims.
However, water damage insurance won’t cover you if there is damage to the property or evidence of a failure to maintain the condition of the property that leads to water damage.
Making A Claim
No matter the scale of water damage, from the smallest leak to the most extensive flooding, you should always contact your insurer if there has been an issue with water damage on your property. In the event of a leaky pipe, as an example, it’s important to make your claim early and follow the following steps to ensure you have the best chance of making a successful claim.
Control Leak
Although you shouldn’t ever carry out serious restoration works until after the insurance company or their loss adjuster has visited your property and analysed the extent of the damage, you should always do your best to control the leak to prevent serious issues from occurring. This can be easily carried out by shutting off your water supply. This is important to remember as your insurance provider will have to offer their approval for any works that are considered damage mitigation.
Prepare Evidence
Easily forgotten amongst the chaos of controlling your water leak, but an absolutely essential component of your claim is, ensuring you have taken photos and/or videos of the source of the problem. Evidence is essential to your water damage claim so you should try and gather as much of this as possible, paying close attention to the source, the damage caused and anything else that may be relevant to your insurance claim.
Notify Insurer
Once you’ve controlled your water leak, and captured vital evidence of the problem, you must contact your insurance company as soon as possible to make them aware of your claim. At Water Damage Repairs, you can call us 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all of your water damage claims across London.
Appoint Help
It’s also worth noting that at this stage, you are well within your rights to appoint your own help at any time during your claim, this is typically handled by what is known as a Loss Assessor. A Loss Assessor can be particularly useful in future meetings with your Loss Adjuster, wherein they can act on your behalf in vital discussions.
Meet Your Loss Adjuster
As suggested, a Loss Adjuster will be appointed by your insurance company on their behalf to investigate your claim. They will visit your property and assess the damage in a fact-finding mission to gather information on the cause and severity of the leak and subsequent water damage. If you do choose to appoint a Loss Assessor, it’s their duty to report their findings, offer guidance and attend future meetings on your behalf.
Once you have had your initial meeting with your Loss Adjuster, they will then prepare their Loss Adjusters Report, which is a detailed assessment of their ongoing investigation, combining both evidence and the experience of the Loss Adjuster responsible for gathering the report itself, to offer the insurer an indication and recommendation on whether they should payout.
Carry Out Repairs
Once your insurer has gathered their evidence from the Loss Adjuster, it’s likely they will appoint their own surveyors and building contractors to carry out the repair works on your property. You should note that this isn’t a requirement and you’re more than entitled to hire your own independent building contractors, but in this case, you should always appoint a Chartered Surveyor. Appointing a Surveyor who is Chartered is vital in ensuring they have the necessary skills and experience to assess the damage, write up the specification work and carry out the repairs.
Understanding Loss Adjusters
Employed directly by your insurance company to carry out inspections on your property to assess the extent and potential cause of damage, a Loss Adjuster is in place to decide if your claim is eligible if you should be paid and ultimately, how much you will receive. It is often the case the Loss Adjuster will attempt to reduce the cost of the claim, at least initially, so you should always negotiate with them in order to receive a settlement you can agree on.
AWater Damage Repairs – Water Damage Specialists Across London
Looking for industry-leading water damage professionals in London? At Water Damage Repairs, our reliable team of surveyors specialise in everything from organising water damage restoration services to communicating with insurance providers to help you resolve any issues caused by a leaking pipe or flood.
We understand just how stressful and time-consuming dealing with water damage can be, especially if the damage to your property requires expensive repair solutions. That’s why we’re proud to offer to our first-hand experience in water damage restoration services to our clients across London. Contact our team today.