The Situation
We observed water stains on the living room ceilings well as the study located on ground-floor on Thursday, 27 December. A plumber was called who identified the cause of the leak as mice gnawing at the plastic coupling placed on the water pipe. We informed Tesco’s Home Insurance about the incident that very day in hopes of getting some help for the damage caused in our home.
The pest control arrived after six days, January 2, and who has visited us twice since the incident. However, the next day, water began to drip from the very same place. The plumber returned and repaired one more coupling on that water pipe again.
I immediately reported this to Tesco and informed them about the incident, but they told me that two leaks that affect the same site are taken as two discrete incidents. As a result, the home insurer deducted two separate payments amounting to £250 each as a compulsory and also a voluntary excess regarding both the incidents with £1,000 being taken.
This counts as the only insurance claim made by us in the last 53 years.
Comments
You have waited for more than 50 years and two incidents related to home insurance occur suddenly. That’s how the leaks at Tesco would have interpreted the water leaks. To have a claim that said incidents are separate is ridiculous, as people outside the realm of insurance will agree with. It is also not clear if that same mouse nibbled away the water pipes or if several other mice were involved. Partially due to the claim made by you about the water damage of £2,200, the insurance also increased. But the claim made by you about having two ceilings damaged by water, removing a portion of one as well as the redecorating was barely excessive.
Tesco has paid just £1,185, after it had subtracted the excessive excesses. Therefore, a cancellation of your policy was done on your end so you were charged £35 as administration fee. Tesco has backed down now and has logged everything to a single claim, meaning that £500 will be returned back as excess payments. £35 admin fee has also been refunded as a goodwill gesture.
A Tesco spokesperson replied to the situation saying that they also understand that the damage in a home can be a very stressful situation. They will work hard in order to ensure the people that whenever there is any problem, Tesco is ready to help its customers and repair the homes as fast as possible. All the damage done to the house was on separate incidents, which were because of a leak in the pipe which were at first recorded to be two different claims. However, since the damage to the home was caused due to that same pipe, they have all agreed to consider these incidents as a single claim and give back the money that was taken by them.
