House Insurance claim denied

[connda]

22 hours ago, mike787 said:

Hire the most powerfully connected insurance attorney and fight like mad.

You could pay for the repairs 10 times over and there is no guarantee your 'powerfully connected insurance attorney' would do anything but take your Farang money while blowing smoke up your shiny behind.  

And let's get back to reality OP.  Honestly, here in Thailand?  If the same happened to me, I would not even bother filing a claim.  I'd just fix it.  The costs for doing so are dirt cheap.  File a claim and your insurance company will raise your rates.  Save your insurance for something really catastrophic like the wind storm that rips off your roof and the flood that destroys the first floor of your home along with all that is in it.  

But --- now that your insurance company has played their hand?  Find Home Insurance with a different company and read their policy!!! In the long run?  They have done you a favor! 

[KhaoYai]

On 5/31/2019 at 10:22 AM, Davo369 said:

Absolutely, any pipes should have easy access. So you should be able to access from ceiling.

Not in my experience - the pipes I've seen are buried in the concrete so not easy to access at all. In fact, they make it even more difficult to access from underneath because they bury them above the re-inforcing mesh.

[myjawe]

7 hours ago, connda said:

You could pay for the repairs 10 times over and there is no guarantee your 'powerfully connected insurance attorney' would do anything but take your Farang money while blowing smoke up your shiny behind.  

And let's get back to reality OP.  Honestly, here in Thailand?  If the same happened to me, I would not even bother filing a claim.  I'd just fix it.  The costs for doing so are dirt cheap.  File a claim and your insurance company will raise your rates.  Save your insurance for something really catastrophic like the wind storm that rips off your roof and the flood that destroys the first floor of your home along with all that is in it.  

But --- now that your insurance company has played their hand?  Find Home Insurance with a different company and read their policy!!! In the long run?  They have done you a favor! 

 

Better than you, I would even fix it myself ! So much easier than having to deal with the uneducated idiots who pretend to even be able to paint a wall !

 

 

[thailand49]

Of course, this is Thailand so what you might get in England isn't really relevant. Aside from your insurance here is it in English that clearly states it should be fixed?

In the States, in general, you got two types of insurance Homeowners that cover fire and floods then you got one that is optional that covers as you described plus appliances.

 

When it comes to the possible leak?  determine if it is actually a leak?  make sure everything is in working order like your toilets and they are turn off then go to the street meter and see if it is moving.

 

From experience,  when it comes to bathrooms by the naked eye seem seal but over time they leak. If it was a broken pipe etc. if your ceiling is sheetrock it would have caved in long ago. The easy way if sheetrock is to cut a section to check for the leak the area regardless needs to dry to prevent mole.  

 

If it isn't a pipe then I think the grout has failed start around the drain area and remove the old grout and replace and let dry. 

[Tomahawk21]

On 5/31/2019 at 1:40 PM, petermik said:

Insurance companies the world over do not like paying out....any loophole they will try and wriggle through...

spot on i have no house insurance or health insurance for these reasons how ever i do have enough money to sort myself out should i ever need to do so.

i look at it as insuring myself.

[Shibuya1]

On 5/31/2019 at 1:27 PM, beau thai said:

House Insurance Claim denied? Dog bites man. 

 

I sympathize but denying claim seems to be the start point for most insurers.  I had the exact same issue at my place in spain with the Insurer owned by my bank and recommended by the manager of course. Who was a friend until he washed his hands rather than helping with my claim settlement denial.  We also had to dig up the floor under the tiles to find the problem.

 

The water leaks followed severe storms with massive flooding all around the area- on the coast. The insurer initially denied all claims as caused by Act of God. Seriously!  ( Try watching the Billy Connolly film-The Man who Sued God-similar circumstance and light relief!)

 

I kept at it, letters to the press, letters to the ombudsman etc and eventually they settled.  Same thing happened 2 years later and they denied the claim and this time they were immovable.

 

Google will give you details for Thai Ombudsman and Consumer Complaints office. I would hit both and copy in the insurer, as they will not enjoy being referred and may settle.

 

Best of luck.  My own perspective now though that if it is about the principle rather than the money, I try to let it go and get on with my life before the irritation gets worse....

I was a claims adjuster In the US for 20+ years. I know this claim well. They owe all the resulting water damage caused by the burst pipe period. When the pipe broke, it damaged the adjoining wall and tile. They have to pay for the replacement of the damaged wall and all tiles the water damaged. In order to do this they have to tear out the wall anyway in order to replace the damaged water damaged wall and tiles. Therefore the tear out to get to the pipe is covered as it is already damaged by the burst pipe. The repair to the pipe is minimal. You are being ripped off by the insurance company or an adjuster who doesn't know what he is talking about. If there is an Insurance Commission or lawyer who deals in these matter you can take them to court, but usually they they will pay if you escalate to the claims manager. 

[Isaanbiker]

On 6/1/2019 at 2:24 PM, connda said:

Not to mention the black mold that will grow in those dark recesses. Those areas need to be ripped out and replaced.

That's the bad news.  The good news is you live in Thailand.  The repairs will cost you about 5 times less (if not less) than in the US or UK or any other overpriced first world country.  Nor will you need to jump through upteen regulatory hoops including paying fees, licenses, easement costs, waste costs, CO2 fines or whatever BS the regulatory authorities seem to heap on homeowners.  You just find someone to fix it or fix it yourself.  In Thailand you can find a high-end contractor, a low-end contractor, uncle Somchai's toothless cousin who doesn't need a contract, or someone who knows someone who has done similar work that was deemed satisfactory.  I've had a lot of both maintenance and construction done on our property: some good, some excellent, some suckola.  Nothing has ever been done on a 'contract.'  We just don't rehire people who do crappy work.  The cost of the work is low enough that I can have it redone if necessary and still never come close to a fraction of what I'd pay in the US.
Example:  A friend of mine in New Mexico put in a new cement pad for and RV on this property.  He had to jump through a multitude of hoops: licenses, easements, inspections, inspection fees, authorizations and then contract the work out.  A freaking pad of cement cost him $9000 bucks.  <headshake>  I could have done the same on my property for the price o the sand, gravel, cement, and labor at ฿500 THB per day for each laborer and the construction would have taken 1 day.  <Another headshake>  My guess is that you could have the tiles, floor, and ceiling below ripped out and replaced for between 10,000 to 20,000 THB.  There comes a time you just flip the insurance companies off, shrug, and get on with business at hand.
This ain't the West.  And in a lot of ways that's a good thing.

This isn't the West and that's good so. 

 

   

[impulse]

2 times I came home from a weeks-long trip to my BKK apartment and found a waterfall from the ceiling.  It's an older building- at least 30 years old.  Happened in each of my 2 bathrooms, and it wasn't the people above me, because I lived on the top occupied floor.  There was a rooftop apartment, but they could never get renters for more than a month because the A/C power cost was more than the rent.

 

Turns out the blue plastic pipe system (including the adhesive) was sub-standard and it was just a matter of time. 

 

Each time, the apartment took care of the problem and were done in a few hours.  They cut the ceiling, fixed the pipes and replaced big sections of the ceiling.  Fortunately, the way my bathrooms were designed, once the water hit the floor, the drains were adequate and no damage was done.  That's one reason I love Asian bathrooms where the whole thing acts as a shower stall.

 

[Sheryl]

Complain to the OIC.

www.oic.or.th/en

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