I was wondering if anyone can help me. Just over 2 months ago my daughter bless her, accidently dropped the shampoo bottle in the shower and cracked the shower tray. I wouldn't have claimed at all on the home insurance but thought i'd better incase the tiles had to be taken off.

I phoned to claim and they were fantastic, someone came out the next day to assess and took some photos but did alot of head shaking!

He told me that the insurance policy will only cover the broken tray and if they couldn't match the tiles or the size of the tray, the cubicle would have to be re-tiled and floor might have to be taken up because it's laminate and cut to the size of the tray and I may have to pay all or some of the costs.

Is this right? I mean it's not my fault if they can't match the tiles or all the other work that wants doing.

To top all this off, 2 months later i am still waiting for any notification from anyone as to whats happening, about three weeks ago I did phone to see what was going on and was told by Cornhill that it was being looked into and that's that!

Fair enough it is someone's job to decide this but opinons aside, it's common decenty to at least send one letter with some infomation.

I have looked through policy documents and can see nothing that state that only responsible for broken item and not work having to fix it.

Does anyone have any ideas or help for me?

Thanks

My dad has a claim with them also there slow at processing there claims and will try and wriggle out of anything. I would advise writing to there complaints dept.

With regards to the basin, it might be worth your while looking in B&Q, etc, or preferably where you bought the tray from to see if there is one of the same colour and size. Get an estimate and submit that to the Insurance Company. That will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

With regards to the tiling (bearing in mind it is 1 yr since I dealt with buildings claims) they have to pay for the first 2 rows of tiles, any more rows than that then they have to contribute 50%.

With regards to the flooring they are wrong. The policy does not provide cover for repairing exploratory damage, but if they have to damage the laminate to get the shower tray out, as long as they accept the claim for the shower tray (which I cant imagine why they would not) they will have to honour the costs for the laminate (If it is click type they would recut and relay)

So in answer to your question - yes and no!!

If you have a friend in the trade, or know of a competitive builder, it might be worthwhile getting him to do an estimate, as the Insurance Company should pay goods to the value.

Good Luck!

Thanks for all your reply's! Have an update. Got a call from company who will do the repairs and they said Cornhill made a decision on repairs and they said that we have to pay 50% of cost for tiles because they can't be matched but after looking through policy documents there's nothing in it that states we would have to do this.

I have to ring them on Monday but can anyone tell me if this is right? I know their argument is that they are replacing the broken item which is the shower base but i've never heard of anything like this before. You think that when you pay your insurance that other than the excess you know you have to pay, that's it, but it's going to cost us nearly £250 in total!

And to top it off my poor daughter thinks it's all her fault!

Would be grateful for anymore of your advice!

Have a look at the Financial Ombudsman's News Letter here @ household disasters - October

case study:

Household buildings – replacement – loss of match – tiles – whether policyholder entitled to compensation for loss of match in replacement of damaged tiles.