Hi

I am insured with Royal sun Alliance (buildings and contents). A few weeks ago i had a major leak in my bathroom . It was on a late Saturday and of course i couldnt get hold of them. I have been with them 10 years. Never made a claim and i have home emergency cover with them. All under the same policy. I called out a plumber he found the soil pipe from the loo was leaking. He had to remove the loo. remove all the tiles to the floor under the tiles was a sub floor that the contaminated water had leaked onto (the smell was disgusting). He had to remove all the boxing in of the pipe work as this was fitted on top of the floor tiles. plus he had to remove the wash hand basin I have a pregnant woman living with me so this was really urgent. The basin was put in the garden out of the way this got knocked over and broke. The plumber put the loo back temporarily until he could go and get the materials. I had a lovely bathroom before this happened. The plumber tried to keep his costs to a minimum All the refitting ie laying a new sub floor putting new floor down boxing in the pipework removing wc replacing damaged wall tiles clearing all junk out. Bearing in mind he had to come out late Satuday and Sunday came to in total £1.880 RSA will only pay £600 this doesnt even cover materials. they wont pay for labour. They are refusing to pay for some of the materials ie refitting of wc and soil pipe a new bath panel and other materials. I can understand them not paying for the basin but where do i stand. I have tried speaking to claims dept at RSA but the guy was so rude to me he wouldnt let me get a word in edgeways. Basically he told me thats all they will pay and no more. I will also mention i had another quote and it came out £100 more from another company.

RSA were once a really good company, but that stopped about 10 years ago, when they decided to close down half of their UK general insurance operation, moving parts to India.

Suggest that you raise a complaint with RSA head office and threaten to get the FOS involved. Don't be afraid to phone their head office. They may be obstructive, but just ask to be put you through to the claims directors PA or be provided with contact details for head office complaints. Don't accept a brush off with details of a complaints office in some part of the UK, where you will be made to go round in circles.

Timothy Mitchell is their claims director.

RSA Insurance Group plc

9th Floor

One Plantation Place

30 Fenchurch Street

London

EC3M 3BD

UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7111 7000

Ty for your response. They have now said they will consider the cost of the labour and will get back to me. I said to him you are basically asking the plumber to work free of charge. He said rsa dont have to pay labour.

Ty for your response. They have now said they will consider the cost of the labour and will get back to me. I said to him you are basically asking the plumber to work free of charge. He said rsa dont have to pay labour.

So you have a water leak causing damage and RSA believe that contractors will do the work for nothing. If that were the case, as soon as you mentioned RSA were the Insurers to contractors, I think they would pack up their tools and make a quick exit.

Agreed, More Than/RSA are useless.

What basis are they saying their not covering it? if you have home emergency, it covers the fix of the leak, if you have buildings, it covers the resultant damage.

The policy is probably quite specific like all home emergency and will state you have to get their agreement prior to carrying out the repairs. You say you couldn;t get through to them, can you document this, get a copy of your phone logs showing you were on hold (for say 20 mins?) if only for 5 that might not be reasonable. It will possibly be capped at £1000 or £1500.00. Potentially this is going under 2 types of cover with 2 excess's?