Staying calm after the storm: What to do about storm damage

There have been a fair few storms this year, with some of the most severe causing serious storm damage to homes and property. A storm is unpredictable, and until it’s over, you won’t know what you’re dealing with.

Storm damage comes in many forms, causing a lot of stress to families. As you get over the initial shock, you can get to work on repairing the damage and get your home back in order. Have a look at some of the ways you can assess and address the damage and find the calm after the storm.

Assess your damage

Once the storm has cleared, and it’s safe, you can start assessing damage to your home. Some of the most commonly affected areas include garden fences, roofs, windows and doors. Minor damage like broken garden furniture can be taken care of easily, but more significant damage will need further assessment by experts.

Consult your insurers

If your home requires some major repairs, then you should contact your insurers to make a claim. This can ease a lot of the stress that comes with dealing with storm damage, as they will likely take care of the repairs on your behalf. When claiming for storm damage, it’s important to be as detailed and organised as possible. Make detailed notes, keep track of costs and take plenty of photos. Your claim will be assessed by a loss adjuster before being passed onto the underwriter to decide if your claim is accepted or not.

Take care of the initial clean-up

You may need to wait for some of the repairs to be carried out, especially if you’re dealing with significant damage. However, for the minor damage, you can get to work straight away to clean it up. Clear any broken glass and debris and try to restore some semblance of order. You may find things look a lot less severe once you’ve cleared away some of the initial mess.

Bring in some help

The worst storm damage will likely need some professional help to repair. Leaks, damage to your garden and roof repair require experienced expert hands to ensure they’re repaired properly and prevent further damage. These works can take some time to be commenced and completed. This could mean you may need to move to temporary, alternative accommodation if the repairs are going to cause some inconvenience in your home – like a loss of water, for example. Depending on your policy, your insurance company could arrange this for you.

Avoid attempting to fix major damage yourself, you could injure yourself or make things worse. Dealing with storm damage can be frustrating, especially if you’re concerned about the financial cost of your repairs. But assessing the damage immediately and taking action can help you get things taken care of more swiftly, so you can get back to normality. Preparing your home against future storms could help you avoid further damage to your home, helping you feel more confident the next time there’s a severe weather warning.

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Can I claim for water leak damage on my home insurance?

Water damage is one of the most well-known reasons for home insurance claims. As indicated by theaa.ie home insurance survey, water penetration claims are the second most significant insurance claim, following wind and hail damage.

Water leaks are a relatively common issue. Fortunately, most water leaks are minor, but more serious issues can be expensive to put right. Before you spend any money on water leak repairs, you should be clear about what expenditure is covered by your home insurance policy and what isn’t.

Should you always make an insurance claim?

Whether you should make a claim or not will depend on the nature and the extent of the damage to your home. If the damage is only minor and you’re able to fix it on your own, then it usually doesn’t make sense to file an insurance claim.

How to make a claim

If you’re going to make a claim, you should do so as soon as possible after you identify the issue. If you wait too long then it can ultimately jeopardise your claim, as insurers often reject claims that are filed too long after an incident.

The first part of the process is to document the incident. You should begin by taking photographs of any visible damage. Keep a log of every professional that you contact and make sure that you get documentation from them for any work that they carry out.

Trace and access cover

In some cases, especially where a leak is particularly severe, the presence of water will give it away. However, many leaks occur behind walls or under floors, or in other places where they aren’t immediately obvious. If you don’t know where your leak originates then you can’t begin to fix the issue. There are businesses like Pinpoint Trace and Access that offer essential trace and access services. They’ll locate the source of your water leak and provide you with the necessary paperwork for which your insurance company will ask.

Check the details of your insurance policy to see if it includes trace and access cover. If it does, then you can reclaim the costs of hiring a professional trace and access service like Pinpoint.

Avoid common mistakes

Other than waiting too long to file a claim, which will count against you with your insurer, there are a couple of other things that you should avoid doing in the interest of your claim. First and foremost, if your insurer determines that you could have prevented the leak from occurring to begin with, they’re likely to deny your claim. It’s therefore important that you look after your home’s plumbing.

You should also be aware that you cannot claim for general wear and tear. In order for your insurance to cover the costs of a water leak, there must be a single identifiable cause for it to have occurred.

If you only suffer a minor water leak and you’re able to easily solve the issue yourself, filing an insurance claim is probably overkill. However, before you start spending money on professional services to help you fix your leak, make sure that you check the terms & conditions of your insurance policy to see what is and isn’t covered.

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Wednesday Wish: Getting back to normal!

This week’s Wednesday Wish has to be for a nice clean house – free from flood water, mud and mess!

We’re still recovering from the devastating floods which affected the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire.

We can’t wait to get on with straightening things out, but we’re currently in that awful limbo where insurers & loss adjusters question, examine, poke & probe. It feels like not much is going on. Builders are awaiting approval to start remedial works which is frustrating. There’s no washing machine, cooker or comfy sofa. And of course, with everything piled up in the bedrooms, we can’t find a thing!!

But we have to try & stay positive.

We actually managed to save so much stuff – anything that time or size allowed – lots of books, records, textiles, small pieces of furniture, items of sentimental value – and of course our beloved Fudge!

Hopefully kitchen units and appliances will be replaced by the insurers without to much argument.

The flooring might be a big job – and as for the garden, well – we won’t be winning a Chelsea Flower Show Gold medal this year.

But things will get sorted out over time. We’ll post a few updates in the coming months, but we promise not to go on about it too much!! Hopefully, we’ll have some interesting before & after shots to share. We might even ask for some second opinions about potential replacement items.

We have to say thanks for all your kind words and well wishes over the past few days. We’ve experienced many examples of the best side of human nature recently.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: house insurance