Escape of water is the most common domestic insurance claim in the UK, and one of the most expensive. It is also the one where the actions taken in the first two days make the biggest difference to how the claim goes.
The difficulty is that those first two days are exactly when you are least equipped to think about a claim. There is water coming through a ceiling, you are moving furniture, and the last thing on your mind is evidence. This guide is what we would tell you if you rang us on day one.
Hour one: stop it and make it safe
Turn the water off at the stopcock. If you do not know where yours is, find it now rather than during an emergency. It is usually under the kitchen sink, in a downstairs cupboard, or where the mains enters the property.
If water is anywhere near electrics, and with a ceiling leak it usually is, switch off the electricity at the consumer unit. Do not touch anything electrical that is wet, and do not assume a light fitting is safe because it still works. If you are in any doubt, get an electrician out before restoring power.
Once it is safe, deal with the immediate hazards. A ceiling holding water is genuinely dangerous and can come down without warning. Keep people out of the room.
Before you clear up: photograph everything
This is the step people miss, and it is the one we most often wish had been done. The instinct is to clear up as fast as possible. But the moment you mop the floor and move the sodden furniture into the garden, the evidence of what actually happened starts to disappear.
Spend ten minutes photographing before you touch anything:
- Wide shots of every affected room so the scale of it is obvious.
- Close-ups of the damage itself, including ceilings, walls, floors and skirtings.
- The source, if you can see it, such as the failed joint, the split pipe or the appliance.
- Standing water and the extent it reached, ideally with something in shot for scale.
- Every damaged item individually, not just a pile of them together.
- Serial numbers and model plates on damaged appliances and electronics.
- Video walking through the property, narrating what you are seeing. It takes two minutes and captures far more than stills.
Photograph more than you think you need. Nobody has ever regretted taking too many photographs of a water leak, and a great many people have regretted taking too few.
Report it, and be careful what you say
Notify your insurer promptly. Policies require you to report within a reasonable time, and delay is something insurers do raise later.
When you do report it, stick to the facts you actually know. Describe what happened and when you discovered it. What you should avoid is speculating about cause or duration. Saying something like "it has probably been leaking for a while" is an offhand remark that can end up as the basis for a gradual damage rejection months later. If you do not know how long it had been going on, say that you do not know, because that is the honest answer.
Everything you say in that first phone call is recorded and forms part of the claim file. Be accurate, be honest, and do not guess.
Mitigate the damage, but do not start repairs
Your policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. That means lifting soaked rugs, moving undamaged contents to a dry room, putting buckets under active drips, and getting air moving.
What it does not mean is beginning permanent repairs before the insurer has had the opportunity to inspect. Emergency work to stop the leak is fine and expected, and keep the plumber's invoice. Replastering a ceiling on day three is not, because you have destroyed the evidence of what you are claiming for.
Do not throw anything away either. Damaged carpets, furniture and electricals should be photographed and kept somewhere out of the way, ideally a garage, until they have been assessed. Items disposed of before inspection are much harder to claim for.
Start a claim diary on day one
Open a note on your phone and log everything: dates and times of every call, who you spoke to, what they said, what they promised and by when. Keep every letter, email and reference number.
Water claims are long. Drying alone can take weeks, and a full strip out and reinstatement can run to months. By month four, when there is a dispute about what somebody committed to in week two, that diary is the difference between a clear record and two conflicting recollections.
Understand what drying actually involves
People expect a leak to be dried in a few days. In reality, water travels into wall cavities, under floors, through insulation and into ceiling voids, and getting a building back to a normal moisture level frequently takes weeks of controlled drying with monitoring.
Rushing this stage is a false economy. Reinstating over material that is still wet leads to mould, blown plaster and warped timber, and you end up doing the work twice. If a drying schedule seems short, it is reasonable to ask what moisture readings it is based on.
Where it goes wrong, and where we come in
Escape of water claims tend to go wrong in predictable ways. The full extent of the damage is not identified because nobody looked under the floor. The scope of works covers the visible damage but not the hidden. The settlement offered is based on a cheaper specification than what was there before. Or the claim is declined outright as gradual damage.
A loss adjuster is appointed by, and works for, the insurer. We work for you. On an escape of water claim that means documenting the true extent of the damage including what is not visible, preparing the schedule of works, and negotiating the settlement. Our page on burst pipes and escape of water covers the detail, and our process explains how a claim runs from first call to completion.
If you have had a leak in the last few days and want to know whether you are approaching it correctly, call us. Early advice costs you nothing and tends to be worth considerably more than advice sought three months in.
This article is general information about how home insurance claims work in the UK. It is not advice on your individual claim, which will turn on your own policy wording and circumstances. For advice on your situation, speak to our team.
