Is Plumbing Covered by Home Insurance? The Damage Usually Is, the Pipe Often Isn’t

Which policy pays for which part of the damage

A water leak can touch two policies at once. Buildings insurance covers the structure and anything permanently fixed: ceilings, plaster, floorboards, fitted kitchen units, bathroom suites and, with most insurers, fitted flooring. Contents insurance covers what you would take with you if you moved: furniture, electrical goods, clothes, rugs and, with some insurers, carpets. Check your schedule, because carpets move between the two depending on the insurer.

Who holds the buildings policy depends on the home. If you own a house, it is you. If you own a leasehold flat, it is usually the freeholder, and you claim through the managing agent. If you rent, the landlord insures the building and you insure your own contents, though you may be liable for damage you cause to the landlord’s fixtures, which tenant’s liability cover can pick up. When the water came from a neighbour’s flat, the rules on who claims and who pays are covered in a leak from the flat upstairs: who pays.

Does buildings insurance cover burst pipes?

For the damage, yes: escape of water comes as standard on buildings and contents policies, and a burst pipe is the textbook case. The wording covers water escaping suddenly from a fixed water or heating installation, or from an appliance connected to it. That takes in a split fitting, a leaking cylinder or cold water tank, a radiator valve that gives way, or a washing machine or dishwasher hose that bursts.

A pipe that splits in a freeze is normally treated the same way, as long as you kept to the policy conditions. Many policies expect some heating left on, or the system drained down, when the home is empty in cold weather. If water is spraying now, close the stopcock first and book burst pipe emergency repair; the claim can wait an hour.

A bath or basin left running until it overflows is treated differently by different insurers. Some count it as escape of water, but many class it as accidental damage, which may need an add-on. Spilling a bucket or a drink is accidental damage on every policy, not escape of water.

Is the plumber’s repair covered, or only the damage?

Usually only the damage. Replacing the split pipe, the failed valve or the burst hose is normally yours to pay, because the policy pays for what the water harmed, not for the part that failed. That is also why the insurer will ask exactly what gave way.

The exception is trace and access. Most buildings policies include it: the cost of finding a hidden leak and then making good the wall, floor or ceiling that had to be opened to reach it. Limits are often a few thousand pounds, and some insurers keep it for buildings cover or their higher tier. Read the wording, because some policies stop at finding and exposing the leak while others include the repair too. If the leak is inside a wall or under a solid floor, this part of the policy is worth more than anything else in it.

Two other routes can pay the plumber. Home emergency cover pays for the call-out and a repair to end the emergency, up to its own limit, which home emergency cover is and is not worth weighs up. And a leak on a buried pipe outside may fall under underground services cover, below.

Are underground supply pipes covered?

Your supply pipe is the buried pipe that brings mains water from your boundary, usually where the water company’s stop tap sits under a small cover in the pavement or front path, to the stopcock inside. From the boundary inwards it is yours to maintain and repair; on the street side it belongs to the water company. The detail is in mains water pipe responsibility.

The Financial Ombudsman Service says most buildings policies cover damage to underground pipes, drains, cables and tanks that you are responsible for. Where that applies, it can pay to dig up and repair the supply pipe itself, not only the damage around it. It will not pay for the water company’s pipe or a neighbour’s, and where a supply pipe is shared, an insurer may pay only your share.

The usual refusal is wear and tear: an old lead or galvanised supply that corroded through is treated as deterioration, not accidental damage, and many policies exclude pitch fibre pipes altogether. The ombudsman expects an insurer relying on those exclusions to show evidence, not just assert it.

To test for a supply pipe leak, close the inside stopcock, make sure nothing is using water and watch a meter at the boundary. If it still turns, water is escaping between the meter and your stopcock. Most water companies give a leak allowance on a metered bill once the leak is repaired promptly, which refunds the lost water but not the repair. What the dig involves is in what to do about an underground water leak.

What is usually excluded

Most refused water claims fall into a short list of exclusions. Gradual damage is the one most often disputed. If the leak was hidden behind a bath panel or kitchen unit, you could not reasonably have seen it, and you claimed as soon as you found it, the Financial Ombudsman Service may find it unfair to refuse the claim on those grounds.

• Gradual damage. A slow drip under a sink that rotted the cabinet base over months is wear and tear, not a sudden escape.
• Failed sealant and grout around baths and showers. Water that seeped through a worn silicone bead is excluded by most insurers.
• Empty homes. Escape of water cover is often restricted once a property has been unoccupied for more than 30 or 60 days in a row, depending on the policy.
• Frozen pipes where you broke a policy condition, such as leaving the heating off in a cold spell while away.
• Water from outside. Rain through the roof, rising groundwater and flooding fall under storm or flood cover, not escape of water.
• Condensation, damp and mould that built up over time.

Keep the failed part. A split compression fitting, a burst flexible hose or a cracked valve body is the best evidence that the escape was sudden. Photograph it in place before anyone removes it.

How the excess works, and when a claim is not worth it

Escape of water often carries its own excess, higher than the standard one on the policy. Several hundred pounds is common, and it can be set higher again for homes with previous water claims. It applies per claim, so a leak that damages both the building and your contents may mean paying two excesses if the policies are separate.

Every claim, and sometimes a phone call to report an incident, is recorded on the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE), the shared database insurers check when they price your renewal. A small claim that pays out a few hundred pounds above the excess can cost more than that in higher premiums over the next few years. If the damage is a stained ceiling and a damp patch of carpet, get the leak fixed and a decorator’s quote first, then decide.

What to do before you ring the insurer

Stop the water at the stopcock and turn off electrics in the affected area if you can reach the consumer unit without standing in water. Then photograph everything before you clean up: the source, the ceilings, the floors, the contents, with a wide shot of each room and close-ups of the damage.

Get the leak repaired as an emergency. Insurers expect you to prevent further damage, and a delay can reduce what they pay. Ask whoever fixes it for a short written report naming what failed and where, because the insurer will ask. For a leak you cannot stop, book emergency leak repairs, and a ceiling that is bulging with water is covered by ceiling water leak repair. The visit is the £60 call-out at any hour, and the repair price is agreed on site before any work starts.

If the insurer is sending someone and you are unsure what to touch, repairing a leak before the insurer visits explains what you can fix straight away and what to leave. The claim itself, step by step, is in our escape of water claim guide.