Is rising damp covered by insurance policies? The short answer, no. Damp or condensation damage is not ordinarily covered by home insurance. When you apply for home insurance, you need to agree to a list of assumptions. One of the assumptions you need to make is that you agree your home is in a ‘good condition’. Therefore, if your home has rising damp, it is recognised as ‘not in good condition’, leading you to invalidating your insurance.
Some insurers offer specific cover for rising damp treatment. Others also offer a more comprehensive cover which includes rising damp.
Why Won’t My Insurance Cover Rising Damp?
When you submit a claim to your insurance, the claim implies that the damage was sudden or unforeseen. How
ever, rising damp occurs over a period of time. Thus, the defect was caused by design or defective workmanship.
Damp is usually associated with poor waterproofing or defective damp proofing course. Therefore, if you submit a claim stating that the cause of loss is “damp”, you can expect your insurer to reject the claim. Purely because the loss occurred has been over time or that the loss was a result of wear and tear or defective waterproofing rather than storm, flood or bursting as is expected.
Rising damp treatment is not a cheap treatment and is intrusive to home owners or building occupants. It creates a large amount of dust and rubble as it includes hacking, drilling and chopping. The scope of work for rising damp treatment is always included in our quotations to the client. Therefore, you are aware of the mess it can make in the beginning. However, our damp team always clean up afterwards of course.
Do you have any more questions on rising damp treatment? Get in touch with our professional damp team today! They will answer any questions you may have.