Beat the ‘flood from within’ this winter
esure home insurance is urging homeowners to take a simple precaution if they go away from home during a cold snap to prevent major burst pipe incidents that can cause over £60,000 of damage per claim.
It is simply: leave the central heating ticking over but turn your stop cock off! The only exception is combi boilers - where mains water pressure is required - which often have a ‘winter safe mode' anyway.
Calculations from esure's claims show that major burst pipe incidents(1) - where families are away for more than three or four days after bursts occur - cost on average more twice that of typical river flood claims.
Typically, homeowners returning from time away find that pipes have frozen then thawed rapidly causing the escape of water from attic or loft pipes. This will eventually bring down ceilings in their home after water has flowed unchecked causing massive damage and often completely destroying the home's contents.
Gordon Hannah, Director of Claims at esure said: "The flood from within can be far worse than the flood from outside. Every winter esure sees a tragic blueprint: families go away during freezing weather and a thaw causes their pipes to burst. After a few days of water flow from an attic, they return to find their homes and personal belongings utterly destroyed.
"The cost of burst pipe claims is huge but the emotional impact and inconvenience to homeowners is far worse. We're urging people to turn off the stop-cock - if their boiler permits - when they go away and leave the heating on. It is usually the simplest way to prevent this type of disaster."
To minimize the risks of a home emergency this winter, esure is advising homeowners who go away over the winter to:
find the stopcock and make sure it works.
turn the stop-cock off when going away so long as the boiler system permits this.
leave the central heating system on for short periods of time throughout the day or switch to ‘winter safe' mode.
remove the loft hatch from the roof space to allow warm air from the main house to enter.
open doors to the sink unit to allow warmer air to circulate around the pipes.
use only gentle heat, like bottles or towels soaked in warm water, if trying to manually thaw frozen pipes.
turn off all outside taps in winter.
clear gutters and drains of leaves and blockages.
take out insurance - via Home Emergency Cover - to provide immediate professional help in an emergency.
esure's Home Emergency cover:
Adding Home Emergency cover to an esure policy, at inception or renewal, costs £3.99 a month (incl. IPT). It is currently free to new customers for the first year and pays up to £500 (inc. VAT) for the call out charge and up to 2 hours labour costs. Also included within this £500 is the cost of any parts and materials up to a maximum of £100 (inc VAT). Cover starts as soon as you take out the policy. An instant call out to the home emergency line will help to minimise damage and possible inconvenience of alternative accommodation. This will also reduce the 'cowboy' element - fairer prices and better workmanship.