Plumbing and Drainage Cover

Plumbing and Drainage Cover

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Whether you live in Birmingham or Bristol, Cardiff or Cambridge, London or Leicester, the best plumbers in your area are probably in very high demand – and higher demand equals higher prices.

So if your kitchen is flooded by a burst water pipe or your toilet is backed up due to heavily clogged waste pipes, you’ll be ‘flooded’ with a sudden sense of relief if you already have the right plumbing and drainage cover in place.

Of course, when you do take out plumbing insurance it’s important to find a cheap home emergency insurance quote, because if your annual premium is too high then you could end up paying more for insurance than the actual repair would have cost you.

That’s why it pays to shop around, by comparing a wide range of quotes for home plumbing cover before deciding which insurance provider to go with.

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Do I need home plumbing insurance if I am a tenant?

Plumbing and drainage cover is generally not something tenants have to worry about, since your landlord owns your building and it is usually their obligation to ensure the property’s plumbing and drainage systems are well-maintained and fit for purpose.

For that reason many landlords will take out a landlord insurance policy that specifically includes home emergency cover – that way their insurance provider should hopefully pay for most of the cost of repairs if the property is flooded or a plumber needs to be called out to unclog drainage pipes.

It is worth bearing in mind, though, that your landlord’s insurance policy may not cover the cost of replacing your contents if they are damaged by a leak or other plumbing emergency.

Since broken pipes can often damage your furniture, electrical equipment and other personal property, it could be a smart decision to take out a separate contents insurance policy yourself.

I own a buy-to-let property – is plumbing cover mandatory?

There’s no legal obligation for a landlord to take out any type of home emergency insurance for their buy-to-let property, although some buy-to-let mortgage providers might insist that you have an appropriate level of landlord insurance in place before your tenants move in.

How can I find cheaper plumbing and drainage cover?

The first thing to keep in mind is that it pays to shop around. The cost of plumbing and drainage cover can vary considerably from provider to provider, so you should be able to find cheaper quotes if you do a plumbing insurance comparison.

Also, when it comes to home emergencies “prevention is better than cure”.

By reducing the risk of a plumbing or drainage emergency (and therefore reducing the likelihood that you will have to claim on your home emergency cover), you can benefit from cheaper plumbing insurance premiums in the future.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the likelihood of a clogged drain or broken water pipe, including:

• Taking care with what is flushed down the toilet – most residents are away that tampons, sanitary towels, kitchen paper and ordinary wet wipes should not be flushed down the toilet. However, many experienced plumbers will advise that even the supposedly ‘flushable’ wet wipes can clog waste pipes, so it is best to throw those in the bin too.
• Ensuring that grease and oil are not poured down the sink –many residents pour grease and cooking oil down the sink, but the kitchen sink is the biggest cause of flooded homes, and pipes clogged with solidified grease is often the primary culprit.
• Ensuring that nothing is hung from exposed water pipes – while it may seem convenient to hang laundry, bags or sports equipment from exposed water pipes, they were never designed to hold this kind of external weight and can warp or fracture under the load.
• Avoiding putting cistern blocks in the toilet cistern – cistern blocks may seem like a quick easy way to ensure toilets remain fresh and clean, but they often contain corrosive chemicals that can damage valves, pipes and u-bends.

Is plumbing and drainage cover a waste of money?

In some cases it could prove invaluable, while in others it could be an obvious waste of money.

For instance, if you’re a homeowner you may already have home insurance for your property. Some of those insurance policies include some element of home emergency cover, so it would be worth checking the terms of your current insurance policy if you’re thinking of taking out plumbing and drains cover, in order to make sure you’re not wasting money on duplicate insurance.

Additionally, if you’re a council tenant or private tenant it would almost certainly be a waste of money for you to take out your own plumbing insurance policy, since your landlord may already have one in place and they are obliged to pay for any plumbing repairs even if they don’t have the right insurance cover.