What can trace and access insurance cover for your customers?

Taking extra insurance isn’t always something that customers want to consider when it seems there are already so many compulsory types. But one kind of insurance that may be very beneficial, should the situation arise, is called trace and access cover.

Why might customers need the policy? Trace and access insurance is designed to help if there is a leak of gas or water in the house. In many cases, if there is a leak the process of finding and dealing with it can involve a lot of work. But often, this work isn’t covered under a standard home insurance policy or with only a limited level of cover.

Instead, customers can take a separate policy that covers the cost of finding and uncovering leaking pipes as well as the damage caused in the process. It helps with situations where the homeowner is liable for the costs such as with underground services that cross the land in addition to pipes within the home.

According to stats from Defaqto, in 2014 a review of over 320 home insurance policies found that 271 offered some cover while another 52 offered no cover at all. Of the policies that did cover the work, around two thirds of them had a limit between £5,000 and £10,000 for the work while only 8% of those studied covered more than £10,000 cover.

Leak finding process Many customers don’t realise what the process is to find a leak. There are situations where the leak is very visible and easy to find but in many cases, it is more complicated or could be in a location that is underground.

Many companies now use clever technology to find the leak with the minimal disruption possible to the home. But there is no guarantee that these technologies can work in all situations or that there still isn’t some disruption needed to access the pipe and use the technology.

How the policies work

With a trace and access claim, you may have an approved repairer supplied with your policy who you contact to do the work of tracing the leak. Alternatively, the policy may state you can use a plumber or engineer of your choice.

The policies do state that the policyholder should take steps to minimalize the damage where possible – so for example if there is a bathroom leak and the workman takes out the entire bathroom suite, the insurer may want to inspect this before covering the damage to ensure it was necessary.

For companies offering leak detection services, advising potential customers about these types of policies can be a good idea. Obviously if you are detecting a leak, then a new policy won’t cover this work but if there is a future problem, the customer would be covered. And if you are conducting general checks or amendments to the system, letting the customer know about such insurance can help with customer service and building customer relationships.

For more information on water leak tracing, why not get in touch with Ferret Technology? The Ferret leak tracer makes it easy for you to locate leaks so you can fix the pipe as soon as possible. Call us today on 0800 292 2835 or fill in our contact form and we will get back to you.