The ground floor of my house was flooded by torrential rain.
My insurance company says my policy doesn’t cover groundwater flooding. I had no idea about this. What can I do?
LL, York.
Washout: A reader’s insurance company refuses to pay out after their home floods because their policy doesn’t cover groundwater flooding (file photo)
Dean Dunham responds: Groundwater nuisance occurs when heavy rainfall causes the groundwater level to rise and the sewer and drainage systems become overloaded.
Unfortunately, many home insurers do not cover groundwater nuisance as part of their general home insurance, so there is a good chance that your insurer is right.
However, that does not necessarily mean that you have no rights. In order to not include groundwater flooding in your policy, you must
to be included in an exclusion clause. Your first step, therefore, is to make sure that it is indeed excluded. If you are unsure, ask your provider where you can find the exclusion clause.
Assuming there is such an exclusion, the second consideration is whether this important information has been made clear to you. In this regard, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that important terms (such as an exclusion in a contract) must be made prominent.
This means that the trader (in this case the insurer) must take appropriate measures to ensure that its customers are aware of this.
If this is the case, you should then check whether your provider has made the exclusion ‘prominent’ or not, taking into account the fact that you were unaware of it.
I recommend that you ask this important question to the provider. When you receive an answer, you can judge for yourself whether a reasonable consumer would be aware that groundwater nuisance is excluded from the policy.
If you decide the answer is “no,” file a formal complaint with the provider.
Explain that you believe the exclusion is unenforceable because it was not made clearly visible, as it should have been under the Consumer Rights Act.
If your provider disagrees, which is almost certainly the case, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You can find out more at financial-ombudsman.org.uk.
Where can I take my defective lease car?
I leased a car from a dealer but turned it down within a month because I suspected the steering was defective, making it difficult to steer.
Now the dealer asks me to bring it for an inspection, but I want to take it to an independent garage. Do I have the right to choose?
FS, Gillingham, Kent.
Dean Dunham responds: If an item (including vehicles) is found to be defective within 30 days of receipt by the customer, the consumer has the right to reject the item and demand a full refund.
This is the ‘short-term right to refuse’, and is enshrined in the Consumer Rights Act. This is the right you have invoked.
Normally, when you complain about faulty goods during the first six months of a purchase, the burden of proof is on the trader to prove you wrong – meaning they have to prove that the problem was caused by you rather than the manufacturer’s fault. This is called the ‘burden of proof’.
However, when a consumer exercises his right to refuse at short notice, the burden of proof lies with the consumer. In this case, you must therefore prove that the vehicle is defective and that the defect was present when you bought it.
As usual, the garage where you purchased the vehicle will want to inspect the vehicle so that they can assess for themselves whether there is a defect and, if so, what caused it.
This is a pretty standard answer and is acceptable, but if I were in your shoes I would be concerned about leaving the car at the garage as this could obviously cover up the defects.
It is therefore wise to ask an independent garage to look at the car and give you a written opinion.
Since the burden of proof is on you, the law allows you to take this step. Make sure the outside garage only inspects the vehicle and does not interfere in any other way.