Does Home Insurance Cover Drains?

Buildings, contents and home emergency cover

Buildings insurance covers the structure of your home and, in most policies, the pipes and cables that serve it, often listed as underground services or service pipes. If a drain is damaged, this is the part of the policy that normally applies.

Contents insurance covers your belongings. It does not pay to fix a drain, but it may pay for carpets, furniture and other items spoiled when sewage or water backs up into the house.

Home emergency cover is a separate add-on, sometimes bundled with a policy. It typically pays for an engineer to attend an urgent problem, such as a blocked drain that has left the house without a working toilet, up to a set limit. It usually stops at making things safe and does not pay for a full repair.

Accidental damage versus wear and tear

The most important words in any policy are about cause. Insurers generally pay for sudden, accidental damage: a pipe cracked by a heavy vehicle, ground movement, or digging. They generally do not pay for gradual deterioration: old joints slowly opening, pipes corroding, or a material such as pitch fibre deforming over decades. Many drain problems are a mix of the two, which is why claims often turn on the details.

Tree roots sit in a grey area. Some policies treat root damage as accidental, others exclude it, and some depend on whose tree it is.

Is a collapsed drain covered by insurance?

A collapsed drain may be covered if the collapse was sudden and caused by an insured event, such as an accident, a burst water main washing out the ground or subsidence where that is part of your cover. It is less likely to be covered if the collapse is the end point of years of decay. Read the section of your policy on underground services and look for the exclusions list, which often mentions wear and tear, gradual deterioration and faulty workmanship.

Who owns the pipe matters

Your insurance only covers pipes you are responsible for. In Scotland, the drain serving your property alone is generally yours. Once it joins pipes from other properties, the shared length may be a public sewer owned by Scottish Water, which repairs its own pipes at no charge to the householder. If the fault is in a public sewer, your insurer is not the right first call.

In flats and tenements, shared drains and stacks are usually common property. Repairs may fall under a common buildings policy arranged by the factor rather than your own, so check your title deeds and speak to the factor.

Excesses and whether to claim

Every claim carries an excess, and some policies have a higher one for escape of water or subsidence. For a minor repair, the excess and the effect on future premiums may make claiming poor value. For a large excavation under a drive or extension, it may be very worthwhile. Knowing roughly what the repair involves helps you decide.

Questions to ask your insurer

• Does my buildings cover include accidental damage to underground drains?
• Are tree roots, wear and tear or deformation excluded?
• Do I have home emergency cover, and what is its limit?
• Should I contact you before any work is carried out?
• What excess applies to drainage damage?

Questions we get asked