My Insurer will not cowl flood harm to my house: DEAN DUNHAM

The downstairs of my house has been flooded following torrential rain. 

My insurance provider says my policy does not cover groundwater flooding. I had no idea about this. What can I do?

L. L., York.

Dean Dunham replies: Groundwater flooding occurs when heavy rainfall causes the water table to rise and, as a consequence, storm sewers and drainage networks become overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, many home insurance providers do not cover groundwater flooding as part of their general home insurance policies, so it’s likely that your provider is correct.

However, that does not necessarily mean you have no rights. For groundwater flooding not to be included in your policy it will have

to be included within an exclusion clause. Your first step is therefore to make sure that it is indeed excluded. If you’re not sure, ask your provider to identify where you can find the exclusion clause.

Assuming there is such an exclusion, the second consideration is whether this important information was made clear to you. In this respect, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that key terms (such as an exclusion in a contract) must be made prominent.

This means the trader (here the insurance provider) must take appropriate steps to ensure that its customers are made aware of these.

With this being the case, your next step is to consider whether your provider made the exclusion ‘prominent’ or not, bearing in mind that you knew nothing about it.

I would advise asking the provider this key question, and when you receive a response you can make your own assessment as to whether a reasonable consumer would have been aware that the policy excluded groundwater flooding. 

If you decide the answer is ‘no’, make a formal complaint to the provider.

Explain that you feel the exclusion is not enforceable because it was not made prominent, as it should have been under the Consumer Rights Act.

If your provider disagrees, which it almost certainly will, you can lodge a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service, details of which you will find at financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Where should I take my faulty lease car?

I leased a car from a dealership, but rejected it within the first month as I reckon the steering rack is faulty, making it hard to steer. 

Now the dealership is asking me to bring it in for an inspection but I want to take it to an independent garage. Do I have the right to choose?

F. S., Gillingham, Kent.

Dean Dunham replies: When goods (including vehicles) turn out to be faulty within the first 30 days following the customer taking possession of them, the consumer has the right to reject the goods and demand a full refund.

This is the ‘short-term right to reject’, and is included 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 onus is on the trader to prove you are wrong – which means proving that the problem has been caused by you rather than being a manufacturer’s fault. This is called the ‘burden of proof’.

However, when a consumer exercises their short-term right to reject, the burden of proof rests with the consumer. So, in this case, you must prove that the vehicle is faulty and that the fault was present when you purchased it.

As is common, the garage you purchased the vehicle from is asking to inspect the vehicle so it can make its own assessment as to whether there is a fault and, if so, what the cause was. 

This is a fairly standard response and is acceptable – but if I were in your shoes I would be concerned about leaving the car with the garage, as it could, of course, cover up the faults.

It would therefore be prudent to ask a third-party garage to have a look at the car to give you a written opinion.

As the burden of proof rests with you, the law allows you to take this step. Make sure the third-party garage only inspects the vehicle and does not interfere with it in any other way.