Home insurance – pre-existing conditions

On the programme on Wednesday 29 April 2026, we showed how a couple had been caught out when they tried to make a claim on their home insurance for a poorly installed wet room, because the work had been carried out before the current policy started. Their insurer advised them to go back to the insurer at the time the wet room was installed, even though that policy had long since expired.

Solicitor Denise Nurse has this advice to help in this kind of situation:

• Hold on to the details of previous insurance policies as long as you can – they may be needed years down the line if a claim can be traced to an event that first occurred a long time before.
• Be an investigator - if you’re struggling to remember which company insured your home previously and no longer have the paperwork or policy number, consider a search of your email inbox, and look at old bank statements, which could show where a premium payment was sent.
• Gather detailed evidence of damage, such as photographs, and make sure it’s dated, so that you can be sure when issues first arose.
• Look at when any secondary damage occurred, which may have been caused by the original problem – this ‘specific event’ may be covered by your current insurance policy, rather than an older one.
• Keep up a clear and open dialogue with your current insurer to see what assistance they can provide.