3 for 1...!

The weekend didnt really start out as planned.

Friday evening I disovered that the toilet in our cloak room/laundry room was leaking water from the water tank into the bowl. I got the lid off the water tank, but couldn't make out what the problem was. This is the most modern toilet in the house and therefore the most 'complicated' one. The old ones on the other floors are easy to figure out what is what and how they work.

My fiddling around made matters worse and soon water was gushing down into the toilet bowl. Here in England the water usage is metered and we pay for the amount we use, so this was NOT good... I ended up having to turn off the watersupply to the house and started to worry about finding a plumber during the weekend.

I could see a hefty bill coming...

Suddenly I started thinking - didn't we have some kind of special insurance policy for the water supply...? I also recalled that the papers for renewing this had come through recently and I had glanced at them thinking this was a waste of money and perhaps I should cancel it. But I never got around to looking at it again and the policy had therefore automatically been renewed.

The papers had not been filed away yet and were still on my desk. I delighted to read that we are covered for such incidences and immediately called the company. They have 24/7/365 cover, and they arranged for a man to be coming out in the morning between 9 am and 1 pm since this was not an emergency. Annoying, but we were not exactly swimming through the house.

Saturday morning a lovely, polite and very charming young man turned up. He fixed the toilet and got in my good books by complementing me on managing to get the lid of the water tank off. It is a little complicated and takes a special technique, but I had actually made a point of seeing how to do this when the toilet was installed.

We got chatting and he noticed that the tap to turn off the main water supply was dripping if it was left fully open, so he proposed to repaire this while he was here.

I then mentioned that I was not happy with the kitchen tap which was 'moving' and I was worried water would get into the counter and destroy it. The lovely young man had a look and decided this also needed repairing and got a new tap from the car (he actually gave me the choice of two) and installed this for me.

And none of this cost me a penny (well, except for the insurance policy I am paying for)!

He said we had the highest coverage possible, so I might as well get my monies worth!

I have to admit my brain was racing - did I not have any other things he could repair while he was in the house...? Alas, no. All my plumbing issues are now resolved and I am a very happy customer who will not hesitate to call them next time I notice some other little niggling issues with the water or taps in the house. And I realised how useful this insurance cover is. All the three jobs today would have cost me a lot more than my insurance premium.

Now all I need is to get a handy man who can do some carpentry and electrical work...!

But the point of all this rambling is -

do YOU know what your insurance policies include and what you are covered for???