We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A NUMBER OF insurance companies have confirmed they are changing their home insurance cover to include the loss of metered water in the case of a leak, with one deciding on a limit of €1,000.
Anything beyond that will have to be paid by the homeowner.
Irish Water has previously said that it would not charge to fix leaks in a homeowner’s garden the first time, but after that, they are on their own. The next time it happens, they will have to pay for it to be fixed, as well as facing a potentially significant water bill.
Insurance company Allianz said that it would, of course, pay claims for water damage arising from leaks but cover for lost water will be capped at €1,000.
A spokesperson for Liberty Insurance told TheJournal.ie that the company is reviewing its cover as the firm covers accidental loss of metred water as a standard feature of its household cover in Northern Ireland. They said the plan is to provide a similar feature once there is greater clarity on the scale of water charges.
Aviva said it will also be waiting for clarity on charges before deciding how it might insure customers against it.
“As it stands, we do not know for definite if the charge is to be fixed or based on metered use nor do we know the level of the charge,” a spokesperson said. “It’s not possible to calculate the exposure of customers to the risk of a leak in the new charging arrangement without this information.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Oh look, another unintended consequence of the clusterf**k known as Irish Water. I’m sure it won’t be that last either.
No. Not on my insurance, never will be on my insurance, Not paying, not going to pay, will not be paying, Payment is not on my list of things to do, not now ,not tomorrow, NEVER feeding my kids is top of my list.
It’s not an unintended consequence, nothing has actually changed. Your electricity supplier is not responsible for the wiring in your house or in your back garden, similarly your local authority has never been responsible for the water pipes on your property.
Your property is the responsibility of you. If your roof blows in or windows smash or fuseboard blows or piping breaks then it’s up to you to fix it. It has always been this way with private property. You own your own house.
Just have another read of the article there ‘david’.
Good man.
You should probably have a read yourself. Anything beyond the meter is your property.
They kindly offered to do it for free on the first occasion but it’s still your property.
So what happens in my mothers case where her meter will be at the back door will irish water be responsible the forty feet of pipe from back door to the main road ??
Howya Statto Burke and how are things in the Quango for Confusing Statistics going ?
Why don’t you be a good man and tell us that our motor Tax already covers our leaks !
Please do feed your kids, Tom.
Tom, obviously feeding your kids should be top of anyone’s list, but stop with the victim playing and acting like you’re struggling to feed your kids. You’ve got internet and a smartphone/computer, are they ahead of feeding your children? No. Then surely having water for your children to drink should go above internet internet and laptop in this list of priorities. But lets be honest, you’re not in the situation where you’ve to choose, so stop pretending you are.
Internet in work ? Or friends house ? Library ?
Pete of course that’s “possible” but your kidding yourself if you think that’s true. I could be using Obama’s phone to write this, prove I’m not..
He isn’t writing from a library because he can’t afford internet due to having to feed his children, I’d bet anything on it.
Dont know why it’s open for debate, IW will be gone soon, simple
Prove you’re not using President Obama’s mobile? Are you in The White House right now? If you’re not, its pretty easy to prove that.
Many cases of where councils ran piping for one property through another, that’s going to be great isn’t it
It’s quite sad to see people acting as sheep for the government.Run along now David,Mr Kenny and his good pal Denis want to shave your wage slip a bit more.
Regardless if IW is abolished or not nothing will change with regard to the householders responsibility for leakage repair costs, or any other repairs within the boundary of their own property,thats why people take out private insurance cover.
What IW says is irrelevant unless you are dumb enough to contract with them.
Iw can F off
Jeepers things are getting really desperate…more scare tactics…still not paying AGAIN though.
Are you not going to pay for your food aswell? You pay for food, why not water?
Only pay once for the food thomas only going to pay once for the water. All you brave volunteers who like paying for things twice are free to do so, it is a democracy after all or so we are told
DH is that how you think a democracy works? People who don’t want to pay for something just don’t? You say “paying for it twice”, how?? And don’t give me the motor tax sh!t, that is how it is currently being paid and that money will obviously be used elsewhere now. They had to pay for it somehow and motor tax had to be used. The benefits of the new system are:
1. People will be more conservative about the water they waste
How can you have a problem with that in theory? If your against it cos you think the government is corrupt, then you should be against ALL taxes and charges that go to the government. But your fixated on water…
Do you pay your tv license?
Are you John Tierney in disguise?
thomas if you feel so strongly about it why don’t you go out and protest. you could chant, ” hell yes, we will pay”
1. People will be charged more if they use less water than expected.
Doesn’t matter either way, the sham company will be abolished
Hmmmm nope
Personal Story.
I bought a bottle of 1.5 litre SPARKLING volvic from the station up the road there a while ago. I forgot I had it and left it in the back seat. Didn’t it only go and leak all over ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ in the back seat! I was livid. I rang Irish Water about the leak, and not only did they tell me it WASN’T their fault, and they weren’t going to fix it, they also said that they WERE a branch of Dominos pizza and that I was to stop ringing them!!
I can’t believe the cheek of these people.
Also, I find Twink to be mildly abrasive but she’s okay when she’s pretending to be a man dressed as a woman in the Panto
Arsenal at it again eh? walking it in
The only way they would have a chance of getting money from me in this instance/ever is if…….Poseidon himself decided to appear underneath my home,his forked spear punctured my water pipes,in the ensuing chaos a tsunami was formed and I was swept away to my death,and the executor of my estate decided to pay my “bill”.
The Insurance company will press up the prices because of the Irish Water debacle, bet they’ll forget to reduce again after Irish Water is defeated.
Absurd to think people talk about water shortages in this country when it hasn’t stopped raining and everywhere is flooded. It obviously doesn’t suit some for people to say this however, they would rather we didn’t say “the emporer has no clothes”. Then we have to pay for a commodity and make them even richer. If it wasn’t so awful it would be hilarious. The system updated and servicing that wasn’t carried out with our taxes up til now does need to be paid for so why don’t the government stop this farcical IW situation immediately, stop paying, Jihn Tierney and all the rest, stop paying for PR, stop paying Denis O’Brien for meteres immediately and start fixing the pipes NOW. Will they be held to account for continuing to waste our money long after they knew the ship was sinking. Will anybody have to answer for this. Wicklow Council among others have voted against the water charges and every day it becomes more clear that the majority if people in Ireland are wholeheartedly against IW and yet this government continue to ignore us and hope we will all go away. When did Ireland become a totalitarian state ? The sinister forces that Leo Varadker spoke about are inside The Dail.
Question for anyone objecting to paying for water: Do you pay your tv licence? Surely tv licences (that pay overblown salarys of hundreds of thousands to rte “stars”) is a much bigger injustice and disgrace?
It’s such a dated concept, why is there no protests about it? Even if you don’t want rte, if you use a tv for other channels you have to pay rte? It’s ridiculous, but no-one cares. Why?
When we ve defeated IW we will turn our ire on rte and the tv license. Rome wasnt built in a day thomas but i promise we will get around to all the gripes just give us a chance
I hope so. Tv licence is a disgrace. Water charges, I can see the arguments for and against but in principle it isn’t so bad (ie if honest people are running it). I see logic for the robbery that is the tv licence.
For people red arrowing, please take a second to outline your arguments in favour of a tv licence?
No one can be bothered “Thomas”. Already sick of the daily dose of tired, boring ‘whataboutery’ seeking to distract from the matter in hand. Good enough for you?
No that’s a pretty lame excuse “Sheik”
thomas your choice to pay or not, but no need to try and put down those who want better for their children
If a protester prevents a contractor from finishing putting a meter in so it has to be concreted over who would pay if a leak should occur between the mains and the stopcock under your sink? (There is no access to a stopcock any more, on the path)
If you haven’t been provided with a stopcock in the big whitebox then those who put in the white box – Enda and Dennis and Jean Claude – gentlemen the lot of them – or at least they keep themselves that I’d guess !
*keep telling
if we are all European now can we protest like this on the 10 th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eNMy32tZWg
I know there is an ecological catastrophe waiting to happen in Longford over a disused pig farm’s slurry – maybe we should bring it up to the water treatment plant in Ringsend …
I’d do it myself but I only know the way to Kildare Street !
I doubt that many of the “I won’t pay” brigade have ever been responsible to take out home insurance.
*responsible enough
any stats to back that up or are you just trying to inflate a balloon
have your say