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Council housing - insurance claims

The Council insures its Council dwellings and, thus, in the case of a fire that destroyed a property the Council would claim on its insurance for the cost of repairing the property.

However , the Council does not insure any of the contents that belong to the tenant.We strongly urge that every tenant should have contents insurance.Contents insurance is available from a variety of insurance companies and probably the best starting point is the Yellow Pages telephone directory. As always, the Council is happy to give advice on home contents insurance should you require it.

As an example, if a Council tradesman were to hammer a nail into the wall and inadvertently burst a pipe which resulted in the floor being flooded and ruining the tenant's carpet, the Council would be responsible for the cost of replacing the carpet as clearly its action has been negligent.

However, there are a variety of other issues for which the Council may not be negligent. For example, if there is a particularly bad storm which lifts a tile off of a roof and as a result water comes through the roof, through the ceiling and damages a bedroom carpet, the Council would claim that it has not been negligent as it could not have prevented that from happening. Under such circumstances the Council would seek to reject any such claim.