The cold-weather clause
A frozen pipe is covered with a condition attached, and the condition is about you.
Standard wording covers damage from a pipe that froze and burst, but conditions that cover on the owner having either kept heat in the building or shut the water off and drained the system. Most people meet the condition without knowing it exists. An unoccupied house with the heating off does not.
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What the clause actually asks of you
Two alternatives, and either one satisfies it: maintain heat in the building, or shut off the water supply and drain the plumbing and appliances. It is written as a choice because both prevent the same failure. What it does not permit is an unheated building with water still in the pipes.
Maintaining heat is not defined as a temperature in most forms. Practically, a thermostat left at a low setting with the supply on is what insurers expect to see.
Draining means the system, not just the visible taps: supply lines, the water heater and any appliance holding water.
Why an empty house is the usual refusal
A second home, a property between tenants, or a house whose owners went away for a fortnight in winter are the three cases where this clause is applied. The house was unoccupied, the heating was off to save money, and the pipe froze — which is exactly the sequence the condition was written for.
A power cut is a different matter and is treated differently by different insurers, because the owner did maintain heat and something else removed it. If that is your situation, say so precisely rather than summarising.
Where frost is rare the clause still applies
The condition is in the standard form everywhere, not only in cold states. A hard freeze in a region that rarely gets one causes far more burst pipes than the same temperature in a cold one, because the plumbing is not run or insulated for it and nobody is expecting it.
Pipes in unheated spaces — a garage, a loft, an exterior wall, a crawl space — are the ones that go first, and those are the same places in every climate.
Who this clause reaches
The condition attaches to whoever was responsible for the building at the time.
- 01You own and live here. If the house was occupied and warm, this clause is not your problem. Say so plainly when you report the claim and move on to the damage.
- 02You own a second home. This is the case the clause was written for. Either leave heating on at a low setting all winter, or drain the system properly and keep the invoice that proves you did.
- 03You own it and rent it out. A property empty between tenants is your responsibility, not the letting agent. Decide now which of the two options you are relying on.
- 04You rent here. If you turned the heating off and went away, expect that to be asked about. The building claim is the owner, but the conversation will reach you.
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What to ask before you agree to anything
Ask these of whoever turns up. A contractor who answers them plainly is the one you want; a contractor who will not is telling you something.
- 01Which pipes froze, and are they in an unheated space that will freeze again?
- 02Are you insulating or rerouting anything, or only drying?
- 03How much of the wall has to come out to reach the split?
- 04Is there other plumbing in the same space that should be checked now?
- 05What would you do to stop this recurring next winter?
- 06What licence covers this work, and what is the number?
Have this ready before you call
Three facts move the first minute past the formalities: what happened, when it started, and whether water is still moving. These add the detail that decides what gets loaded on the van.
- Whether the property was occupied when it happened
- Whether the heating was on, and roughly at what setting
- Whether there had been a power cut
- Where the pipe froze: loft, garage, exterior wall, crawl space
- How long the property had been empty, if it was
- Any invoice showing the system was drained, if it was
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Where these figures come from
Every number on this page is published by someone other than us, and each link goes to their own text rather than to a summary of it.