East Suffolk Council

Insurance claims for council tenants

The council insures its council dwellings and in the case of fire, flood, or structural damage 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 obtains contents insurance. Contents insurance is available from a variety of insurance companies and probably the best starting point is the Yellow Pages telephone directory.

To help tenants, the council has worked closely with a specialist of tenant insurance and launched a contents insurance especially for our tenants. A copy of the application can be downloaded and is operated by Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) insurance.

Council tenants may make insurance claims against the council for any damage that the council causes to the tenants' possessions, or injury to the tenant or members of their family, that was the fault of the council through neglect. For 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. It should be noted that the council cannot be responsible or held negligent for an act that it did not know about or could not have foreseen, such as a frozen pipe bursting.

There are a variety of other issues for which the council may not be negligent. For example, if there is a bad storm which lifts a tile off of a roof causing rain water to come through the roof and ceiling and damage a bedroom carpet, the council would not have been negligent as it could not have prevented that from happening.