Tree Root damage new house and mortgage

jimex3

Looking for advice please.

we are probably not the only ones this has ever happened to

we are in the process of buying a property with a separate garage, however on the mortgage valuers report it said there was some subsidence damage to the garage and a retention was imposed of £10,000 until a engineers report was provided and reccomendations acted on.

We got an engineers report and it said that damage was minimal and insignificant and would cost £100 to repair during the normal maintenance cycle, but it would appear that the damage may be caused by a tree in the neighbours garden and the underlying cause of the damage should be addressed if future cracking is to be avoided

Now the mortgage company have released the retention after their surveyor agreed with the structural engineer but have put the following paragraph in the letter to the conveyancers

"Before we can satisfy this condition we need to know how the removal of this tree can be managed since the tree is not inside the curtilage of the site as well as maintain the insurance cover for subsidence"


so any ideas on the best way forward here. we are hoping to move asap

pulling our hair out here as we have talked to a couple of big insurers and well its computer says no!! only after 5 years and another engineers report.

So for £100 damage and the trees are in someones elses garden agggghhhhhhhhhh

please help

Jimex3

dacouch

Are the mortgage company prepared to offer home insurance?

Cazza

The existing insurance company will need to maintain insurance, get your solicitor to contact the vendors solicitor to obtain this confirmation in writing from the insurance company. You're also going to need written agreement from the neighbours to take the tree down, I would push for the vendor to pay for this, or if they resisit it might be worth trying to get the original developer to pay??

jimex3

Sorry, its a new house to us not a new build,

we did try and get some sort of agreement with the current insurers directly and their response was:-

This would be a new policy and we may or may not cover for future subsidence in the future or exclude the garage from cover

once again to be fair they were computer monkeys, its hard to get brain on the phone

thanks for the advice so far

Cazza

Ah, sorry, I mis read your original post - I thought the property was less than 5 years old, you mean the insurers have only offered cover in 5 years time.

I really think this is something your solicitor should be dealing with. Whilst it's not common, it isn't that unusual and is something they are paid to deal with. The solicitor needs to get confirmation from the insurer as to exactly what type of cover will be issued and then refer that to the mortgage company for their approval. The lender will not accept a policy with a blanket exclusion on subsidence claims, but they may be happy with a policy which excludes subsidence on the garage, provided the tree is properly removed. Make you solicitor work for their money!

dacouch

It is very difficult to make the neighboor remove the tree, what would normally happpen is an official letter would be sent to the neighboor "To put them on notice" that the tree is / could possibly be causing damage to the property and that the OP reserves the right of recovery for any future damage.

This can be sufficient to prompt the neighboor into the action of either removing the tree or taking action such as crowning and / or pollarding the tree. It also gives the OP / their Insurers the option of recovery for any future damage caused by the tree.

It can still be difficult to obtain insurance though, so the insurer the mortgage company use or the existing Insurer would normally be the best bets

Treacle1983

There is something called an ABI agreement that all insurers agree to.

It means that depending on how long you've owned the property whatever insurance company previously insured the building has to deal with any subsidence claims/drain claims/tree root claims.

If you've owned it for less than 6 weeks - the previous insurer deals with it 100% - they will then communicate with the neighbours insurer to get the work done and share the costs.

If you've owned it more than 6 weeks but less than 6 months (I think) then the old insurer is only 50% liable and your insurer would have to chip in.

Over 6 months and it'll be 100% down to your insurer.

So if you have only just completed - find out who the previous insurer was and they will contact the neighbours insurer and deal with it 100%.