Another drain problem...:(

ormus

yes but that insurer has no liability to the new owners.
even if the new owners managed to get paid out from the previous owners (very very doubtful) it is highly (100%) unlikely that the insurer will pay out to their party, due to the general wear and tear clause.

i know all about employers liability insurance. a very different animal.

phill99

You are right, the Insurers do not have a liaility to the new owners. Their liabilty is to the PROPERTY, regardless of the owners. Its just so happens that the curent owners are not contracted to the insurers. Liability runs with the land and if it can be proved that the damage occured while the property was insured by the previous insurers, then the previous insurers are liable. I appreciate that this is a bizarre situation, but like I said above, the liability doesn't end once the insurer and insured part company.

Car insurance is the same. If I change my car insurance today to a new company, but ran into the back of someones car last week, my previous insurer is liable for that damage, even if I am no longer under contract to them. At the time of the damage, it is the insurance company who held liabilty at the time that will cover the cost of repairs. This is the same with buildings insurance. Liability doesnot end once the policy ends.

phill99

Just noticed your post Dave. Your second paragraph is correct - 'Buyer beware' etc and I agree with you entirely. But I refer you to my previous post. I have come across this situation in my work and liabilty doesn't end for an insurance company once the policy has lapsed. And insurers don't put old policies in the bin. Because they have a liabilkity and hence a risk for some time to come after a policy has finished, albeit a residual one.

Case in point, I worked on a property last year where a couple had brought the house some 9 months earlier. I was asked to investigate water damage to a ground floor ceiling. The damage was caused by ingress of water that I believed had been going on for a number of years i.e. that started before the current occupier moved in. After investigation by the current insurers assessor, he concurred with my suspicions and they wouldn't pay out as the damage hadn't started during the time that the new owners had owned the property and hence during the time that the liabilty of the current insurers was in place. The home owners contacted their solicitors, and after much wrangling and teeth clenching and after many months it was the previous home owners insurers that paid for the repairs. So their liability doesn't end at the time the contract ends.

vaio

The way I read the link it is the current insurers who are liable

Canucklehead

Hi

Maybe I'm missing something here, but, if the previous owners moved out I assume they would have cancelled their insurance. If they had made no claim on said insurance before they moved out, then the company would have no interest in any claim submitted post cancellation.Wouldn't they?
I assume that would apply to your car insurance as well, phill,if you made no claim on the policy until after you changed insurer why would they entertain you.? You have no policy with them any more.

To the OP . You might find you are up to your neck in sewage before you get any joy from an insurer. You could do what another poster did recently with the same problem pitch fibre drains and start digging . This will reduce repair costs.
Get some quotes in based on that.

GSR.

phill99

Canucklehead, I would refer you to my second paragraph in post #14.

Canucklehead

Hi

It seems I am wrong then.:(
However, how long would you estimate the OP will be swimming in human waste before the insurance pays up?

GSR.

phill99

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi

However, how long would you estimate the OP will be swimming in human waste before the insurance pays up?

GSR.

That is a very fair and important point! Its ok proving a principle, but if someone is up to their knees in there own effluent, its all academic!

MX5huggy

What if the previous owners changed insurers every year?

vaio

or didn't have it

As I said earlier, the way I read the FOS link was that, assuming it worked when you moved in, then the current insurers are liable