Subsidence checks free??

huckster

Could this be a drainage issue causing problems?

If I were in this situation, I think I would be asking the vendor to get a surveyors report, before I proceeded any further.

What you don't want to do, is start incurring fees e.g. mortgage fee, surveyors, solicitors and then have to pull out because your own survey thinks there could be ongoing movement, which is more than settlement.

Treacle1983

If you google ABI insurers agreements. there is an agreement in place with all insurers for things like drains/tree roots and subsidence.

If you buy a house and it is founds to have subsidence within a certain period of time of you buying it (don't quote me but I think it's 3 months) then the previous insurance company that insured the property will cover claims and costs on the old policy. So it won't cost YOU anything.

Within a slightly longer timeframe (again don't quote me but I think its 3 months to 6 months) the old insurer and your new insurer would go 50/50 on a subsidence claim.

If it was identified outside that period it would be on your own insurance.

The reason for this is because things like drains/tree roots and subsidence take a long time to show their ugly heads etc....

hope that helps.

also most insurers will actually send someone out free of charge if you think you have possible subsidence (eg: cracks etc..) and you will only have to pay the excess (normally £1000) IF the claim goes ahead.

huckster

Treacle

I have been caught out on this before with the ABI subs agreement. It only applies if there is a change of Insurer, NOT property owner. If you buy a property and there is pre existing damage, the previous owners Insurance company will not want to know. The only way around this, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is to obtain a policy with the same Insurers as the vendor and get the vendor to agree to sign over rights of any claim/ the new policy arranged by the buyer continues the cover of the previous policy. The Insurers will agree to this, if the vendor and buyer agrees to sign up to such an arrangement.

There was a case on a forum where someone had bought a property which was a write-off due to subsidence. This was only found out after about two months of buying the property. The sellers Insurance company did not want to know. They pointed out that the ABI agreement did not apply as change of property owners. Luckilly for the buyer of the property, their mortgage company due to the negligence by their surveyor agreed to take the property back and refund the deposit and all costs.

Treacle1983

Ok so googled and yes it does state previous insurers and not change of owners - strange thing is that i've worked for companies that have merrily covered subsidence claims for properties that had been recently purchased and where the surveys had founds nothing etc.. then subsidence had been found, and covered them under the ABI agreement.

huckster

Treacle

I have had the same experience, but I think that was when Insurers were making very good profits. Now that they are struggling to make any money, they are sticking by the wording of the agreement.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Phil, if you are concerned that there may be subsidence at the property, speak to the estate agent and ask them to get the vendor to make a claim on the insurance for "suspected subsidence". This goes against their claims record; not yours.

The current insurers of the property will appoint a loss adjuster to investigate (if you get a choice of adjuster, ask for Merlin as all their subsidence adjusters are structural engineers too and they will give a "mini report" that you can keep on file for future reference). The loss adjuster will confirm whether it looks like subsidence or not and what to do about it.

The best bit about this is that it costs you and the vendor nothing, unless subsidence is found and then the vendor pays the £1,000 excess out of the estate; if there is no subsidence the vendor (a dead person) gets a claim recorded against their name. Who cares about that!!!

The thing is that you need to make it clear to the vendor that:

a. you are interested in the property
b. this is a "win/win" situation as it's free to everyone but the insurance company!

Best of luck.

Phil_GT

survey has come back with the house has a few signs of minor movement that could be settlement due to shrinkage cracks of materials used so whoppppieeee