Subsidence Insurance

blondeandirish

We were recently purchasing a property which had underpinning completed in January 2010. We have tried numerous insurance companies including ones that specialise in insuring properties with subsidence history. We have faxed over the extensive engineers report to countless companies and the response we are receiving is that they will offer insurance but excluding subsidence cover, then after 12 months they are requesting that a full engineers survey be carried out on the property. As we have had to take out a mortgage on the property this is no good and also we don't feel that we should have to outlay more cash 12 months down the line (especially as the vendor is a national building firm). We asked for the details of their insurers which they very kindly gave us only to find that they were the very first insurers we tried and they gave us a straightforward no.
Has anyone had any similar experience or could give us any advice?
We are currently pulling out of the sale but I am feeling very bitter towards the builders as we have incurred costs.

huckster

You need to approach the company that was Insuring the property at the time of the underpinning work. If they dealt with the claim, they will want to try to get some money back, so should be willing to quote on full cover. If they said no before, contact them again and ask to speak to a manager. They will want the details of the vendors previous Insurance with them, so make sure you have these details. e.g. policy number, policyholders name, which office of the Insurers dealt with the policy.

blondeandirish

Thanks Huckster, the property was bought back by the builders from the people who had originally bought it from them. When our solicitor advised the builders that we were pulling out, they said to approach their insurers. I have even thought about going through the mail in the property that is for the previous owners but I'm not sure i would be breaking the law by doing this, to try and find out if there are any letters from their insurers. We are now waiting for the builders insurers to get back to us with a decision, though we have decided that perhaps this property is too much trouble then it is worth as we will have problems when we come to sell it on. My next step now is to see if i can get the builder to pay our legal costs, especially if there insurer will not insure. Its worth a try but I doubt they will:mad:

huckster

Sometimes buying an underpinned house is not a great idea. Make sure the value reflects this, as it will have less value than a property that has not undergone this work.

Bureau Insurance services, may be worth a try, if you haven't already. But over the period of ownership, you could end up paying thousands in extra Insurance costs, over an above, what you would have done, for a non underpinned house.