Declare or not to declare subsidence that occured over 25 yrs ago?

adamc260

dacouch wrote: »

If that's the only question they asked, you could legitimately insure with them if you had bought a house that had suffered from flood, subsidence, heave or landslip

It may be worded 'has the property ever', im off the clock can't remember the exact wording on the screen :P But I see where your coming from if it just says 'have you ever'

vusys1

i thinks its "has the property ever" they also ask if in any area of subsidence,flooding etc or has any neighbouring property suffered from subs....etc etc.

my house had some minor repairs following coal mining subs,sent in the report all ok to insure no special terms etc.

dacouch

vusys1 wrote: »

i thinks its "has the property ever" they also ask if in any area of subsidence,flooding etc or has any neighbouring property suffered from subs....etc etc.

my house had some minor repairs following coal mining subs,sent in the report all ok to insure no special terms etc.

RIAS and Saga had similarish wordings some years back, I lost some of my clients who had properties with subsidence to them. I warned the customers that they would have problems in the long run. The Insurers realised the mistake and when they became aware of each individual case, which was when the policyholders were selling the properties and the purchasers solicitors picked it up. They refused to transfer / offer cover for the purchasers. I had quite a few people come back wanting cover arranged within literally days to avoid their exchanges falling through. Virtually everyone of the original insurers (Who had paid the subs claims) declined to offer cover. They had to arrange very expensive specialist cover which also takes a while to arrange. Many of them also had to drastically drop the selling price

retro_vision

My house in Nottinghamshire is within an area affected by mining, which stopped in around 1985. I won't take any chances about disclosing info, with the prospect of well and truly regretting it at a later date.

Had a real job finding cover until found tl dallas on a search, website tldallas.com. My premium was £176 for buildings, £254 for cover with contents, absolute bargin:j.

dacouch

They are part of TL Dallas Group, I have used TL Dallas in the past and they have a very poor reputation, I would not touch them with a barge poll.

There was a TL Dallas employee who was spamming MSE and many other websites some time back, he stopped after being reported to the FSA by me

*Scarlett

You need to err on the side of caution. As you are aware of subsidence issues with the property albeit a long time ago, I would always declare this to the insurer.

Get some online quotes (without including the subsidence) and ring any that you are interested in to clarify their stance on the subsidence issue. Some want to know about any subsidence that has ever happened, some within a certain number of years. You may be required to provide information regarding the mining in the area, proximity of mine, Coal Board reports, etc. Also you might need a surveyors report on the property.

It all sounds like a bit of a faff but if you could make a considerable saving it might be worth doing.

vaio

I'd say you need to err on the side of answering all the questions on the proposal honestly, on-line purchases without human intervention is getting to be the norm now and so insurance companies ask about anything they need to know about in the proposal.

Ringing just confuses matters and could well end up costing you money, apart from anything else the call centre operator you talk to is likely to be poorly trained/paid whereas the people who decide what questions are on the proposal tend to be the experts who know what is required.

magpiecottage

L&G seem to only ask if there has been subsidence in the last 15 years at the moment.

That seems, to me, a more sensible position to adopt.

From a disclosure and utmost good faith point of view if a firm says it only wants to know about the last 15 years that would seem to amount to a declaration that it does not want to know about anything further back. Just hang on to the documentation, though.

connrado

Home and contents insurance up for renewel end of this month. Nationwide wanting £460 due to subsidence claim made in 1984, old mining town everybody claimed supposedly. Live in a 100 year old property and no signs of movement and have never claimed for building or contents, been here 5 years. After several calls to nationwide eventually ending with pay or cancel, I decided to cancel.

I did a insurance policy search. Home Protect came up and contacted me later in the day. I explained the situation and they informed me that after 25 years of subsidence claim or more they didn`t have to enter into system. In the end I am looking for exactly the same policy as Nationwide at a price of £180, quite a saving. Has anyone had any dealings with Home Protect or know any other insurers with this policy

Thanks

hollyp_3

Thanks for this. Saga increased my premium to £1100 this year, buildings only. we had subsidence 22 years ago which was fully underpinned and have been paying over the odds for insurance ever since. Moved to L& G this morning for £477
I did try to negotiate with Saga but the operative coudn't really be bothered to talk to me. I think Saga have really gone down hill since they joined with AA. They used to be so good.:(