Insurers for subsidence/underpinning?

ceh209

Welcome to the latest saga of my OH's mum's house sale...


The house she is selling previously had subsidence and was underpinned, in 1999.

The people buying wanted to check they could get proper buildings insurance, so asked her current insurer, Direct Line. They said no.

OH's mum checked with Direct Line, who again said no. And then proceeded to say they would cancel her current cover, and charge her for the priviledge. OH's mum is pretty clueless when it comes to these things, and her ex previously dealt with everything like this (and knowing him, probably never declared it either). She knew the work had been done but had no idea it needed to be declared so no lectures please, this is the first i'd heard of it! :eek:

What's the next move? Just had a quick look on a comparison website which lets you select 'subsidence' and it pretty much doubles the cost, but is this sufficient or do you need to declare the underpinning separately?

Obviously the buyers had some sort of survey but not sure how full a one it was.

Any advice welcome

huckster

You declare the subsidence and then they ask you a load of questions, plus request documentation. I doubt that cover can be arranged online or if you can this would only be temporary and exclude subs until the Insurers had been able to review certain information. They will want details of the works completed and probably a structural engineers report which will cost around £500.

The Insurers that dealt with the original claim would be the best to approach, if you can find out who it was.

If not check with a local broker (not Swintons) and try Towergate and Bureau Insurance Services.

vusys1

what was the cause of the subsidence? if coal mining (some insurers will still accept as agreement in place,as far as Iam aware this is just for NCB mining and not private etc) My prop had a prev subs claim with natwest with prev owners, but they wanted £5000 subs excess,went with the Pru std £1000 Blds & conts avg £180 a year.

huckster

vusys1 wrote: »

what was the cause of the subsidence? if coal mining (some insurers will still accept as agreement in place,as far as Iam aware this is just for NCB mining and not private etc) My prop had a prev subs claim with natwest with prev owners, but they wanted £5000 subs excess,went with the Pru std £1000 Blds & conts avg £180 a year.

If the underpinning works were done as part of a claim against the National Coal Authority (NCA), then they (NCA) have met their obligations as far as I am aware. The NCA are only responsible for the first claim and works required, plus follow up regarding the same event of damage.

The property owner would need to continue Insurance with the current Insurer at the time or go through all the relevant information with other Insurers to see whether they would be willing to accept the risk and on what terms.

ceh209

Once again it turns out I've been fed 10% of a story...

my OH made up that it was subsidence that caused the underpinning.

OH's mum thought it was underpinning but it actually wasn't, it was a 'ground floor replacement slab' because something in the foundations had rotted away?

Anyway she now has to explain this to her insurer and her buyers, fortunately she has found the paperwork to prove it :rotfl:

God i can't deal with them sometimes! :rotfl: