Subsidance and Insurance

trinnylilac

Had a bit of a shock yesterday when my next door neighbour ( who has just sold his house) can round with the full structural survey his purchasers have just done.

The report says that his and our house has subsidance. We are a semi and the effected part is the wall in the middle of the two houses :eek: It will be a massive job to remidy as inside the house. Kitchen will have to come out etc.

I have phoned my insurance company and they have confirmed that they do cover this if confirmed and we will have the standard £1000 xs

I had no idea where my docs were so I sent for another lot and they arrived this morning.

Now reading through ( which I have stupidly never done in the 7 years I have been with this company) it says that you must inform them of any extension or change in the property or it may mean you are not covered.

Now worried sick as this year we put up a stud wall in one of the bedrooms to split it in two to give the kids a bit of space from each other and also had a conservatory added 5 years ago...

So do I call them up to let them know
( that have 4 instead of 3 bedrooms ( 4th very small and could be a study)

And that now have a conservatory.. do you think this will invalidate my claim for subsidance
Cannot afford the possible £30,000 + cost of works needed.

courtjester

No don't worry, neither the stud wall nor the conservatory would have any effect on the cause or symptoms of subsidence of your party wall.

The stud wall is too light and is non-structural in the sense that it does not change any of the building wall loadings.

The conservatory is too far removed from the issue anyway and is regarded at law as a temporary add-on structure, not an extension which would be more massive and (generally) full building height i.e. two storey.

It would only be material in this case to your claim if the subsidence was affecting the part of the building CHANGED or EXTENDED, which might give the insurers a get out if they were not aware of the change.

Essentially, your only potential problem is under-insurance - if the conservatory has massively increased the building size so making your original sum insured a bit low. But providing you were up to date on that, the additional value of the conservatory would probably make only a small difference to the total rebuild cost of your property.

I suspect in any event that the subsidence now discovered is probably historic - it may be old and if movement is not current, your insurers may suggest no action is required. A period of monitoring would be required together with possibly some internal investigations which might require some disturbance (if access for digging an investigation pit is needed to expose the depth of the foundation).

It's best to get the matter fully investigated via your insurers so that at least the property can be given a clean bill of health or any remedy required is completed - this will be highly relevant if you come to sell yours.

going2die_rich

But if they suggest no action is required wont that just be making the problem worse, since when they come to sell the buyers will factor in that when bidding for the property so offer far less money (if the mortgage company will even lend against the proeprty to begin with) and also won't all other insurance policies ask if their is subsidence so you'll be paying more insurance preimums later on since you have to say yes?

oramgepekoe

Is your neighbour's sale still going ahead or have the buyers pulled out?

trinnylilac

oramgepekoe wrote:

Is your neighbour's sale still going ahead or have the buyers pulled out?

So far the buyers haven't pulled out and we are both waiting for our home insurance assessors to come out and visit...I am not sure I would want to go ahead with buying a house with possible subsidance especially if the isurers just wanted to do a lets wait and see job..

Total nightmare, I am imaganing an inspection pit where my kitchen used to stand and me trying to keep my toddler away..
I keep laughing about it to stop myself becoming hysterical.

But you have really put my mind at rest with regards to my cover ..

courtjester

going2die_rich wrote:

But if they suggest no action is required wont that just be making the problem worse, since when they come to sell the buyers will factor in that when bidding for the property so offer far less money (if the mortgage company will even lend against the proeprty to begin with) and also won't all other insurance policies ask if their is subsidence so you'll be paying more insurance preimums later on since you have to say yes?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it - if the subsidence is not ongoing, then there is nothing to 'fix'. In most Victorian and older buildings this is called 'character'.

At present there is doubtless only a report indicating *evidence* of subsidence, it doesn't mean that anythng needs to be done - that is why it needs investigating first to properly understand whether the building is moving now and if so why, or if this is merely the first time someone has spotted the fact that the building has moved in the past.

The insurers will undertake this and investigations should reveal a suitable solution if a remedy is required to arrest the movement. If no action is required becasue the movement is shown to be old and dormant, this is also a 'solution' which should satisfy any future buyer or insurer. The current insurer(s) should have no difficulty in offering continuation of cover for any new purchaser.

Mrs_pbradley936

Trinnylilac just relax. I was just like you are now a couple of years ago. Our house is now 10 years old and so still under the NHBC warranty. It all started when the neighbours opposite had their garden wall collapse on a car and there was an insurance claim. We had men digging holes in the garden, surveyors, structural engineers, insurance assessors you name it they turned up. Some from the NHBC others from Norwich Union and others still from Cunningham and Lindsey no idea who they were but I had got used to picking up the phone and saying “Yes of course you can come and look at my house, you need access to the garden too? Yes that will be fine.” They came back every so many months to take measurements. What did they do? Nothing! Said it was all due to the long hot summer we had enjoyed in I think 2003 and that trees were looking for moisture and – well to be honest it all went over my head but now we must not let any trees or bushes within so far of the house get above about six feet tall.