underpinned house insurance

darren._3

can anybody offer me any advice?
we are currently buying a lovely family home but our solicitors have just informed us that the house was underpinned in 1996, a fact which we were previously unaware of. I believe the house is structurally sound with no history of movement. It appears the underpinning was done as a precautionary measure because a large 2 story extension was planned to be built (and subsequently built) 2 years later. I have since had the property checked by a very experienced builder who has worked for an underpinning company for years and he tells me there is no evidence of significant movement and the property appears structurally sound. From this point of view i have no concerns about the structural stability of the property.

my concern is about getting reasonable buildings insurance since it appears many insurance companies will not even consider underpinned houses, regardless of the reason for underpinning.

i believe we are getting the property for a very good price and probably the lowest price the vendors can let it go for so i really dont want to ask for a reduction

i just wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction as to which companies will insure the property without vastly loading the premiums.

any advice would be apprecited.

diable

Off topic but I would have thought an unpinned house in the street would be a safer bet then a house that hadn't been underpinned.

You may need a specialist insurance broker then your usual ones that you find on the internet as anything off the norm will throw them in a tizz.

CloudCuckooLand

You should ask the vendors about their insurance. If the underpinning was declared, or perhaps even done with insurers oversight, then keep continuity of cover may be the most economical, and provide the widest cover.

darren._3

from the conversation i have had with the vendor i suspect the current owners have never declared the fact that the house was underpinned to their insurers. this makes the insurance policy worthless in my eyes because if there ever was movement the insurance company would probably not pay out.

and yes, im pretty confident a house that has been underpinned as a precaution without any movement is more structurally sound than the neighbouring properties...but unfortunately i dont think most insurance companies employ such logic.

flora48

I got insurance for property that was underpinned in 1984. We use Woodstock, just a little more expensive than I was paying before but with the standard £1000 excess for subsidence

dacouch

diable wrote: »

Off topic but I would have thought an unpinned house in the street would be a safer bet then a house that hadn't been underpinned.

You may need a specialist insurance broker then your usual ones that you find on the internet as anything off the norm will throw them in a tizz.

It depends, a house that has only been underpinned on one side can sometimes be more prone to subsidence as one side of the house is stronger than the rest which can aggravate it.

darren._3

thanks, i will look them up amd call them. i dont mind a larger excess, its the highly loaded premiums i want to avoid.

Seanymph

I did this last week.

It depends on why it was underpinned.

You can run it through a normal comparison website, tick that it's been underpinned, and untick subsidence (if that's the case) - we got normal insurance because the underpinning was caused by an inadequate flooring mix being laid in one part of the property, so the flooring alone had to be taken up in two rooms and relaid.

Subsidence makes insurance companies twitchy - underpinning doesn't necessarily do so - a combination of the two and you have really big issues.

darren._3

yeah, theres no history of subsidence, which company did you use? ive found most iunsurance companies twitchy at underpinning alone, regardless of the reason.

retro_vision

We fell in love with a house, which we found out had been underpinned when the search results came back. We tried a number of the big players, but got absolutely nowhere. Then found a broker who were brill and gave us a fab deal.

Ember JD Insurance Brokers, 020 8941 2204, website emberjd.com

All the best.

Slinky

There was a letter only today in the Sunday Times Money section about somebody who had had a 31% increase in their existing insurere's premium because their house had been underpinned due to previous subsidance which happened a long time ago. They wanted £1000 for buildings cover (Zurich). A broker managed to find them a deal with Aviva for £300.