High risk of subsidence area

themcoo4

We recently exchanged on a property. I told the solicitor I had not arranged insurance but she said it didnt matter until we completed. So I said ok to carry on with the exchange. After she had gone off the phone I tried to get house insurance but I kept being refused the reason being it was in a ,high risk of subsidence, area. I phoned the solicitor straight back and told her not to exchange but she said she already had.

The high risk did not come back in any of the searches and wasn't in the Homebuyers report. When I told the solicitor that I hadn't got insurance they said it has to be in place on exchange. I said I wasn't aware of this and told them the solicitor had told me it didn't matter.

Does anyone know if I have any come back on the solicitor or if it should have been picked up by the surveyor? We are desperately worried and at the moment think we have bought a uninsurable, unsellable property for £475 k.

We are suppose to complete in a week

Any information would be appreciated

happycamel_2

I'm no expert but I'd say:
1) write a letter of complaint to the Solicitor but also check what you have in writing. It may well state on your paperwork (it does on mine) that insurance must be agreed in priniciple on date of exchange

2) have you checked the more specialist home insurers? You may need to go with one or arrange for insurance which doesn't cover the risk of subsidence and then take on that risk yourself.

3) has the house had underpinning work? If so this may mitigate the risk of subsidence and you just need to tell the insurers that

4) whether you have any comeback on the surveyor depends on the what you contracted them to survey. If it was just a mortgage valuation survey then it may not cover subsidence risk just existing evidence of subsidence. Equally a general survey may come back with no risk for that house but other houses in the area may have greater risk and it's that macro level that is putting the insurers off.