buildings insurance

yoshef

We have just bought a house, everything has gone through now and we've completed.

I was reading the buildings insurance policy document and noted it said "Your home has not suffered from and shows no indication of subsidence or any other structural problems"

It quite clearly has had some settlement/old movement and it says so in the survey, but it was nothing to worry about - but i wanted to make sure if we were still covered. I called the insurance company to clarify this. They did a quick check with their underwriters or something, and came back to me saying that they need the name of the previous company that provided the building insurance, and for the time being we haven't got subsidence cover in our policy and it might affect the mortgage.

ive asked estate agent if they could contact previous owner and ask but now I'm in panic mode at the moment, am I worrying unduly?

Have I been uber-stupid or is this normal? how can this affect the mortgage, is it because it is offered as long as we have buildings insurance

Janusian

Don't know how applicable this is to you, but our house had suffered from subsidence in the past when we bought it.It had however been underpinned and we had the docs to prove it. We ended up going to a local broker, who placed a policy with Norwich Union which included subsidence cover.

Worst case scenario for you would be if you cannot find the old insurance, or suitable documents to support your case, that you will need to get a structural survey done. This will confirm whether the property is sound, or what chance of further slippage there is. With that in hand you should be able to find someone to insure you, albeit with some conditions attached if there is a problem. You could also ask you neighbours who they use if you, like me, live in a problem area.

silvercar

submit the survey, that you have already had, to your insurers. The underwriters will gather more information from that than a call centre guy repeating parts of what you tell them. If they come back for more information go from there.

barrymoney

Hi -
This is just based on my limited experience:

Can you insure via the mortgage lender?
My survey said the same as yours, and I called Halifax insurance, told them every detail I knew, and they said no problems for insurance in my case (as long as it wasn't known to be subsidence. Well, they knew that cos they'd just given me the mortgage).
I made notes about the conversation I had, and who I talked with.

mchu6am4

Why didn't you ask for some advice here before contacting your insurers?

Generally its best to take building insurance through the lender (for 1st couple of years) as they have all the information since they provided you a mortgage based on this information.