Artex ceilings - declined a quote for home insurance

Trevor1989

I need some advice regarding home insurance.

Our attached garage was underpinned 18 years ago by the New Homes Building Council (NHBC) and our home insurance company no longer wants to insure us as our mortage term is coming up to 25 years and the building society will not extend the term or offer to continue the insurance (which came with the mortgage). The property is fine and I have a recent structural engineers report and a certificate of structural adequacy.

None of the mainstream insurers are interested in providing a quote because of the underpinning, so I seem to be having to try some of the more specialist brokers who will insure previously underpinned properties.

I contacted one of these a couple of days ago and during the phone conversation I was asked about any previous household claims for the past 5 years. I said that the only one I had was last year when water seeped through the kitchen ceiling from the bathroom above. The ceiling was not repairable as it had damaged the plasterboard in several places. As this was an artexed ceiling a check for asbestos was made and as expected there were the usual low-levels found, so the ceiling had to be removed by a professional team.

At this point, the broker stopped the conversation and I was told that there was no way that the underwriters would quote. I was quite staggered by this, as it is well known that there are probably millions of homes with artexed ceilings containing low levels of asbestos

So my question is this. Is it normal for insurers to decline quoting on properties where asbestos in artex ceilings is known to be present?

I would also be particularly interested to hear from anyone who has previously underpinned property and has good experiences of using specialist brokers or any other advice. I am quite worried that I will end up without any insurance at all. :eek:

Thanks

Trev

spacey2012

Try online, they usually just ask type of claim, date and value, so water leak, value £xxx
Dont tell them things they dont ask about.

TSx

Definitely not normal - in fact, the insurers don't even ask this question on the proposal form (you would need to declare an escape of water, but nothing more than that) so I can't see what the brokers going on about.

I would suggest speaking to Legal and General as they are only interested in subsidence occurring in the past 15 years.

Out of interest, who was the specialist broker involved?

TSx

spacey2012 wrote: »

Try online, they usually just ask type of claim, date and value, so water leak, value £xxx
Dont tell them things they dont ask about.

There will be problems doing this online due to the property being underpinned - generally, a broker is the way to go with this to get you a better deal, but as I said in my previous post, try L&G first.

Trevor1989

TSx wrote: »

Out of interest, who was the specialist broker involved?

Towergate.

Trevor1989

TSx wrote: »

Definitely not normal - in fact, the insurers don't even ask this question on the proposal form (you would need to declare an escape of water, but nothing more than that) so I can't see what the brokers going on about.

I would suggest speaking to Legal and General as they are only interested in subsidence occurring in the past 15 years.

Thanks very much. I will contact L&G and see if they will quote.

I'd welcome any other thoughts anyone may have on specialist insurers for underpinning. I've heard that the cover provided is often less than 'comprehensive'.

Thanks

Trev

Mozette

My old house had artex ceilings and had been underpinned. LV insured it.

I'm not sure if they asked about either, or if I told them, I must admit.

dacouch

Who were you insured with by the BS at the time of the under pinning?

Trevor1989

dacouch wrote: »

Who were you insured with by the BS at the time of the under pinning?

Municipal Mutual.

After investigating tonight I have discovered that AXA home insurance require only 10 years minimum subsidence free history. So may well look at that as well and Legal and General.