Home insurance/ongoing subsidence claim/doubling in premium

ladybird74

Hello. I hope someone might have some insight into this issue. We bought a house last year in a location we love (surrounded by trees). It had had some underpinning around about three quarters of the building about twenty years ago but nothing showed up on either of the two surveys we had done in terms of ongoing movement. We took out an insurance policy through a broker which had a £1,000 excess for subsidence. Plus the cost of the policy itself was pricey - around £1,000 annual premium for the buildings plus £500 for the contents. We had had about five houses already fall through (we're in London) and we just decided to go for it notwithstanding the expense. We made the house (which is a bit of a project) liveable in and within a few months of moving in, a huge crack began to appear on one of the walls (exactly where the plans showed the earlier underpinning stopped). In short, the part of the house that hadn't been underpinnned has started to move.

We just got our renewal through and the insurer is looking for £2,300 to insure buildings and contents. My broker says this is due to the claim and that we can't move insurer before the claim has been settled. The insurance company seems to have put aside a reserve for the required works that is completely disproportionate to anything that any builder/engineer has said to us (4 x more).

Is there anything we can do to push back on this? I've said it's unreasonable and disproportionate and flagged that I am particularly worried about future premium being pegged to the current reserve which is likely to be way in excess of the actual amount finally claimed.

It also seems to me that the excess is way above the standard excess.

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

paddyandstumpy

The £1k excess for subsidence is standard. Very few insurers (if any) still do a lower value.

As to premiums, I'd be surprised if your claim value is directly linked to the load.

rs65

ladybird74 wrote: »

I've said it's unreasonable and disproportionate and flagged that I am particularly worried about future premium being pegged to the current reserve which is likely to be way in excess of the actual amount finally claimed.

The reserve will only be there until the claim is settled

dacouch

rs65 wrote: »

The reserve will only be there until the claim is settled

And includes an amount for alternative accomadation to put you up in a rented house for 6 months +

dacouch

I get laughed at in the homeowners forum of mse when I point out a parially underpinned house is not totally safe from further subsidence.

That and the it hasn't moved iun 15 years so won't move again...

paddyandstumpy

Perfect case in point. The underpinning supports the walls, those that aren't done will usually succumb... as this has.

Best of luck to the OP, but this is why mainstream insurance usually steers clear of a partial underpinning.

OP - you say within a few months the cracks appear, if you can pin it back to the first 8 weeks (I think) you may be able to push the claim back to the previous insurers under the Domestic Subsidence Agreement.