Previous owner made Building Ins Claim - Increased Premiuns for new owner?

gettingtheresometime

Son is in the process of buying his first home and was due to exchange today but yesterday, after signing the documents, he went to set up Building Insurance.


He was then told that there was a building insurance claim back in 2015 for water damage - even though on the property information form the answer to the question has there any been any claims on building insurance was no


The interesting point to this though, even though the damage was repaired is that the premiums quoted has gone up from £17 pm to £40 pm - why would this be ?

molerat

Statistically because that property has been damaged by water, either flood or leak, the chances of it happening again are higher.

gettingtheresometime

molerat wrote: »

Statistically because that property has been damaged by water, either flood or leak, the chances of it happening again are higher.

Is there a set period of time for which he'd have to declare this...is building insurance like car insurance where they normally ask about accidents in the last 5 years.

Tom99

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Is there a set period of time for which he'd have to declare this...is building insurance like car insurance where they normally ask about accidents in the last 5 years.

If you obtain a new quote you are only asked if you have made a claim, you can't be expected to know whether a previous owner has made a claim.

paddyandstumpy

I wonder if 'water damage' was flood?

gettingtheresometime

Tom99 wrote: »

If you obtain a new quote you are only asked if you have made a claim, you can't be expected to know whether a previous owner has made a claim.

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

I wonder if 'water damage' was flood?

Tom99 - that's what we would have thought as well but our son was having difficulty in getting a policy set up on line so rang them to organise it & that's when we learnt of the claim


He rang again later yesterday and was told about the increase in premiums.


Paddy - the words that the insurance co used was flood but given the location of the house we assumed that it was water damage rather than flood (from a river etc)


It would certainly explain why the house was newly decorated!

paddyandstumpy

There doesn't have to be a river nearby for it to flood, surface water foooding is still flooding!

If the property has flooded that's pretty serious for it to not have been disclosed on the report.

He may struggle to insure it in the mainstream market with a flood history, just be warned...

gettingtheresometime

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

There doesn't have to be a river nearby for it to flood, surface water foooding is still flooding!

If the property has flooded that's pretty serious for it to not have been disclosed on the report.

He may struggle to insure it in the mainstream market with a flood history, just be warned...

I totally agree - I'm more than annoyed on his part as I'm now wondering what else he hasn't been told.

His solicitor has asked for further details of the claim so once we know that then he can decide on a way forward.