Lender stipulating subsidence excess amount - have been told it must be under £1000?!

amrgibbons

Hi - I really need some advice from someone who has bought or sold a house that had a previous subsidence claim!!

We are currently selling our house, which 3 years ago suffered subsidence. We put a small claim into the insurers totalling £1500 for cosmetic work. They removed a tree at the front of the house but it was not underpinned and we were issued with a certificate of structural adequacy.

Our buyer was aware of this and had no problems. We are in the final stages of the house sale (and purchase) where contracts are being signed ready to exchange but now their lender is saying the insurance policy our buyers have obtain is not satisfactory and that the subsidence excess must be £1000 or under?! Insurance policies on houses which don't have a history of subsidence had an excess of £1000 as standard so they are struggling to find an insurer without an high excess. They don't mind paying the slightly higher premium its the lender that is causing the problem!! I just can't understand why a lender cares about the excess? Surely its down to the buyer as to whether they are comfortable to pay the excess should it be required.

Any help of advice from someone who has had experience buying or selling a house with previous subsidence would be much appreciated! Many thanks

anselld

Not your problem. The buyer just needs to get the right insurance sorted. Perhaps the use of a broker with knowledge of the market would help them.

Slinky

Our new house had a previous subsidence claim and underpinning, 27 years ago.


We got insurance with £1000 subsidence excess with Vasek.


That claim could haunt your property forever, some insurance companies will consider it if nothing else happens after 25 years.


We only got ours because it was more than 25 years ago.

amrgibbons

anselld wrote: »

Not your problem. The buyer just needs to get the right insurance sorted. Perhaps the use of a broker with knowledge of the market would help them.

I know its down to them to sort but if this falls through we will lose the house we are trying to buy so I want to do everything in my power to stop them pulling out

amrgibbons

Thank you! Ours wasn't underpinned so that should go in our favour as its not a serious and expensive claim. I have just done a quick quote with my details with Vasek and excess is coming out at £500 but is with underwriters so I suspect the premium may be really high. Will just have to wait and see.

Thanks for your advice!

jfdi

Have they tried the same insurer you use?

We bought a house with subsidence, underpinned etc 30 years back, but continued to insure with the same company (new policy obviously!), and there was no problem. They're not going to penalise you for possible substandard work when they authorised it in the first place!

Just an idea.......

amrgibbons

We tried this option already as thats what their mortgage broker advised.

We took the policy out with Santander but the administrators are BISL Ltd, however Santander have now moved to Aviva as administrators and have been told because of the change in administrators they are unable to do what they would ordinarily do. Slightly frustrating that because Santander have changed their back end processes we are at a disadvantage.

Thank you for the advice though