Underpinning 20+ years ago

chou-chou

We have viewed a house that was underpinned over 20 years ago - not when the current vendor owned it (think it was about 3 people before them). The problem was a large tree which is still there but the work done included reinforcement to protect the property from any further issues and there's no evidence of any movement.


If we're looking for buildings cover do we have to declare the underpinning even though it was so many years ago. Does there come a point where it's no longer relevant?

lincroft1710

If the insurer asks the question "has the property (ever) been underpinned?" without specifying a time limit, then clearly you should answer "yes".

kingstreet

There are insurers who ignore it if it's over 15 years ago/old.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Yes, if there is a question you have to answer it to the best of your knowledge. We believe our house was under-pinned about 70 years ago due to movement after a nearby WW2 bomb and there is no evidence it has moved since but our options were still restricted however there were still several mainstream insurers who cover this sort of historic movement within general policies and we chose Axa.

Slinky

The property we have just bought was underpinned in 1990. It has a building control marker on the local planning portal website. It was done under insurance.


Check the building record on the council website and see if it was properly recorded as being done under building control guidance.


Yes you will need to declare it, yes you will need to mention the tree is still there - if you have to put a claim in you can hardly expect an assessor to not notice an old tree.


Yes some insurance companies will refuse to quote but it gets easier after 25 years have passed without a claim.


Your vendors will presumably have buildings insurance, it may be easy to continue with their current insurers.


We got buildings cover on the house, which is currently rented out so will be more expensive than standard cover, for £450 with £300K rebuild cover and the insurance excess is the standard £1K.


No, there will never be a time when you don't have to declare it, but as more time passes without a problem, the less of an issue it will be.