Subsidence found second day moved in, please help !!!

Living_proof

I do know how you feel, and I went through all these emotions myself. I think the worst thing was that nobody took me seriously and poo-poo'd the idea of subsidence. It seemed obvious to me as we had gone on holiday, no cracks on front of house. 16 days later following Monsoon-like conditions in our absence, the cracks were quite evident. I felt like I was getting no support and was told not to contact the insurers - as if by doing this the whole problem would go away. Further cracks followed and one of the sash windows upstairs wouldn't close due to movement. I felt like the kitchen floor was moving (although it turned out this WAS a figment of my imagination!) and it was very distressing and unsettling. Through all this I was going through a protracted divorce, battle with ex through the courts to get any child support, thank God I kept on the house insurance although it wasn't so affordable. The monitoring of the cracks went on for over 18 months so during that time I couldn't sell the house when I desperately wanted to move out of the village, where ex still lives. It was a very stressful time. I finally moved out and away whilst the repairs were being done and have never looked back. My new house is just a few years old and I paid quite a lot more than had I bought an older one, but I couldn't face the possibility of it happening all over again. (although of course it could but it's not likely in my lifetime). You will come through this and out the other end, it will be sorted - it's only bricks and mortar. My advice would be to keep your own counsel, trust your gut feeling and take independent specialist advice of your insurer who will use a loss assessor to keep the costs down which might be to your detriment. Have a massage, go swimming, try and release the tension physically and mentally it will all become clearer.

Filo25

Living_proof wrote: »

I do know how you feel, and I went through all these emotions myself. I think the worst thing was that nobody took me seriously and poo-poo'd the idea of subsidence. It seemed obvious to me as we had gone on holiday, no cracks on front of house. 16 days later following Monsoon-like conditions in our absence, the cracks were quite evident. I felt like I was getting no support and was told not to contact the insurers - as if by doing this the whole problem would go away. Further cracks followed and one of the sash windows upstairs wouldn't close due to movement. I felt like the kitchen floor was moving (although it turned out this WAS a figment of my imagination!) and it was very distressing and unsettling. Through all this I was going through a protracted divorce, battle with ex through the courts to get any child support, thank God I kept on the house insurance although it wasn't so affordable. The monitoring of the cracks went on for over 18 months so during that time I couldn't sell the house when I desperately wanted to move out of the village, where ex still lives. It was a very stressful time. I finally moved out and away whilst the repairs were being done and have never looked back. My new house is just a few years old and I paid quite a lot more than had I bought an older one, but I couldn't face the possibility of it happening all over again. (although of course it could but it's not likely in my lifetime). You will come through this and out the other end, it will be sorted - it's only bricks and mortar. My advice would be to keep your own counsel, trust your gut feeling and take independent specialist advice of your insurer who will use a loss assessor to keep the costs down which might be to your detriment. Have a massage, go swimming, try and release the tension physically and mentally it will all become clearer.

Personally I would never involve my insurer unless I was pretty sure it actually was subsidence in the first place, certainly glad I didn't when I had foolishly convinced myself my house had subsidence, I have read a few horror stories of people getting subsidence tags on their insurance records on the basis of going down that path even though their house didn't actually have subsidence!

I would monitor it myself and speak to the original surveyor on thier return, before going down that path.

If you are getting progressive movement it will become apparent pretty quickly,

The external cracks that I was so worried about haven't changed at all over the last year and a bit in spite of some pretty harsh weather conditions, and to be honest they weren't remotely as bad as I had convinced myself they were in the first place.

I had a few friends in the trade look at them and all said I could engage a structural surveyor if I wanted to but I would just be wasting my money.

The weather this summer will give my house a tougher test for its resilience anyway!

Living_proof

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/17/cracking-summer-uk-insurers-expect-rise-subsidence-claims-heatwave and that's precisely what happened to me = came back from holiday to find noticeable cracks which hadn't been there before.