Environmental report- natural ground subsidence and insurance

ellectrastar

Hi,


I've had an environmental report back on a place I am buying and it returned the results saying there was a moderate risk of natural ground subsidence, landslide hazard, and compressible ground hazard.



I've looked through previous threads and can see general consensus about natural subsidence is that this would be because the superficial geology is clay, silt, and sand, and that all properties in the same area would probably return the same result as the search is based on a 50m radius (although only a couple of other properties would fall within this). The same for the compressible ground rating. Some of the descriptions are a bit alarming e.g. "significant potential for compressibility problems". I've checked the British Geological Survey website and can see the maps showing the areas and have asked them if this is all the results are based off of.



I imagine the landslide risk is because it's in a valley??


The property is within 25m of a high risk flood area. There is a stream that runs through the land but the property is elevated from it and there is no history of flooding, so I'm not too worried about that.



To top it off it is in a Radon-affected area! (But again, looking at the BGS map, so is the whole county.)


Anyway, I've let my surveyor know so they can pay attention to this area.



My query is - within the description it says for existing property possible increase in insurance risk. When I insure it, do insurers receive similar information on things such as flooding and subsidence risk from the post code?

Davesnave

Just ask insurers for quotes.



It doesn't really matter how insurers gain their information; you only need to know whether the amount is going to be within the bounds of what you'd call 'reasonable,' or not.

ellectrastar

This result doesn't mean I need to tell them or request higher levels of coverage for that area then? I know they ask if previously flooded. Do they ask if there are signs of subsidence (I think they might??).

davidmcn

ellectrastar wrote: »

This result doesn't mean I need to tell them or request higher levels of coverage for that area then? I know they ask if previously flooded. Do they ask if there are signs of subsidence (I think they might??).

You answer the questions they ask you. I've never seen ones which ask about desktop search results you've received, only whether the property has actually suffered from flooding/subsidence in the past. Otherwise they'll figure out the risks from their own data (which don't always make sense - I've been deemed to be in a flood risk area when I was in a second floor flat, up a big hill above the river in question!)

ellectrastar

Thanks. I know their main objective is get out of paying claims so didn't want it to be an issue should, God forbid, something along those lines happen. I really don't think we should subside, and even though we're classed as high risk of flood the stream onsite would have to breaks banks and rise an awful lot to reach us. It did mention groundwater flooding as well. I know there is groundwater flooding as well but as the owners have said never flooded (and they've been there over 20 years) I imagine it should be okay!