Subsidence claim not disclosed

dfing

Hopefully this is in the right section, if not please let me know.

I have an issue where I purchased a house a year and a half ago. Recently a pipe has broken in the kitchen for which I submitted a claim to my home insurance. While dealing with the claim they mentioned that the house has previously had a payout for a subsidence claim 2 months prior to the completion of the sale (and also 2 week after the property information form was completed). This subsidence claim was never disclosed to us and at the moment I'm a little stuck in terms of insurance, as my current insurance provider requires details about the previous subsidence claim which I have no way of knowing.

When purchasing the property I took out the home buyers survey and although it mentioned settlement of the property which the surveyor said was likely when the home was first built, there was no mention of subsidence and no recommendations for further surveys to look into things like that further. Along with the fact that the previous owners filled out the property information form and ticked the box that said no insurance claims have happened, I took out insurance without selecting any previous subsidence.

I've attempted to get details from the seller but have not gotten any responses to questions about the previous claim.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What are my options, or do I have to go down the misrepresentation route? How long could that potentially take as currently, we can't use the sink in the current state.

AnotherJoe

I think legal action will be required. Pay for the sink to be mended yourself, and then claim the costs back from the previous sellers along with additional damages for what might well be extra insurance premiums and also the cost of a survey to understand how serious the subsidence is.

Doozergirl

I'm not going to advise on the failure to disclose. You really need to go back to your solicitor and request formally, presumably that your attempts to contact the vendor have been informal. They're not going to be that keen to reply if they've hidden it.

Is the pipe broken above ground? Drainage pipe costs pennies - it probably isn't worth a claim for the cost of the excess and increased premiums. You've told them now, though, but you still might save something by not involving them further.

dfing

Thanks for your reply AnotherJoe. I was thinking one of the options was to fix the sink myself and claim the costs back, however I'm more concerned about whether the property can be insured again as I still won't have the details about the previous claim, would that not then be an issue if I had to submit another claim for something else?

dfing

Doozergirl wrote: »

I'm not going to advise on the failure to disclose. You really need to go back to your solicitor and request formally, presumably that your attempts to contact the vendor have been informal. They're not going to be that keen to reply if they've hidden it.

Is the pipe broken above ground? Drainage pipe costs pennies - it probably isn't worth a claim for the cost of the excess and increased premiums. You've told them now, though, but you still might save something by not involving them further.

No, it's below the tiles. The people the home insurance sent round to take a look initially, said the floor will need to be dug up to trace the point of the issue. So it does look like it's going to cost a fair bit.

AnotherJoe

Which is why i suggested you will need a survey to establish the issue and how serious it is. Worst case, if the house needs underpinning you are looking at well into five figures so legal action definitely worth it. And even if its just a bad repair from before and it was initial settlement you need to know that for insurance plus you are perhaps looking at £2k-£3k to survey, dig up, retile etc.

AdrianC

Two weeks AFTER the PIF? So the PIF was correct at the time it was filled in...?

dfing

AdrianC wrote: »

Two weeks AFTER the PIF? So the PIF was correct at the time it was filled in...?

Correct, but reading up, the sellers have a duty to disclose any changes to the PIF after it's completed.

EmmyLou30

Bit suspicious to put in a claim for something so major that doesn't happen overnight like a burst pipe....I mean if you're about to sell you'd not even claim would you!? You'd leave it to the new buyers to sort out (dishonest yes, but most people would, then they can legally deny knowing anything about it). Definitely get your solicitor on the case.

snilloct1957

AdrianC wrote: »

Two weeks AFTER the PIF? So the PIF was correct at the time it was filled in...?

Yeah, but from my reading of the circumstances above, the insurance claim and the work to rectify the problem were already well in hand before the exchange of contracts and completion. Insurance companies aren't the quickest out of the blocks and it strikes me the previous owner was being economical with the truth when he stated there was no outstanding problems with subsidence.

Get your solicitor involved asap, to send letters to his solicitor and the estate agent.