Buildings Insurance - Unoccupied with potential subsidence

instbr

Hi
I'm a bit stuck and need advice.
My Dad (widower) died a month ago.  3 children now in their 50's/60's live miles away and house is now unoccupied.  Current buildings insurance runs out on 2 Aug. Current insurer says they don't insurer unoccupied houses and I will need to change insurers. So I was obtaining quotes from new insurers. Estate agent came round to give valuation on property in order to apply for probate, noticed internal and external cracks and suggested I need to go back to existing insurer and get the cracks evaluated by a surveyor.  This I did and we had a surveyor come round today.  He wouldn't say whether he thought it was subsidence or settlement and insurer would let us know in about 10 days or so - obviously well beyond 2 Aug.  I went back to one of the insurers I got unoccupied property quote from - they say will not take on a property with potential subsidence claim against it. So existing insurer won't extend on unoccupied property and new insurer won't take on property with potential subsidence claim.  Has anyone been in similar situation or have any suggestions as to what to do, other than leave the property uninsured until surveyors report comes in (and hope to goodness they say it is settlement). 
Many thanks for any advice.

Sandtree

How old is the property?

Subsidence can take a long time to really judge properly, are you comfortable with an extended risk if the 10 days is inconclusive?

You are well into broker territory so speak to a couple of brokers for getting quotes. Be very aware of any adaptations required for it being unoccupied, some require the letterbox being blocked up etc after a certain timescale.

Annemos

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/ombudsman-decisions
So sorry to hear of your bereavement and then this extra worry. 
In normal circumstances, the insurance industry wide agreement is that once a property has suffered subsidence, then the original insurance company has to continue to provide cover. If they took it away in error, they can reinstate it as soon as they find out they did an error. They cannot backdate it, but they can issue a policy going forwards. 

So now in your case the sticking points are of course the original owner has now deceased (is it owned by anybody now?) and it is also unoccupied. 

The only thing I can suggest, as this is so specific, is to try and find if there is an Ombudsman's case that matches it and supports your case. Then you can go back to the insurance company with it and ask them to reinstate the policy. 

I have attached the link above. I looked briefly and plugged in "unoocupied property subsidence" into the keyword.... and 3 pages of cases popped up. Examples are DRN10569691 and DRN2302426. These are not your exact circumstances. But you will get the idea of how this works in the cases. 

You might have to try some other keywords to see if that gets you closer. It is very labour intensive...I know I have done it. A lot of reading cases. 

But I did win my case this way. 
Good luck to you and the family.