Advice please - updated - standard insurance has been refused :(

ml00jms

Hi,
We've just had our building survey back for a house we are buying and the surveyor wrote this: "Reviewing the British Geological Maps indicates the property is located on London Clay. As such the property is at high risk from subsidence caused by drying out of the clay soil from tree roots. The property is not located within the influence zone of any large trees, and no signs indicative of any subsidence were noted to the walls of the property at the time of inspection."
The environmental report from the searches hasn't thrown up any issues with ground stability and the mortgage valuation has come back ok.  Would the environmental report have used the same geological map as the surveyor? Should they not say the same thing?
There are some cracks in the house but the surveyor has said that they are due to impact damage from windows being put in/ walls removed.  I spoke to an insurance broker today who said that as the surveyor said high risk of subsidence we might have problems with insurance. Anyone have any experience of this? Is this something that every house in the area (south east) would have written because of the soil type? Also it's an old (1930s) house if that makes a difference to the risk. Final question - should we get a structural engineer to do further checks before exchange or is a building surveyor qualified enough to say that there aren't indications of subsidence despite it being high risk. Have emailed the surveyor to arrange a follow up chat about it but mainly posting on here as can't sleep for stressing over it!

Robby1988

My initial thought is that the surveyor is covering his backside. 
"the property is at high risk from subsidence caused by drying out of the clay soil from tree roots", followed by a statement that there are no trees near the house & there are no signs of subsidence on the property that has been stood for 90 years anyway.

Have you tried actually getting a quote for insurance?

ml00jms

insurance broker asked me to clarify with surveyor before she got insurance quotes - chicken and egg!  I think you may be right as surely every house in the area is high risk unless this house is specifically built on a random plot of particularly sinky clay

davidmcn

Any of these comments or searches about ground stability are generally quite pointless, unless you were really going to throw your hands up in horror and buy something nowhere near London Clay instead.

Robby1988

ml00jms said:

insurance broker asked me to clarify with surveyor before she got insurance quotes - chicken and egg!  I think you may be right as surely every house in the area is high risk unless this house is specifically built on a random plot of particularly sinky clay

I just can't see the surveyor budging from his statement about the area being high risk, it covers their backside. They may offer you some reassurance over the telephone but i'm not sure they would do it on paper . It just looks to me like a standard disclaimer that will likely be present on every survey carried out on a house built on London Clay, rather than a warning that your property in particular is at risk, such as if you had a big tree in the front garden.

Insurance companies normally have a list of postcodes with red flags for things like subsidence risk, flooding etc. Can't you just tell your broker to just get quotes.

davidmcn

Robby1988 said:

ml00jms said:

insurance broker asked me to clarify with surveyor before she got insurance quotes - chicken and egg!  I think you may be right as surely every house in the area is high risk unless this house is specifically built on a random plot of particularly sinky clay

Can't you just tell your broker to just get quotes.

Or just get your own quotes. 

[Deleted User]

There are millions of houses built on London Clay soil.  Yet not even a significant percentage suffer subsidence.  There are no signs of subsidence with the property.  So there is no subsidence.  No need to say anymore really.

Splatfoot

And just get insurance quotes with the address. No need to mention subsidence as it doesn't have any. 

amanda_p

We had subsidence over 20 years ago and the house was underpinned. We are in Essex and the soil is clay,house built in the hot summer of 76 in a highly wooded area. You will have no problems with insurance, ring around for a few quotes. Most policies you have to pay the first £1000 of any subsidence claim. Subsidence is a lot more common these days, the whole process in dealing with it is quicker and insurers are not so panicked about it. Plus the house you are looking at hasn't got any!

Rambosmum

Does the HOUSE have signs of subsidence? Large cracks, tilted windows and doors, uneven floors which list one way or the other?

If not, I really wouldn't worry. 

ml00jms

Thanks for the advice. Things have progressed a bit and not in a fab way: wondering if we should walk away from the house now. Basically the house has some cracks which we asked the surveyor to look at: he confirmed that they were not symptoms of subsidence and that they could be fixed: one is a failed lintel and others are impact damage from windows being put in. 
We told the broker about them as we obviously don't want to lie on an insurance application and have now been refused standard insurance.  we can now only get non standard insurance - basically the house is being treated by insurers as though it has subsidence but it doesn't. If it wasn't for the stamp duty holiday I think we'd cut our loses and look for somewhere else but at the moment this would mean waving good bye to 15K stamp duty saving as well as our sunk costs.
What do people think? is non standard insurance a problem - premiums are high and would it potentially put off future buyers when we sell on?