Building Insurance claim / crack in wall

Jab64000

Hi apologies if this is not in the correct forum as it could also be covered under buildings work.
My daughter and son in law moved into a house about 3 years ago. Earlier this year I noticed some cracks in the external wall of one of the upstairs bedrooms which are also showing through on the inside wall. (The house is approximately 65 years old and a solid brick construction).
 I advised them to get in touch with their insurance company as soon as I saw it, but the insurance company have really dragged their feet on responding. 
They sent out a loss adjuster who then said he needed to have an inspection done to see if it was foundations or drainage. This was eventually carried out in July and since that time they have heard nothing. After chasing it up the insurance company have responded that the report on the drains and soil came back negative and therefore they assume that the cause of the cracks is lintel failure which they claim that they are not covering as this is not included under their policy. 
No one has been inside the house to have a look at the cracks, the outside wall is covered in render which has never been removed and as far as I can see they have no evidence that says it the Lintel has failed at all.
Any advice on how to proceed would be very welcome from anyone that has had similar experience as this is likely to be quite a large repair. ?

·         Is it worth getting a structural report carried out at our own expense to use as evidence that there may be other factors involved here? 

·          Is this simply the insurance company’s way of trying to avoid paying out for repairs?

·         Is this something that an insurance Ombudsman might be able to help with?

My own thoughts are that perhaps the cracks are not going to get any worse and best scenario they could be filled in with some sort of resin and that might be enough, but on the other hand should we chase the Insurance company to carry out a full repair and if so what is the best way to do this?

Sandtree

In the first instance your daughter needs to register a complaint with the insurers if you feel that insufficient investigations have been performed to rule out subsidence. If you are unhappy with their final response (or you dont receive one within 8 weeks) you can then take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

You could commission your own structural engineer report but clearly if they also determine that the issue isnt the result of subsidence or ground heave etc then it will certainly be your own cost to foot. If they conclude it is subsidence then there would be grounds to argue over if the insurer should reimburse the fee.

Aunty_T

My house insurer will refund the surveyors fee if subsidence is found to be the reason for the damage.  I suggest you look at what your buildings insurance covers for this.  I was interested in your post as my house has cracks too and I should start to do something about them.  The cracks have been much worse this year.

Jab64000

I got in touch with a Structural engineer I know and he has confirmed that the cracks are nothing to do with the lintels. He said that the cracks are due to the construction of the house because they have no expansion joints. His advice is cut out the cracks and then fill them with a mastic before making good the harling 

Sandtree

Jab64000 said:

I got in touch with a Structural engineer I know and he has confirmed that the cracks are nothing to do with the lintels. He said that the cracks are due to the construction of the house because they have no expansion joints. His advice is cut out the cracks and then fill them with a mastic before making good the harling 

Defective construction would also not be covered by insurance and so whilst there is a difference of opinion of the root cause the effect is the same.