Advice please! Subsidence caused by neighbour's extension?

Jeepers_Creepers

starfluf said:

Just to update you all, my husband has managed to get to the property yesterday.  On further inspection of the interior and exterior of our house it may be our guttering being blocked could be part of this issue.  I disagree as there isn't any moisture, mould etc?
My husband has spoken to the neighbour with the extension and she has said she is unhappy with the build quality (sounds like a cowboy builder), the builders have deserted them and they themselves are having to excavate the floor as there are issues with the drains (in the extension).  We're hoping she will sort us the tiling on our outside toilet which adjoins the extension.

I'm not sure where this leads us... Any suggestions?

Oh, I see - a blocked gutter is causing your window frame to detach by around a half-inch...?

The cracks around your windows are significant, and if they occurred all of a sudden, then there's something fairly serious going on. It needs fixing regardless, so you've done the right thing.

Sit back. Stop speculating. Wait for the reports. All the damage - inside and out - caused to your property will almost certainly be handled by your insurance. If the cause is found to have been the neighb's building work, then your insurance will claim of theirs. If your neighb has genuinely been let down by cowboy builders, then she needs to use her LP facility to chase them - but that's no concern of yours.

Just thank your lucky stars you added LP. Almost certainly it'll sort everything for you.

starfluf

Think we're getting a builder to check gutter as 1st option to check if it's anything to do with water?  I'm not sure it is but if they can let us know cause of damage that may help? Need a 2nd opinion.  

Jeepers_Creepers

By all means do that if it eases your concern. But expect skywards eyeball rolling and smirks if you ask whether a leaking gutter has made your window frame almost eject itself from your wall.

Personally, I'd wait for the surveyor commissioned by your LegProt. If they say it's been caused by the neighbouring extension - as is most likely - then thank your lucky stars you are covered.

If they say it's been caused by a leaking gutter, then I'll pay to have it repaired.  

Starfluf, when did these cracks appear?

starfluf

Jeepers_Creepers said:

By all means do that if it eases your concern. But expect skywards eyeball rolling and smirks if you ask whether a leaking gutter has made your window frame almost eject itself from your wall.

Personally, I'd wait for the surveyor commissioned by your LegProt. If they say it's been caused by the neighbouring extension - as is most likely - then thank your lucky stars you are covered.

If they say it's been caused by a leaking gutter, then I'll pay to have it repaired.  

Starfluf, when did these cracks appear?

Lol!  thanks for your support.  We're not sure as tenants only let us know last week.  They've been there 2 years and we did a full paint job before they moved in and they weren't there then.  

root

Sorry for the necro post but I was very curious how this ended up?

starfluf

OK so structural engineer has confirmed movement - possibly drains (which would also tally up with next door extension) possibly water table movement with a housing estate build a few miles away as has disturbed other houses on the road.  His finding have been sent to the insurer.  Can I claim his fees back?  I'm still a bit miffed that I have to claim on my insurance and it's no fault of my own?? 

Section62

starfluf said:

OK so structural engineer has confirmed movement - possibly drains (which would also tally up with next door extension) possibly water table movement with a housing estate build a few miles away as has disturbed other houses on the road.  His finding have been sent to the insurer.  Can I claim his fees back?  I'm still a bit miffed that I have to claim on my insurance and it's no fault of my own?? 

I don't have the expertise or first-hand observations your structural engineer has, but I'm highly sceptical that water table movement from a "housing estate build a few miles away" could possibly do anything like that kind of damage.

Unless there is something very special about the geology construction work a few miles away is going to have a far lower impact on the water table and ground movement than normal seasonal variations would be expected to.

I'm also sceptical that a problem with drains would cause that level of movement over a relatively short period of time. I think you'd need something like a pipe or manhole to completely collapse to be the cause of what you've got - and that is something a CCTV survey would determine (i.e. not 'possibly'). Has one been done as part of the structural engineer's investigations?

m0bov

Too many possibles. Anyone can come to those conclusions! You need 100% firm cause not guess work.

ic

starfluf said:

OK so structural engineer has confirmed movement - possibly drains (which would also tally up with next door extension) possibly water table movement with a housing estate build a few miles away as has disturbed other houses on the road.  His finding have been sent to the insurer.  Can I claim his fees back?  I'm still a bit miffed that I have to claim on my insurance and it's no fault of my own?? 

You'll claim on your insurance, and then if you believe someone else caused the damage seek those fees back via legal means proving that whoever has been negligent and caused this damage - that's where any legal cover you have could step in, especially in returning your excess.

It's all a bit more straight forward with car accidents, as its easier for the insurance companies to reach agreements with each other, as one car driving into the back of another is more clear cut (so they can avoid having to defend claims and keep costs down).  Placing blame on a new-build estate some *miles* away will be hard and costly to prove.

pinkteapot

starfluf said:

OK so structural engineer has confirmed movement - possibly drains (which would also tally up with next door extension) possibly water table movement with a housing estate build a few miles away as has disturbed other houses on the road.  His finding have been sent to the insurer.  Can I claim his fees back?  I'm still a bit miffed that I have to claim on my insurance and it's no fault of my own?? 

Ohhhhhhh don't worry. If anyone else is to blame (seems pretty clear they are in this case), your insurance company will be doing everything in their power to recoup their losses from them. E.g. from the builder's professional liability cover. 

That being said, home insurance isn't like car insurance - you don't have fault vs non-fault claims, so sadly this will be a claim you have to declare when getting quotes in future. That's why everyone else early on was saying "don't use the word subsidence" - subsidence is one particularly type of movement and one insurers REALLY don't like. You want to avoid a subsidence claim on your history if at all possible. It's ok that the engineer said movement - subsidence is a type of movement, but not all movement is subsidence.