Subsidence claim - How long is a fair time frame?

Vestree

I have had a subsidence claim ongoing for 26 months now and am wondering what is a fair time frame for something like this to be settled? The lengths of time between emails and info / contact from the insurers has been between a month when best and at worst 5, 6 and 7 months sometimes. I have asked question two months ago to try to push things along now and no replies. Is this normal or am i being unreasonable ? 

lincroft1710

A former work colleague who lived in a low rise block of flats had such a claim involving the local council and a tree on the verge outside the block. It took years to be resolved

CRISPIANNE3

Vestree said:

I have had a subsidence claim ongoing for 26 months now and am wondering what is a fair time frame for something like this to be settled? The lengths of time between emails and info / contact from the insurers has been between a month when best and at worst 5, 6 and 7 months sometimes. I have asked question two months ago to try to push things along now and no replies. Is this normal or am i being unreasonable ? 

I suppose it depends on how complicated the claim is. In our case we had crashed drains in our kitchen tenament and caused the corner of the kitchen to subside very slightly From claim to completion of works I think it took about 4 months. However no underpinning was required and only needed superficial repairs. This was about 14 years ago.

HobgoblinBT

Our claim, 30 or so years ago took about a year from initial claim to completion of works.  The hot dry summer might have had an impact on movement, so whilst the delay may be worrying, the delay could be a good thing for you.

Vestree

Hello again,

I wanted to follow up on this case and ask the general opinion of the group if I may. 

We have just recently had the first part of works done on our subsidence claim. It’s for a crack that appeared in our converted house in SE London, the date of claim July 2020. After they decided on the issue, dry compacted soil due to vegetation i.e trees, the expected tree removal completion date was Oct 2021, over two years what they initially estimated. I have repeatedly asked about fixing the crack and securing it with helibars asap but they have always stated they need to remove the trees first and allow the ground to ’stabilise’. From then they will wait for an unspecified period of time over the next years to assess whether or not they need to look at structural work.

Very recently I have now seen that the building has developed two more cracks at the front side of the building. My local builder said that they are due to the ground continuing to move, and that even though the tree are now out, it will worsen over time unless secured with helibars asap. Am I in my rights to request this? Are the insurers just delaying and avoiding this work due to them having to pay out? Removing the tree’s was probably be a couple of thousand pounds, scaffolding and helibars will be getting into four digit costs. I imagine the work they commit to doing is the bare minimum to avoid paying out. 

It's very frustrating and i feel we are neglected. i.e; the excessive time taken and avoiding of structural work. I would like to make a complaint to the ombudsman for the time that they have taken, do i have a case to complain? Or is this all normal?

Any thoughts are much appreciated 

Tom

ciderboy2009

At the end of the day, there's not much point in them doing the structural work before the ground has stopped moving as it would only increase the likelihood of it all having to be done again.

Presumably they're monitoring the movement (when my claim was going through I had someone coming out every so often to check some plastic things they had put on the walls)?

Bigphil1474

OP, we had a subsidence claim a little over 10 years ago. They didn't do any work until they were sure there was no further movement - had some monitoring plates in place for about a year. That length of time was frustrating, so god knows what it's like for you. Are the insurance company aware that more cracks have appeared - they should be told and asked to act.

We had about £25k of work done to put ours right, but there were some complications, but once they had appointed a managing company, they sorted out all the contractors. It was a company called Crawfords on behalf of Prudential, and they were really good tbh. Depends on the insurance company of course.

Vestree

ciderboy2009 said:

At the end of the day, there's not much point in them doing the structural work before the ground has stopped moving as it would only increase the likelihood of it all having to be done again.

Presumably they're monitoring the movement (when my claim was going through I had someone coming out every so often to check some plastic things they had put on the walls)?

Thanks for the comment. They have not sent anyone to monitor the movement. There are no crack monitor devices ever installed either. I will ask them on this, i guess it will take a year at least to see how the ground settles after the trees are out

Vestree

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, we had a subsidence claim a little over 10 years ago. They didn't do any work until they were sure there was no further movement - had some monitoring plates in place for about a year. That length of time was frustrating, so god knows what it's like for you. Are the insurance company aware that more cracks have appeared - they should be told and asked to act.

We had about £25k of work done to put ours right, but there were some complications, but once they had appointed a managing company, they sorted out all the contractors. It was a company called Crawfords on behalf of Prudential, and they were really good tbh. Depends on the insurance company of course.

Hi there, thanks very much also for your input. Again, they haven't ever monitored the movement nor had the gauges, monitors in place of the cracks. I have emailed now about the new cracks. Lets see how long they take on this one! The time it has taken to deal with this phase alone is stressful enough, i can not understand why they take so long to deal with something essentially simple.