Subsidence and Foundation Depths

Hiya, I would like to ask you lovely people for some advice.
My husband and I having been going through a nightmare with a subsidence claim.
The insurance company sent someone round to do a trial pit to see how deep the foundations were and check the type of clay soil.

A few months ago they rejected our claim because the foundations are not deep enough (by 50cm)  and doesn't meet NHBC building standards.
But when we were going through some paperwork recently, we found some paperwork from when we bought the house saying that the foundations were inspected by the council's building control and signed off. We also have the NHBC 10 year warranty (since expired).

So my question is could they have measured the foundation depths incorrectly? They only measured one point by our back door into the garden. Is it worth getting a second opinion?

thanks
Juju
xxxx

Comments

  • user1977
    user1977 Posts: 17,284 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Seventh Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Even if they didn't meet NHBC standards - what would be (legitimate) grounds for rejecting the claim? You presumably weren't asked on the proposal form about any of these specific matters (or could reasonably be expected to know about the foundation depth).
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 17,218 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    user1977 said:
    Even if they didn't meet NHBC standards - what would be (legitimate) grounds for rejecting the claim? You presumably weren't asked on the proposal form about any of these specific matters (or could reasonably be expected to know about the foundation depth).
    Presumably the OP has movement/settlement issues and the insurers are looking to reject the claim on the basis of substandard workmanship. It's a very common problem when it comes to conservatories as it's a bit of a Wild West of builders that were knocking them up in the 80s/90s. The ombudsman does deny complaints on the grounds of foundations even though the insured is clearly not going to have known the issue.


    What type of soil do you have? How deep are the foundations? When was the property built? 
    It's then some detective work to find out the requirements back when it was built as sometimes mistakes are made on looking at more recent standards which have higher requirements than there were back in the day. 
  • Hiya, They said it was because the house is of faulty design materials or poor workmanship and pointed to an exclusion in their policy wording. my husband and I can't find anything to say we should have known. If anything all of the documents we found say it was up to standard.

    Juju
    xxxx

  • Our 3 bed semi has no extension or conservatory. It is on clay soil. From the regulations they stated and what documents we found they match. It is the measurements they found from the trial pits that don't seem be right.

    Juju
    xxxx
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,021 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 21 October 2023 at 3:46PM
     Please see attached case JulieW. Does it help you at all? 

    This one would have subsided anyway, even if foundation was deeper. They also looked at the fact that it had stood for years without any problem.  And they also considered what would have been good building practice at the time it was built. 


    https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN5342656.pdf


    (From my collection, DGG!) 


    And another one 

    https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN9738552.pdf


  • Hiya Annemos. Thank you so much for posting the two articles. They sound very similar to the situation we are going through and are a great help. :smile:

    Juju
    xxxx
  • Annemos
    Annemos Posts: 1,021 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Posts
    edited 26 October 2023 at 2:26PM
    Found another recent case, for anybody who reads this discussion. 

    https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4196750.pdf
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