Subsidence - Repair or Re-build Porch

RedGlos24

Hi,

My house was built around 50 years ago and previous home owner added a porch he built himself around 30 years ago, with shallow foundations.

In the dry summer of 2022, I let our wisteria grow too big and along with the dry ground the porch started to subside.  Detached from house with a 1-2cm gap. 

My options are to repair via insurance company or to knock down and rebuild via taking the cash.  Unfortunately after my £1000 excess has been taken i'm only left with around £400 towards a re-build.

Despite the paltry pay-out, we are leaning towards knocking the porch down and rebuilding a slightly larger one as:
- Feel it would potentially help protect some of the house price in future sale? - "Old porch, old wisteria, now gone = old problem"
- As the porch is so small and front door is at a diagonal with house door the internal space is pretty useless bar a few coats, so a new slightly bigger porch would give us beneficial storage space.

Q's I cant seem to get an answer to:

1. If I knock down and re-build porch do I still have to declare subsidence to insurance in future?

2. If I rebuild I wont have a certificate of Structural Adequacy you get when insurance companies repair - will this affect my future premiums?

Incidentally my advice to anyone who is thinking about making a subsidence claim is to look at resolving away from gaze of insurance companies if possible.  E.g. in hindsight I feel I should have just knocked down and re-built our porch.
My premium has gone up £500 a year for ever, for a one off payout of £400 from insurance company! 

Bigphil1474

OP, we had subsidence in 2010. Took a few years to sort out and get back on track for insurance, but our buildings insurance isn't astronomical now i.e. it's not forever. We stayed with the same insurer as they were still the cheapest, so we didn't have to declare anything, but in terms of declaring it will depend on the question. Have you ever had... or have you had in the last 5, 10, 20 years etc. 

We had no choice but to go through insurance (cost about £20k from memory). We also had a £1k excess but the assessor was great and knocked that off the slightly inflated decorating costs so we ended up with some cash to do the final finish ourselves. 

1. You don't declare anything, you answer all questions honestly. If you rebuild then that would be part of the answer. 
2. Are you planning on building yourself? If not, then the builder will provide paperwork for the new build and you use that for any future queries.

Other thing is whether a rebuild is permitted development or if planning permission is required. There are rules on size of a new porch as well as location - I could be wrong but from memory, porches at the front are treated differently to side or rear porches. Needs a bit of research.  If you go for a repair, it will be straight forward and down to insurers to sort.

propertyrental

There's option 3 - do nothing.

My last house (150 years old) had an porch built on much shallower foundations than the house, and every summer a crack between porch/house would open up, and every winter it would close again as the ground became saturated.

Sold the house last year with no problems.

RedGlos24

Just had my renewal come through and its now £1500!!! Its the gift that keeps giving.

2022 - pre subsidence claim £262
2023 - After claim in 2022 premium went upto £711
2024 new renewal - £1548

All for a £1400 payout = £400 after excess.

I would really advise you think twice about claiming on subsidence - can you get it fixed without insurance claim do so.  Learn from my mistake.