Home insurance cancelled due to neighbour's work?

Kai_63

I'm on the first floor, neighbour on ground.

He is getting various work done including knocking down the back wall at garden level (which supports mine), front wall to let a digger in (wall supports mine above) and knocking the chimney breasts under mine out.

He might otherwise knock a shared access hallway out to let the digger through.

My home insurance company said the chimney breasts and shared hallway work would invalidate my insurance.

Assuming I have to get new insurance and it will be more expensive, can I ask the neighbour to pay any difference?

And is it normal for this to be the case with flats where one party is having work done? Trying to work out if it was a kneejerk response with the advisor I spoke to?

DullGreyGuy

You can ask whatever you want but you'd have no legal basis to demand that they pay it. 

Is this contents only or are you buying buildings insurance? If the later are you in Scotland or elsewhere?

maman

Sorry, can't answer for your flat situation but your neighbour will need specialist building insurance for his own home while the work is being done. I've recently taken out policy while we have builders in.

I'd talk to him and ask if he can cover the whole house on his new policy or pay your additional costs. 

Kai_63

We have shared building insurance managed by a property manager so I was going to look into that as well (and get the extra paid by my neighbour). 

It seems crazy that someone can do work related to my property and I would have to foot the additional costs!

Ganga

If they take the chimney breasts out what is going to support the rest of the stack ,does it go up thru your flat to the roof ? hope somebody has good insurance.

DullGreyGuy

Ganga said:

If they take the chimney breasts out what is going to support the rest of the stack ,does it go up thru your flat to the roof ? hope somebody has good insurance.

Presumably RSJ and/or gallow brackets or something similar to whatever building regs like these days. I wouldn't do it but there are many properties with chimneys partially removed and structurally supported for what remains. 

Kai_63 said:

It seems crazy that someone can do work related to my property and I would have to foot the additional costs!

It's not abundantly clear when you talk of walls being knocked down if you are talking garden walls or walls of the building itself. Assuming nothing in your actual flat is changing I am surprised that your contents insurers would consider what a neighbour is doing as a declarable event, in many cases flat owners will have no idea if the neighbour is knocking down walls and remodelling their property or not. 

Kai_63

DullGreyGuy said:

Ganga said:

If they take the chimney breasts out what is going to support the rest of the stack ,does it go up thru your flat to the roof ? hope somebody has good insurance.

Presumably RSJ and/or gallow brackets or something similar to whatever building regs like these days. I wouldn't do it but there are many properties with chimneys partially removed and structurally supported for what remains. 

Kai_63 said:

It seems crazy that someone can do work related to my property and I would have to foot the additional costs!

It's not abundantly clear when you talk of walls being knocked down if you are talking garden walls or walls of the building itself. Assuming nothing in your actual flat is changing I am surprised that your contents insurers would consider what a neighbour is doing as a declarable event, in many cases flat owners will have no idea if the neighbour is knocking down walls and remodelling their property or not. 

Yes I definitely want the surveyor's opinion on the structural issues related to the chimney breasts!

And unfortunately I mean the front of the building, e.g. where the bay window of his bedroom is (directly below my living room window).

I'm wondering if the insurance advisor took a knee jerk view of it when I pushed her on the point that a new ceiling (and support) would have to be put in underneath my own chimney breasts. 

Also the hallway is shared, so as I understand it if they insure that and if a wall is knocked down there for the digger, it counts as my building work. 

Brie

Have you talked to the freeholder yet about the amount of work being done?  Isn't it normal for the freeholder to get the building insurance in which case they would certainly need to be involved.

DullGreyGuy

It would be questionable if your contents insurance covers anything left in the common areas, at most it would be similar to the coverages for items in the garden/shed etc.

The key point is that for your home, ie everything behind your front door, there is no structural works going on. You are just being a conscientious customer advising them of what is going on in another dwelling of the same building

Kai_63

I'm going to contact the freeholder. Apparently the neighbour has paid for a licence for the work but I suspect it only includes rear extension into the garden, not the chimneys or front wall (as the council didn't know about these either, only the extension).

They do arrange the building insurance so I'm hoping they'll arrange it and the neighbour can pick up the additional costs as necessary, but wasn't sure if home insurance would also be affected e.g. temporary security issues if he knocked through the hallway (which is shared). 

bluelad1927

@DullGreyGuy Out of interest is it correct that a property can be made "uninsurable" based on some dodgy work of a neigbhour.