When to claim for subsidence?

ohdarn

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I have another post about our little subsidence issue.
We've been experiencing movement on one wall of our house for a little while, with some damage to a supporting wall occurring.

We had a structural engineer come out and it was his opinion that a drain had failed in that corner of the property.

As that drain is shared with the neighbours driveway we had Severn Trent come out to survey the drains.

They came out and found no problem with the drains. However, they did find that the neighbours concrete driveway (that's right up against the side of our house where the problem wall is) is missing small sections of concrete, allowing water in and that the concrete slabs are essentially hovering as all the soil has gone from underneath them. Their drive is also slanted/sunk so that water runs towards these missing sections and washes more soil away.

It was the opinion of the water company employee that water is running into these large gaps and straight down to the foundations of our house, causing them to sink. I know he's not an expert but his opinion does tie in with that of the structural engineer regarding water softening the foundations.

It's worth pointing out here that access to next door is not easy and they have a large fence around their property so the structural engineer couldn't see this area when he visited.

If I understand it correctly, house insurance doesn't work like car insurance, so we can't claim off their policy? So we'd need to try and claim off ours but I don't know at what point you do it, is it just when all the negative consequences of putting in a claim for subsidence outweighs the negative effects of the actual subsidence?

Basically I'm all very confused about what to do and what appreciate a little guidance right now if that's alright?

Please though, if you're going to reply with 'just ring your insurance company and ask', I've already done that and you either have to make a claim or don't, there's no advice to be found there.

Thanks very much.

cw8825

nobody cant tell you when to claim
but i personally wouldnt be happy with my house moving and if its going to get continually worse, i know i would be getting it fixed

marcia_

ohdarn said:

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I have another post about our little subsidence issue.
We've been experiencing movement on one wall of our house for a little while, with some damage to a supporting wall occurring.

We had a structural engineer come out and it was his opinion that a drain had failed in that corner of the property.

As that drain is shared with the neighbours driveway we had Severn Trent come out to survey the drains.

They came out and found no problem with the drains. However, they did find that the neighbours concrete driveway (that's right up against the side of our house where the problem wall is) is missing small sections of concrete, allowing water in and that the concrete slabs are essentially hovering as all the soil has gone from underneath them. Their drive is also slanted/sunk so that water runs towards these missing sections and washes more soil away.

It was the opinion of the water company employee that water is running into these large gaps and straight down to the foundations of our house, causing them to sink. I know he's not an expert but his opinion does tie in with that of the structural engineer regarding water softening the foundations.

It's worth pointing out here that access to next door is not easy and they have a large fence around their property so the structural engineer couldn't see this area when he visited.

If I understand it correctly, house insurance doesn't work like car insurance, so we can't claim off their policy? So we'd need to try and claim off ours but I don't know at what point you do it, is it just when all the negative consequences of putting in a claim for subsidence outweighs the negative effects of the actual subsidence?

Basically I'm all very confused about what to do and what appreciate a little guidance right now if that's alright?

Please though, if you're going to reply with 'just ring your insurance company and ask', I've already done that and you either have to make a claim or don't, there's no advice to be found there.

Thanks very much.

 Why would you put off claiming when your house is sinking? 

ohdarn

marcia_ said:

ohdarn said:

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I have another post about our little subsidence issue.
We've been experiencing movement on one wall of our house for a little while, with some damage to a supporting wall occurring.

We had a structural engineer come out and it was his opinion that a drain had failed in that corner of the property.

As that drain is shared with the neighbours driveway we had Severn Trent come out to survey the drains.

They came out and found no problem with the drains. However, they did find that the neighbours concrete driveway (that's right up against the side of our house where the problem wall is) is missing small sections of concrete, allowing water in and that the concrete slabs are essentially hovering as all the soil has gone from underneath them. Their drive is also slanted/sunk so that water runs towards these missing sections and washes more soil away.

It was the opinion of the water company employee that water is running into these large gaps and straight down to the foundations of our house, causing them to sink. I know he's not an expert but his opinion does tie in with that of the structural engineer regarding water softening the foundations.

It's worth pointing out here that access to next door is not easy and they have a large fence around their property so the structural engineer couldn't see this area when he visited.

If I understand it correctly, house insurance doesn't work like car insurance, so we can't claim off their policy? So we'd need to try and claim off ours but I don't know at what point you do it, is it just when all the negative consequences of putting in a claim for subsidence outweighs the negative effects of the actual subsidence?

Basically I'm all very confused about what to do and what appreciate a little guidance right now if that's alright?

Please though, if you're going to reply with 'just ring your insurance company and ask', I've already done that and you either have to make a claim or don't, there's no advice to be found there.

Thanks very much.

 Why would you put off claiming when your house is sinking? 

It's because the structural engineer was of the opinion that there had been no recent movement going by some repointing that had been done.

Stardust199

ohdarn said:

marcia_ said:

ohdarn said:

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I have another post about our little subsidence issue.
We've been experiencing movement on one wall of our house for a little while, with some damage to a supporting wall occurring.

We had a structural engineer come out and it was his opinion that a drain had failed in that corner of the property.

As that drain is shared with the neighbours driveway we had Severn Trent come out to survey the drains.

They came out and found no problem with the drains. However, they did find that the neighbours concrete driveway (that's right up against the side of our house where the problem wall is) is missing small sections of concrete, allowing water in and that the concrete slabs are essentially hovering as all the soil has gone from underneath them. Their drive is also slanted/sunk so that water runs towards these missing sections and washes more soil away.

It was the opinion of the water company employee that water is running into these large gaps and straight down to the foundations of our house, causing them to sink. I know he's not an expert but his opinion does tie in with that of the structural engineer regarding water softening the foundations.

It's worth pointing out here that access to next door is not easy and they have a large fence around their property so the structural engineer couldn't see this area when he visited.

If I understand it correctly, house insurance doesn't work like car insurance, so we can't claim off their policy? So we'd need to try and claim off ours but I don't know at what point you do it, is it just when all the negative consequences of putting in a claim for subsidence outweighs the negative effects of the actual subsidence?

Basically I'm all very confused about what to do and what appreciate a little guidance right now if that's alright?

Please though, if you're going to reply with 'just ring your insurance company and ask', I've already done that and you either have to make a claim or don't, there's no advice to be found there.

Thanks very much.

 Why would you put off claiming when your house is sinking? 

It's because the structural engineer was of the opinion that there had been no recent movement going by some repointing that had been done.

However you did say that you've noticed the movement for a while. This indicates that movement has happened whilst you've been insured and therefore I would advise you make a claim. I also advise it would be in your best interests to keep insurance company aware of everything you do otherwise they could use that against you.
If the insurance company don't help because they say they have no proof of this then I would recommend monitoring. 
Before monitoring it would be most useful to liaise with neighbours and see if there is a way you could have the escape of water issue resolved and then go on to monitor.