Issues getting home insurance.

Mendonky

Hi all,

I am currently trying to get buildings and contents insurance for my new property prior to completion. Prior to purchase some cracking under the first floor windows was flagged for further investigation. A follow up report from a chartered structural engineer deemed the cracking to be due to the lintels failing and suggested remedial work (helical bars) and repointing to reinforce the area. Been quoted for the works and will be booking them in ASAP.

Now the issue.

When trying to port across our current home insurance our provider said that due to the cracking declared, the system will not allow them to quote us for the new property (OWTTE), despite us telling an agent we had an engineers report that ruled out subsidence and repairs were planned. They claimed as they were a low risk insurer this would not be covered by their underwriter. We were offered to cancel our policy on completion with no cancellation fee as they would not be able to quote us for the new property. It is unclear whether this was a refusal to quote or refusal to insure and, therefore, we are unsure whether this needs to be declared on future applications.

Secondly, when attempting to get further quotes for insurance every provider is assuming subsidence when we tick boxes regarding “cracking or evidence of structural movement”. This is meaning we are being refused quotes online as there is nowhere to elaborate on this as we have surveys that rule out subsidence and we have remedial work planned.

my question, I suppose, is how to proceed with getting reasonable quotes for insurance in this situation, as this is making the usual price comparison websites useless. Furthermore, once remedial work has been carried out will this still cause further issues for getting insurance or do we no longer need to declare it as it should be resolved?

any advice greatly appreciated, as the one provider that did eventually provide a quote is in the ballpark of an absolutely silly amount due to the assumptions above.

TIA

DullGreyGuy

It doesnt need to be declared, you've proposed a change to your insured risk, they've said its outside of appetite, you've decided you intend to proceed with the change anyway and therefore you've cancelled the policy. Nothing to see here. 


Go old school and go direct to providers, not all ask about cracking explicitly but have a more specific question about ground movement or subsidence. 

user1977

I don't think the general "cracking" question is a normal one, lots of buildings have had historic, non-progressive movement and it doesn't cause widespread alarm to insurers.

UnsureAboutthis

user1977 said:

I don't think the general "cracking" question is a normal one, lots of buildings have had historic, non-progressive movement and it doesn't cause widespread alarm to insurers.

A few weeks ago I did a property insurance compare quote - IIRC they did ask about "cracking"  - we do not have any other than a couple of hairline cracks on a wall that we had skimmed so years ago and this is because the room gets very hot and is very dry.
On renewals the insurance people ask "any changes since the last time you took out ins.." This is if you renew with exisiting lot

I always phone for best deals and to insurance I am properly insured etc as i find it easier to speak to a human and understand stuff like this.