Home Insurance Headache

FunLovinCriminal

Been living in this property for 19yrs. And this is our forever home, not planning to sell ever. Took a home buyers survey when we bought. After the 2nd or 3rd remortgage, the new mortgage ptovider sent someone round to value the property - rest of them did it remotely. He asked to go in the loft.what he found was previous owners removed a couple of trusses to turn loft into a games room for kids, but clearly just used a chainsaw, nothing professional. Told us to get them put back which we did - this is approx 12yrs ago, joiner came round etc.

Roll on to last year. We had a leak in our upstairs bathroom ceiling. Got a guy out, and he took a look in the loft. Said the replacement trusses were not in the correct place. Assumed he was just angling for more work, we got a 2nd opinion and a structural survey. True enough he was right.

Got a plan drawn up, a joiner to repair, and the structural engineer to approve the work, and wrote an official document stating this. This was January.

Last week we spotted a hairline crack in the ceiling of our bedroom running east to west. Yesterday spotted one running north to south.

Obviously we are very concerned.

Will we be covered by home insurance? Is the mortgage ok? And concerned regarding the roof/loft.

We have contacted both the joiner and the structural surveyor, but being the werkend, not heard back.

Help!

user1977

”Covered” in what sense? Are you asking whether the insurance will pay for fixing the problem? Almost certainly not, fixing past poor workmanship isn’t a normal insured risk.

Not sure what your concern about the mortgage is?

Also, I see you posted about the same thing last July. The advice given then still applies.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6621193/building-concerns

FunLovinCriminal

Many thanks.

We are concerned that as we never informed the home insurance companies about any of this, that buildings and contents wouldnt cover us if there is structural damage.

user1977

They're not going to cover for structural damage anyway if it's been caused by the work to the roof.

FunLovinCriminal

Thats what we thought, and as we had not informed them, just paid for the structural engineer and joiner ourselves

Albermarle

was previous owners removed a couple of trusses to turn loft into a games room for kids

Hopefully you are not using it for anything like that? Presume there is no proper staircase?

FunLovinCriminal

I suppose the next question. Do we have to tell the Home Insurance that supply our home and contents insurance the whole saga? Does it invalidate our insurance?

What about our mortgage supllier? Due to renew our mortgage next year as the 5yr fixed rate expires.

lincroft1710

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81977641#Comment_81977641

What do the terms and conditions of your insurance policy say about what must be disclosed to your insurer?

Bigphil1474

If the cracks are related to the truss work, then your insurer may not cover the cost of repair. If they are hairline cracks, wait and see what the builder says. They may be just the house re-aligning cos you've fixed the incorrectly placed trusses. The odd hairline crack on it's own isn't often a huge concern. We were getting them in our old kitchen 10 years after it was replastered. I found one in our newer house living room last week after having it skimmed over last year. Obviously if they become more than hairline, or there's lots, there's something to worry about. The builder and SE will know your house and location better than anyone on here, see what they say.

The mortgage provider will want to know that they'll get their money back if they need to repossess. All you can do is answer their questions honestly.

user1977

The mortgage provider will want to know that they'll get their money back if they need to repossess

And at this stage they're unlikely to be very interested - they'll stand back and wait while the OP gets it fixed, it's not as if they'll want to repossess it while it's faulty.

eddddy

Bigphil1474 said

If the cracks are related to the truss work, then your insurer may not cover the cost of repair.

Insurers won't cover the cost of repairing cracking, unless it's caused by an insured risk - like subsidence (or fire, or explosion, or collision by a vehicle or aircraft, etc).

(And just to be clear, I'm not suggesting this is subsidence. And I wouldn't mention possible subsidence to an insurance company, before getting a report from a building surveyor or structural engineer.)