Building Insurance on an older Flat that has suffered 'Historical Movement'

Sweet_Sindy

hi guys, me and my partner have just had a survey back on a house in north london, built around 1920, and the buildings survey report says

"slight historic movement is noted to the front party panel and some slight settlement is occurring throughout the property in particular to the flank wall much of this is historic."

"on the party porch wall the bottom front section has tipped slightly. it is likely that this section of the wall has only a limited foundation underneath and this has dropped causing the bottom four bricks to tip slightly. A repair pointing has been undertaken in recent years , however, the minor cracking has continued."

The vendor said that as far as he is aware no subsidence has occured although he said the previous owner had a tree removed from the front in 1984 but no claim was made.

I am trying to get some insurance in place so I know we can be insured and normal quotes are 500, but if i test to see what effect subsidence has they double to 1,000!!!!

My dad says it is just natural historical movement and settlement and that i shouldn't worry - but what should i do?

any advice is greatly appreciated

gettingcranking

Please help, does anyone know who will insure my house. I have contacted NFU and they said no! Basically I haven't declared it on my current insurance so I'm not really covered. There are loads of old houses around that have clearly had past movement, surely they are insured, or no-one would ever buy them.

gettingcranking

VeryFrustrated wrote: »

I called NFU today, I gave full disclosure they agreed to insure me (buildings insurance, I added contents too) and to acknowledge in writing that there is historic movement, non-progressive etc. They were not concerend at all.

So, not a problem.

I hope this helps the next reader.

Really they said no to me, which branch did you call. clevedon Bristo said NO

VeryFrustrated

gettingcranking wrote: »

Really they said no to me, which branch did you call. clevedon Bristo said NO

With apologies for the very late response - try head office in Stratford on Avon.

s8mt

They also said no to me (we have an identical situation - evidence of structural movement, not likely to be significant or progressive, long-standing and likelihood of future significant movement remote - no structural works considered necessary)...

NFU said they are a low risk only insurer, and other insurers might be OK with it, but they would need a structural engineer's report before even considering insuring and that they normally wouldn't touch it...