Home Insurance - Claims Advice

phill65 · 21 May 2019 at 5:25PM

Hi,

I'm after advice.

We always discuss changing home insurance to avoid being stung with high renewal premiums. We I did just that, after 4 years with provider A and moved to provider B. Great I saved £200...

Now the down side... I recently discovered some cracks in the wall after having some rennovations done. Turns out that when the extension was built 19 years ago (yes 19 years ago) before we owned the house, it was built on some large tree roots which have now rotted away and the extension needs underpinning at a cost of £8k per side.

Contacted my new insurance provider B (having just moved to them recently) - their reply, sorry there is an 8 week cooling off period where structural work isn't covereed on new policies. My original provider A of course - sorry you're not with us anymore, not our responsibility.

So they are playing off against each other - A says it's B and B says try A. So turns out moving my house insurance to save £200 might end up costing me £16k as two sides need underpinning and neither accept the claim.

Any advice... ?

How can home insurance have a period where no one effectively covers structural issues ? It's like a no mans land where you're not covered.

davidwatts · 21 May 2019 at 7:02PM

From the final bullet point on the linked page of the ABI website:

"If you discover subsidence damage after changing your insurance provider: If you change insurer and then discover subsidence damage, the ABI's subsidence claim handling agreement will help determine whether your previous or current insurer should handle your claim. The decision will be based on the amount of time that has passed between you switching insurer, discovering subsidence damage, and notifying your insurer:
if the date of notification is within eight weeks of changing insurance provider your previous insurer will handle your claim
if the date of notification is between eight weeks and one year of switching provider then your previous and current insurers will share the cost of your claim
if the date of notification is more than a year after you switched insurers your current insurance provider will deal with your claim"

https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/choosing-the-right-insurance/home-insurance/subsidence/

See if Insurers A and B are both listed as signatories to the agreement here!

https://www.abi.org.uk/globalassets/files/subject/public/home-insurance/2019/abi-domestic-subsidence-claims-agreement-signatories-january-2019.pdf

phill65 · 22 May 2019 at 7:35AM

Many thanks for this information, I was really struggling where to take this and this infomation gives me hope and something to move forward with.

Home Insurance - Claims Advice

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