Subsidence insurance claim - will it show up on a search?

[fatboy b]

We had a small subsidence claim on our house a couple of years back. Nothing major, just the central pillar between the garage doors was gradually sinking. Turns out it was builders spoil dumped right under the point-foundation, and nothing inherently bad about the soil.

Our house insurance isn't high, but I'd thought I'd shop around for other quotes. Not a chance. One out of 80 companies quoted, and that was about double what we're paying now. So it got me thinking. Should we decide to sell the house, does this subsidence claim show up on searches? Could be a nightmare to sell if a buyer cannot get insurance,

[Vron]

fatboy b said:

We had a small subsidence claim on our house a couple of years back. Nothing major, just the central pillar between the garage doors was gradually sinking. Turns out it was builders spoil dumped right under the point-foundation, and nothing inherently bad about the soil.

Our house insurance isn't high, but I'd thought I'd shop around for other quotes. Not a chance. One out of 80 companies quoted, and that was about double what we're paying now. So it got me thinking. Should we decide to sell the house, does this subsidence claim show up on searches? Could be a nightmare to sell if a buyer cannot get insurance,

On the sellers property information form you are legally obliged to declare if you have made any claims. It even asks now if you've ever been burgled !! If you lie then you can be sued by the new owner. There will be a paper trail too if you have made a claim.

Why not just renew with your current insurer?

[JR]

I think that you've probably fallen into the worst scenario possible: a £1K claim could cost say £500pa in extra premiums and the insurance co. won't even have paid out for the works because your excess covered the full cost of the works :-(

[fatboy b]

I will be. I'm just concerned that the house may be unsalable as no ins. co. will insure it.

[Vron]

fatboy b said:

I will be. I'm just concerned that the house may be unsalable as no ins. co. will insure it.

I believe the insurer who dealt with the claim is then obliged to offer insurance. It was akin to flood victims having 'uninsurable' houses after they claimed.

[russ_a]

The house we have just brought had a major claim (20k) in 1983.

We used www.homeprotect.com - was cheaper than direct line without declaring the claim.

Have not claimed for anything so not sure if they are any good though

[fatboy b]

russ_a said:

The house we have just brought had a major claim (20k) in 1983.

We used www.homeprotect.com - was cheaper than direct line without declaring the claim.

Have not claimed for anything so not sure if they are any good though

Thanks for that. I ran a quote through, and they came out £30/month more than I'm paying now. I think I'll stick with what I've got for now - they were very good during the claim.

[cjs]

I'm in a similar situation however my subsidence claim was £10k+ and was around 10 years ago. It was due to trees out in the street which are now long gone and the problem has gone away. However, getting insurance quotes has been very difficult, most will not even quote if you tell them about any subsidence claim, even though it was years ago. I have been forced to stick with my existing insurer, who were very good during the claim.

Will it affect the sale of my property in the future? Well it does worry me!

[Autopilot]

The insurance company you were with at the time of the subsidence is obligated to continue cover for anybody who purchases the property. I bought a house that had suffered from subsidence (burst water main made one corner of the property start to sink) and the owners of the house gave me their policy number and let the insurer know I was going to contact them and that I was allowed to nose about their policy.

Natwest told me I did the right thing in calling them and looking to continue the policy on as nowhere else will touch it, and that they are obligated to continue cover. This isn't why I'd phoned, but they seemed to offer this information up, so just continued the previous people's policy.

[Autopilot]

cjs said:

Will it affect the sale of my property in the future? Well it does worry me!

Yes it will.

I had no problems in purchasing a property which had undergone works for subsidence. A survey was done, guarantees for the underpinning work all in place, the property would be insured, so why should it stop me being interested in the property?? I'm sure that most structural engineering works type people will say that if a house is underpinned then technically it's not going anywhere, the rest of the street will sink before your house does.

The issue is that very few people think like this! From my experience of selling a property with a subsidence claim against it is that it put most people off as there is a very bad stigma with subsidence (as trying to insure a property will show). It took forever to sell my place and as soon as the estate agent mentioned subsidence, most potential buyers were out of there like a shot. I bought one and had no issues with the property, but selling it was VERY difficult.

I found the biggest issue is that most surveyors will perform a home buyers survey and all this is is one massive arse covering exercise. You pay them £300, they fill out a pre-formatted report where they just write a whole load of reasons why you can't sue them when your house goes horribly wrong if you purchase it. As soon as 'most' surveyors get a hold of the fact there has been a subsidence claim, then you'll rarely find one that will not get the potential buyer running.

I eventually sold my property after a bad survey said the house should pretty much be condemned as it was pulling away from next door etc etc. The people withdrew their offer as they said the place wasn't a safe place for their family to be. This spurned me on to get a structural survey done...who did say that the surveyor was wrong about practically every point in his report. The structural engineers report essentially sold the house. When you sell, I'd say it would be prudent to spend 3 - 400 quid on getting a structural engineer round to perform a survey and head off any potential sale problems before they start.