Buildings Insurance advise needed
Discussion
First some background. We live in a terraced late 19th century house and have a porch that is shared with our neighbours. Over the last 10 years or so the porch started to develop a crack where it is joined to the house, so four years ago our we put in a joint insurance claim with our neighbours to get it fixed (big mistake !). The surveyors came and checked it and claimed that the foundations were fine, they then took several other measurements with the end result being that it was claimed to be 'heave'. Our insurance policy had a £1000 excess for heave/subsidence claims and the total cost of rectification was just over £2000 (so just over £1000 pounds each). The insurance company sent me a cheque (£5) to cover the extra cost.
Fast forward to this year and the crack has come back, it is now virtually the same size as before but doesn't seem to be getting any bigger. Our insurance is up for renewal and on checking my documents I can find no mention of the previous claim, so I phoned the brokers. It seems they have cocked up and transferred my policy away from the original insurance company to somebody else. They are going to phone me back tomorrow to let me know what happens next and I suspect the already expensive premium is going to get even more expensive.
The problem I have now is that I can't get insurance anywhere else so I have to pay whatever they decide to charge me, is there anyway out of the rule that states you have to stay with the insurers that covered the initial claim (a measly £5 !). We are hoping to sell the house next year and I can see this being quite a big stumbling block in the sales process.
Has anyone here experienced this sort of thing and is there any way around it ?
In hindsight, we shouldn't have made the insurance claim and should have done it all privately but what's done is done.
Fast forward to this year and the crack has come back, it is now virtually the same size as before but doesn't seem to be getting any bigger. Our insurance is up for renewal and on checking my documents I can find no mention of the previous claim, so I phoned the brokers. It seems they have cocked up and transferred my policy away from the original insurance company to somebody else. They are going to phone me back tomorrow to let me know what happens next and I suspect the already expensive premium is going to get even more expensive.
The problem I have now is that I can't get insurance anywhere else so I have to pay whatever they decide to charge me, is there anyway out of the rule that states you have to stay with the insurers that covered the initial claim (a measly £5 !). We are hoping to sell the house next year and I can see this being quite a big stumbling block in the sales process.
Has anyone here experienced this sort of thing and is there any way around it ?
In hindsight, we shouldn't have made the insurance claim and should have done it all privately but what's done is done.
That's a cock up without doubt.
One of the reasons that insurers agree amongst themselves that in the event of such a claim, the property stays with the existing insurer; is so that the insurer who picks up the tab for the claim will have a continuing interest (responsibility) for looking after the property should the problem reappear.
It would be interesting to know if the insurer you are now with via your broker knew of the previous claim when the business was transferred.
It's up to your broker to sort this out, they've taken the commission on the premiums.
Write via recorded delivery, and ask them why they transferred the business when there had been a claim for heave, and ask them what steps they have taken to ensure continuing insurability.
In this case, paying for it yourself wouldn't have got round the problem because most applications have a question in the format: Has the property ever suffered from.....?; which is different from has there ever been a claim?
One of the reasons that insurers agree amongst themselves that in the event of such a claim, the property stays with the existing insurer; is so that the insurer who picks up the tab for the claim will have a continuing interest (responsibility) for looking after the property should the problem reappear.
It would be interesting to know if the insurer you are now with via your broker knew of the previous claim when the business was transferred.
It's up to your broker to sort this out, they've taken the commission on the premiums.
Write via recorded delivery, and ask them why they transferred the business when there had been a claim for heave, and ask them what steps they have taken to ensure continuing insurability.
In this case, paying for it yourself wouldn't have got round the problem because most applications have a question in the format: Has the property ever suffered from.....?; which is different from has there ever been a claim?
RedLCRB0b said:
They also wanted me to provide them with a rebuild value for the property, they have never asked for this before and I have been insured through them for 12 years now.
I'm sure you know anyway but this is not to be confused with the market. Value. Used to be able to get the appropriate rates from the Royal Institute Of Chartered Surveyors, I assume you still can.Well it now appears that I am in insurance limbo 
The brokers are now claiming that the insurance company didn't inform them of the final outcome of the claim, hence this is why it disappeared from their records. Because this all happened 5 years ago the insurance company has now transferred the records to its 'archives', and it will take over a week to get the relevant information from the archives in order that we can find out if the final decision really was subsidence. To make matters worse, the brokers are now no longer dealing with the insurance company - so the two don't seem that happy about talking to each other.
The brokers have said that I may have to get a structural engineers report (£600+) to determine what the problem is and have suggested that I claim this sum back from the insurance company who may have lost the records (if they can't find them in their archives). The other alternative they have given me is to speak to 'The Subsidence Board' who apparently can find insurance companies willing to take on the oh so huge risk As you can probably tell, I'm less than impressed with the whole experience.
Apparently a database exists (QSearch) that all the insurance companies check when processing claims to check that someone has given them all the details when taking out an insurance policy. That catch is that they only check this when handling a claim, not when the policy is taken out (which would seem to be the obvious time to do it).
So as it stands, I have no buildings insurance and it looks like getting insurance is going to be a slow, costly and frustrating experience.
The brokers are now claiming that the insurance company didn't inform them of the final outcome of the claim, hence this is why it disappeared from their records. Because this all happened 5 years ago the insurance company has now transferred the records to its 'archives', and it will take over a week to get the relevant information from the archives in order that we can find out if the final decision really was subsidence. To make matters worse, the brokers are now no longer dealing with the insurance company - so the two don't seem that happy about talking to each other.
The brokers have said that I may have to get a structural engineers report (£600+) to determine what the problem is and have suggested that I claim this sum back from the insurance company who may have lost the records (if they can't find them in their archives). The other alternative they have given me is to speak to 'The Subsidence Board' who apparently can find insurance companies willing to take on the oh so huge risk
As you can probably tell, I'm less than impressed with the whole experience.Apparently a database exists (QSearch) that all the insurance companies check when processing claims to check that someone has given them all the details when taking out an insurance policy. That catch is that they only check this when handling a claim, not when the policy is taken out (which would seem to be the obvious time to do it).
So as it stands, I have no buildings insurance and it looks like getting insurance is going to be a slow, costly and frustrating experience.
Edited by RedLCRB0b on Thursday 2nd December 17:13
Hi,
We have just brought a house with a large subsidence claim against it (July 1983) due to mining.
We asked the vendors who their current insurers were and was told Norwich Union. After we moved we called Norwich Union who denied all knowledge!
Didn't bother me to be honest, just got cover with a specialist firm for £250 for the year as the claim is over 25 years old.
Just give the buyer your old policy number and explain the situation.
We have just brought a house with a large subsidence claim against it (July 1983) due to mining.
We asked the vendors who their current insurers were and was told Norwich Union. After we moved we called Norwich Union who denied all knowledge!
Didn't bother me to be honest, just got cover with a specialist firm for £250 for the year as the claim is over 25 years old.
Just give the buyer your old policy number and explain the situation.
When you made the original claim, was it via the broker?
If so, ask them how they thought it best to advise you to change insurers following the claim.
I suspect you are going to have to get threatening with official written complaints etc. Insurance is a regulated industry, and if your insurance was placed with a different company, your broker will have to prove that you have not been disadvantaged if they knew about the claim.
I also suspect that in order to get out of the limbo, you will need a structural engineer to look at it. Clearly the original 'repair' has not done its job, did you instruct the repairer or did the insurer? If the latter, then they are still responsible.
If so, ask them how they thought it best to advise you to change insurers following the claim.
I suspect you are going to have to get threatening with official written complaints etc. Insurance is a regulated industry, and if your insurance was placed with a different company, your broker will have to prove that you have not been disadvantaged if they knew about the claim.
I also suspect that in order to get out of the limbo, you will need a structural engineer to look at it. Clearly the original 'repair' has not done its job, did you instruct the repairer or did the insurer? If the latter, then they are still responsible.
Paul Drawmer said:
When you made the original claim, was it via the broker?
Yes.Paul Drawmer said:
If so, ask them how they thought it best to advise you to change insurers following the claim.
They are claiming that they didn't know about the claim, because the insurers didn't tell them. I can definitely remember seeing something about it in one of my renewal notices, unfortunately I can no longer find this (I don't tend to keep 4 year old renewal notices).Paul Drawmer said:
I suspect you are going to have to get threatening with official written complaints etc. Insurance is a regulated industry, and if your insurance was placed with a different company, your broker will have to prove that you have not been disadvantaged if they knew about the claim.
The broker claims that I will have to complain to the insurance company first, and then if that fails I can complain to them. I'm going to speak to someone at the insurance ombudsmans office today to see what their advise is.Paul Drawmer said:
I also suspect that in order to get out of the limbo, you will need a structural engineer to look at it. Clearly the original 'repair' has not done its job, did you instruct the repairer or did the insurer? If the latter, then they are still responsible.
I'm going to look into this today, together with getting some quotes from subsidence friendly insurance companies.Thanks for your help Paul, its useful having someone in the profession giving neutral advise.
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