Underpinning and insurance

[Andrew May]

Just been told by my insurance broker that no insurance company will give subsidence cover within five years of underpinning being performed.

So how do developers cope who buy a property that needs considerable work including some underpinning and then sell on when finished if their purchaser cannot get subsidence insurance and hence probably a mortgage? I cannot see any building society being prepared to lend on a property that is not insured if it starts to fall down.

There must have been several episodes of Property Ladder that require underpinning but sadly this is the sort of issue that they don't address.

Andrew

[NT]

IIRC there is a requirement for the existing insurer to continue to offer cover. Needless to say it won't be cheap.

NT

[Jim]

AIUI typically the underpinning company will provide a guarantee so you will have some kind of certificate which you can provide to the mortgage company. This was certainly the situation in the house that I lived in which had been underpinned (it had been built on a slope which was cut away and the ground had started moving under the house).

For instance - see here:

"We carry out work for all the major insurances companies; we also carry out domestic and commercial underpinning for example barn conversions and retro-fit basements. All our underpinning works carry a 12 year insurance backed guarantee."

[Jen D]

Try one of these

of the names given appear to have a website you could initially take a look at

hth

[Andrew May]

I think that in this case the previous owner probably didn't have insurance.

[Lobster]

I looked into buying a recently-underpinned property about three years ago: only a small amount had been done and it had been carried out properly with all the required certification and guarantees. My first port of call for insurance was the exisiting insurer. They advised me that no, they would not be willing to take me on as a new customer to continue the insurance.

Whether or not they should have been legally obliged to do so is a moot point, but that experience, plus the fact that I was unable to find any other company willing to insure the property at anything other than astronomical 'eff-off' prices, was enough to make me withdraw from the purchase despite substantial expenditure on loan fees, surveys etc, on the basis that any future purchaser would be likely to suffer the same problems.

David

[Toby]

Hiscox provided insurance on my mums house after she had some subsidance related work done. so thay me be able to help.

...wen't cheap though...

[Andrew May]

That's my worry. That any future purchaser is going to run a mile when they find out that getting insurance is not going to be as easy as giving Direct Line a call.

But yet this must the situation for thousands of houses around the country.

Andrew

[Andy Dingley]

I have some minor sheddage that _might_ need underpinning, on account of poor foundations when built, rather than any land movement. Certainly no risk of affecting the house. This is so minor that I'd do the work myself (but will probably ignore it anyway).

I've been advised that if I did have the work done professionally, it would then make the main house uninsurable, as you describe! There was a serious suggestion that demolition and rebuilding would be preferred, just because of this!! Crazy.

I suggest that what happens in practice is often a combination of being uninsured and lying to insurers.

[Andrew May]

Actually, thinking about it I am beginning to suspect that it is not the work that has been done that the insurance companies are paranoid about because that is guaranteed. Rather it is the fact that the work has needed to be done and therefore in their eyes there is a greater chance of them being liable for anything else that needs underpinning.

Andrew

[Tony Bryer]

It's 25+ years since I had anything to do with this but IIRC the guarantees merely guarantee that the underpinned wall(s) will not move. More often than not only part of a house would be underpinned, so any movement to the rest is not covered.