Insurance policy voided

bainbridge

bainbridge

bainbridge

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2009
Posts
5,329
Location
Bristol
A good friend just rang, asking for help. He bought a house during the 1st lockdown, which he insured, and this summer he noticed some cracking in an exterior wall on his front porch, presumably due to some sort of subsidence below ground level. He submitted a claim through his home insurance and, after some investigation, the insurers have written to say they are not honouring the claim and are voiding his insurance. The insurers say that they've obtained evidence which is in the public domain that indicates the damage was present prior to him taking out cover with them.

I asked him if he knew about the cracked wall when he was making the purchase. He said he didn't, but when the cracks became apparent and he inspected the wall, there were signs of some cementing done around the area that had cracked. So it may have been an existing crack that was cemented over, without the root cause being dealt with.

He has 21 days to appeal. I do have some experience from working in the insurance industry some years ago and I'll do my best to help him, though I've set his expectations that it's unlikely we'll be able to get them to reverse their decision.

Please can someone suggest where we might find this public domain info that the insurers are referring to? I appreciate that we can ask the insurers, and we will if necessary, but I wondered if the hive mind of GD could help.

When we bought our own house, the OH found a website which showed the previous prices that the house had sold for, together with a photo of the house at the time it was up for sale, but it was only 1 photo of the front elevation and not a high enough resolution to show the brickwork in detail. Are there other websites around which show all if the for sale pics?

Any suggestions will be welcome.
 
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I don't think the information matters personally unless it's specifically stated in the sales documents by the estate agent, found in the solicitors search or highlighted by the surveyor in the homebuyers report.
Apart from anything else he would have had a long discussion about it when applying for a mortgage. Assuming he has one of course.
He needs to start the appeal process and take it from there, it's unlikely to be known by everyone except him though.
 
Slam62 said:
I don't think the information matters personally unless it's specifically stated in the sales documents by the estate agent, found in the solicitors search or highlighted by the surveyor in the homebuyers report.
Apart from anything else he would have had a long discussion about it when applying for a mortgage. Assuming he has one of course.
He needs to start the appeal process and take it from there, it's unlikely to be known by everyone except him though.
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Would the documents you mention be classed as public domain?
 
potatolord said:
Have you looked at Google Street View?

Also, see if the house photo from when he bought the house is available on rightmove/zoopla.
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Yes. Streetview only shows one side of the house. The OH found some pics on Rightmove (she needed to register to view archives) and there is a pic of the elevation concerned but it's low Res, you can barely see the bricks and certainly not any cracks.
 
Azza said:
What sort of survey did they have done when they purchased it?
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^This^.
Assuming he had a homebuyer report mention the crack? There would have been a section looking at outside walls and also conservatories and porches. If it mentions cracks/movement/subsidence and your friend then went on to take out insurance and ticked that the property did not suffer from subsidence then he has problems.
If the report did not mention the movement then (imo) it would be unfair for the insurance company to expect a layman to not take said report at face value.

Regardless of the fact it would be worth your friend seeking the advice of a structural engineer who can conduct a proper survey to check the porch does not actually suffer from subsidence - it is more than likely settlement cracks if they appear between the porch and the main property.

I have been through exactly what your friend is going through so am happy to help where I can. We got stung because we did have the survey which mentioned movement/cracks but then we went on to say the house had not had subsidence on the insurance application so we got stuffed.
 
It's possible the insurance company have looked at the photos taken when the house was put on the market, and they have seen evidence of cracks.
 
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koolpc said:
Surveyors are like slippery fish! They cover themselves enough in the small print etc.
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Yep. The first time I bought a house the report was covered in caveats such as "No evidence of ABC but a professional opinion should be sought". I thought the whole point of engaging a surveyor was to get a professional opinion.

The second time I bought a house I took a builder round to give his opinion instead and only paid for a valuation from the surveyor rather than a full survey. 20 years later the house is still standing.
 
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Could have been a previous claim made and a poor repair made maybe after the claimant either had their ins rejected, or decided to go cheap rather than pay their contribution.

Not sure how the new purchaser would be aware of that however, but maybe the ins co expected they would be.
 
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