Subsidence
- Thread starter Syla5
- Start date
Its quite a bit further down the line then that, i know that my initial post didnt contain much detail. At this point we have had a final survey completed which was a floor slab distortion survey. Looks like a Topographical map, im just wondering what the scale of it is.
There is a long running back and forth between myself and the loss adjusters who are refusing to do anything about the persistent cause of the movement, even though evidence from their own readings and specifically this distortion survey (if im reading it correctly) show.
Chimney is central mass of the house, not built with any sort of foundation just on the floorslab, and we are on clay. House built in the 50's and really doesnt take much, with the more extreme dry summers and wet winters its just slowly getting worse.
Root ingress holes internally dug and investigated right at the chimney.
Just a little update on this one. After the floor distortion survey was completed the insurance tried to claim that the measurements were within tolerances. The movements the survey showed up were up to 50mm within a 3m distance, definitely not within any tolerance i could find, and further more not even close to the 15mm tolerance over a 10m span that the insurance company finally came back and quoted.
Needless today this further information was added to an already detailed case with the FOS who came to a final decision that the insurers where indeed liable for repair work to the floor and having finally gotten to an agreement on the scale of works required we are beginning to move forwards.
Funnily enough, i arrange for a floor specialist to provide a quote for rectification works, on the off chance the FOS would not side with us, and the insurance company asked for that quote. When they received if they were not happy with the costs, so they engaged with their own contractors.....the floor repair their own contracts have returned with is even more invasive and even more expensive. Needless to say we are going with their contractor.
The work that is now due to take place is full excavation and of the ground floor slab of the house and rebuild it to modern building regs standards which now include all the insulation bells and whistles to boot. This journey is going to get interesting, we are going to have to move out for 3-4 months.
Needless today this further information was added to an already detailed case with the FOS who came to a final decision that the insurers where indeed liable for repair work to the floor and having finally gotten to an agreement on the scale of works required we are beginning to move forwards.
Funnily enough, i arrange for a floor specialist to provide a quote for rectification works, on the off chance the FOS would not side with us, and the insurance company asked for that quote. When they received if they were not happy with the costs, so they engaged with their own contractors.....the floor repair their own contracts have returned with is even more invasive and even more expensive. Needless to say we are going with their contractor.
The work that is now due to take place is full excavation and of the ground floor slab of the house and rebuild it to modern building regs standards which now include all the insulation bells and whistles to boot. This journey is going to get interesting, we are going to have to move out for 3-4 months.
Small update, in the phase of getting quotes from builders for the work we want doing that the insurance isnt paying out for.
There has been an issue with alternative accommodation requirements and it has also taken 3 months for the insurance company to agree that if the only viable property on the market has a 6 month minimum tenancy agreement period that they must agree to the full 6 months even if our build plan for the insurance works only requires 3-4 months. Finally had confirmation of this and funds for AA have now started to be paid out, so we can start planning properly for moving out and getting work started.
Next full detailed site visit from the insurers builders will take place mid/late January, so as things sit now I can see us moving out of the house around march next year for 6 months.
There has been an issue with alternative accommodation requirements and it has also taken 3 months for the insurance company to agree that if the only viable property on the market has a 6 month minimum tenancy agreement period that they must agree to the full 6 months even if our build plan for the insurance works only requires 3-4 months. Finally had confirmation of this and funds for AA have now started to be paid out, so we can start planning properly for moving out and getting work started.
Next full detailed site visit from the insurers builders will take place mid/late January, so as things sit now I can see us moving out of the house around march next year for 6 months.
Rent alone is over £15k
Repair costs for their solution over mine is an additional £45k minimum (estimated costs of their repair £80k+, I provided a quote for £35k that wouldnt need AA)
Then there is the added cost of bills, removal costs, storage etc to be added on, thats easily going to be £5k+
Repair costs for their solution over mine is an additional £45k minimum (estimated costs of their repair £80k+, I provided a quote for £35k that wouldnt need AA)
Then there is the added cost of bills, removal costs, storage etc to be added on, thats easily going to be £5k+
Update:
Still on the hunt for a rental property. Rent funds have been paid out so far to cover 6 months rent, hopefully the amount paid out we can find somewhere that should gives us 8 months budget at least.
At the same time we are progressing with cash settlement talks - ive had my builder quote for the full work that the insurance company have spec'ed out and provided this to the insurance company.
Now the fun bit, the insurance company and I have discussed cash settlement from the start of this, baring in mind, initial rough estimates from a few different builders of the work that has been outlined by the insurance companies builders ranges from £65k-£100k.
1st settlement figure - £35k - no vat - no information given
2nd settlement figure - £47k - no vat upfront but as soon as works are completed i can claim back the vat - this is new and significant information, total settlement would be £56.4k.
3rd settlement figure - £68k - after vat thats £80.4k. They advised this new number after i had provided my quote - and at this point they also advised that they would be willing to settle the detailed quote that my builder has provided
My quote being £87.5k at this point + vat on top to claim back after - £105k
As my quote was provided before the insurance instructed builders came and completed a site walk around and highlighted some more work that needed to be undertaken, i have requested a revised quote from my builder to include those elements and advised the loss adjusters that I will be sending this over and they are just confirming that the builders did mention these points.
So amazingly without any information changing on the loss adjusters side, they have willing increased their cash settlement figure from £35k all the way up to £105k....
Its shocking what they have been trying to get away with.
Now waiting for the revised quote to land with me, to send over to the loss adjusters, with my likely preference to cash settle and have all works done by one main company coordinating.
Still on the hunt for a rental property. Rent funds have been paid out so far to cover 6 months rent, hopefully the amount paid out we can find somewhere that should gives us 8 months budget at least.
At the same time we are progressing with cash settlement talks - ive had my builder quote for the full work that the insurance company have spec'ed out and provided this to the insurance company.
Now the fun bit, the insurance company and I have discussed cash settlement from the start of this, baring in mind, initial rough estimates from a few different builders of the work that has been outlined by the insurance companies builders ranges from £65k-£100k.
1st settlement figure - £35k - no vat - no information given
2nd settlement figure - £47k - no vat upfront but as soon as works are completed i can claim back the vat - this is new and significant information, total settlement would be £56.4k.
3rd settlement figure - £68k - after vat thats £80.4k. They advised this new number after i had provided my quote - and at this point they also advised that they would be willing to settle the detailed quote that my builder has provided
My quote being £87.5k at this point + vat on top to claim back after - £105k
As my quote was provided before the insurance instructed builders came and completed a site walk around and highlighted some more work that needed to be undertaken, i have requested a revised quote from my builder to include those elements and advised the loss adjusters that I will be sending this over and they are just confirming that the builders did mention these points.
So amazingly without any information changing on the loss adjusters side, they have willing increased their cash settlement figure from £35k all the way up to £105k....
Its shocking what they have been trying to get away with.
Now waiting for the revised quote to land with me, to send over to the loss adjusters, with my likely preference to cash settle and have all works done by one main company coordinating.
I’ll get pics going when we have a confirmed full pla of action. The main issue is floor distortion, our concrete slab floor has 50-55mm distortion within 4m of the zero point. So it’s not even like it’s a suspended floor on wooden beams, which is why it has to be fully excavated and replaced.
I didn’t ask for subsidence and I didn’t plan the suggested work, not much I can do except explain to them the situation.
You would think that, but no, my case has gone to the ombudsman already because of the lack of action and the blatant attempts by the loss adjusters to absolve themselves of responsibility. They tried to claim the floor distortion was “within tolerance” then couldn’t confirm what the tolerances were for the floor, and even the tolerances to DPC level was put by up to 10mm in some cases (this is 10mm outside of the max tolerance).
The additional challenge with this case is that we personally want to have the chimney removed, it’s the focal point of the movement but not the cause of it and so the insurance have managed to limit their responsibility to superstructure repairs only (crack pinning and making good basically). So we are having that work done.
However, no, the loss adjusters surprisingly do not work for our best interests as the insured party, they work for the best interests of themselves and the insurance company, so doing the bare minimum or paying at the smallest amount they can get away with is 100% in their best interest, hence the amount of time/effort I am having to put in to actually get the best resolution out of this for us.
Revised quotation sent through after the insurers builder came over and revised their work load so I had my builder revise his quote in line.
Now the insurers have sent the quote on to their consultants who want to carry out a joint site visit to discuss the full extent of works required. Full re-evaluation taking place. A further 1-2 months of delays happening.
Now the insurers have sent the quote on to their consultants who want to carry out a joint site visit to discuss the full extent of works required. Full re-evaluation taking place. A further 1-2 months of delays happening.