NT wrote:
On Jul 23, 11:48 am, Andrew May wrote:
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.


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

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