"Paul White" wrote
| Our lenders (the Nationwide) are being very difficuly with the mortgage
| application. They are refusing to provide their own insurance (fair
enough)
| but are insisting that any buildings policy we take out has "normal
| premiums" and a subsidence excess of no more than £1000.
| What I don't understand is, what difference does it make to the lender ?
So
| long as we have sufficient buildings insurance surely the premiums and
| excess are irrelevant ?

They specify the subsidence excess as something you are likely to be able to
afford, ie to make sure the house is effectively insured. Otherwise there
would be nothing to stop you taking out insurance which had a subsidence
excess of £100,000 - that would be very cheap for you in premium but would
leave the house in effect uninsured against subsidence.

Dunno about the rest though.

Owain