Building Insurance

Dodoronron

Hello,

I'm new here and in need of some opinions or advice...this will be long...

We bought our house in May 2007. Its a 3 bed, mid terrace, red brick house, built in the 1940's. We saw nothing wrong with the property on the 2 visits we made before putting in our offer. We had another visit with a relative who is a Structural Engineer, she saw nothing wrong either, although she didn't produce a report and this opinion was given verbally.

Our next door neighbours had started to do work to their house, removing internal walls at ground floor and installing a new stair to the loft space, they didn't get the advice of a structural engineer when doing these works. At the same time there were cracks in the road outside our house. When car carriers went over them at night there was a small amount of vibration in the house. These were fixed in the summer of '08. That summer the drain in our back garden over flowed and we had an inspection done which found the drain had collapsed two gardens down from us and backed up the whole way to our house...our neighbour repaired the pipe themselves.

We had noticed cracks appearing in the large front bedroom ceiling in Dec '07 but thought this was because of the house drying out because of the new central heating we'd installed in Nov. We were using the small front bedroom for storage until August '08 but moved everything out and noticed more cracks in the party wall. They're about 1mm wide and run from floor to ceiling at a 45 degree angle. By this time the crack in our bedroom ceiling had moved right across the room. I was concerned and got in touch with our Insurance Broker. This is our first property and neither of us has made any insurance claims before so I wasn't too sure how to go about things.

Our Broker got in touch with the Insurance Company and a guy came to our house in Sept. '08. He said he was from the insurance company. He got back in touch in November '08 (after me harassing the Broker for news) and said he was actually a Loss Adjuster appointed by the Insurance Company and they'd decided on his advice that it was up to us to prove the cause of the cracks before anything could be done. We needed a Structural Engineers report. I went away and got a quote of E750.00 for this, which, since I had been made unemployed, we couldn't afford. I rang the Loss Adjuster and told him this. He said he'd see what he could do. He got back in touch in Jan '09 and said the Insurance Company had decided to pay a Structural Engineer to look into it. After hearing nothing and harassing the Broker again they said why didn't I try going with a company who would handle the claim for me. They gave me a contact name, I rang and the guy, he was very helpful. He said their fee would be covered by the Insurance Company when they paid out (as supervision of the works to correct the fault). I said I'd think about it.

In March '09 a Structural Engineer for the Insurance Company got in touch and made an inspection. He said the cause was unlikely to be subsidence and he'd advise installing tell-tales on the cracks and monitoring them for 6 months. He said the Insurance Company would cover the costs of installation but would only make good damage to the walls if the cause of the cracks was found to be insurable. I asked the Broker was this usual, she said no and she'd talk to the Insurer and get back to me. She hasn't and things are still in limbo. Our insurance renewal date has since come up, the quote for renewal is double what it was the year before, they've also said they won't cover for subsidence or landslip from the renewal date. I questioned this with the Broker who said there's nothing we can do because no-one else will insure us with this going on and we have to just accept it, she still had no news from the Insurance Company about my enquiry.

I rang the Insurance Federation of Ireland who said to tell the Broker they would take this case up with the Insurer but that we had to pay the premium to have continuity of cover. My Partner rang and paid the Broker over the phone on the 7th of May and informed them of what the I.F.I had said. The Broker said our premium was so high because our no claims discount had been removed (we're first time buyers and never had building or house hold insurance before) and that premiums have gone up considerably this year. We haven't received any news from the Broker since and are being told the person we need to speak to isn't in the office when we call. So far the money hasn't been taken out of our account. We had a call on Friday from the guy who the Broker advised could take over the claim who said that installing tell-tales isn't what the Engineer should be doing, he should be inspecting the drains. I'm 6 months pregnant (high risk pregnancy), unemployed, broke after paying for the insurance and going out of my head trying to sort this out. I've called the Ombudsman and asked everyone I can think of and no-one seems to know what's usual, what I should do or how to proceed.

ANY advice would be gratefully received...the stress of it is exhausting me and all I want to do is decorate the small bedroom for my baby!!!! I don't even know if I should do this.

Thanks for reading.

joe9joe9

Probably a good idea to get a loss assessor involved. He will basically take over all dealing of the claim for you. His fees arent really covered by the Insurance company - he will take a percentage of what you are awarded, maybe 2.5% i think.

As regards the structural engineers fee, the insurance company does not have to pay this for you (nor does it pay the loss assessors fee). The onus to prove the claim is on you.

Also, the Insurance company only has to cover the damage that occured for the period that you were insured with them. Generally ongoing damage of almost any kind is not covered by your insurance but subsidence is an exception. Subsidence generally only occurs in certain parts of the country (eg. Cork) and this may not be subsidence at all. Could be whats regarded as settlement (cant be sure of how u define the difference).

If you change insurer (if you could) then basically both companies would be liable for a certain proportion of the claim as the damage would be occuring during both periods of insurance. Similarly, if you have no insurer, you may be liable to pay that proportion on your own so youre probably best to stick with same insurer.

My best advice to you is to get a loss assessor out (an adjuster is hired by the insurance company to process the claim in an independant manner, an assessor acts on the average Joe-soaps behalf). You may not have to pay a penny if you are not awarded anything and its in his business to get as much as possible for you as quickly as possible.

So in short-
get a loss assessor, pay your premium, advise your broker that youre not happy with their service because its their job to follow up these things continuosly with the insurer

joe9joe9

I would be interested in how this works out, let me know & good luck!

Look at http://www.isitsound.com/SUBSIDENCE.htm which explains the difference between subsidence and settlement. It sounds like whatever happened between your neighbours drains may have caused this and so could be classified as subsidence claims. Subsidence claims can run into the high €000's depending on what solutions are necessary.

Dodoronron

Thanks for your reply. I think we'll go with the Assessor, as you advised. At this stage I'm sick of it and just want it sorted out.

I'll let you know how things go.

Thanks again