Wondering if anyone can help with a Home Insurance issue.
We've had the Render taken off the the side of our building to find the brickwork isnt brilliant, and potentially needs be relaid around the chimney stack
We spoke to the Home Insurance (LV) as we believe there is New Movement in the questionable area which covers us - They advised us to speak with a Structural Engineer, and get a new Survey Report to confirm that, which we did, and has been confirmed in the Report that we've been provided with - Should add that neither of the Survey Reports we've had completed have said that there is movement, when going through Mortgage Applications (the last being 2.5-years ago)... So its a "recent" thing.
My wife has been speaking with the Insurance Company this morning, and they're refusing to cover us... Unless we can determine what has caused the movement in the first place, i.e. they've suggested we go back to the Structural Engineers who did the Survey, they themselves highlighted at the time, that its impossible to tell what the cause could have been.
If there is anyone on here who is a brick whisper, please could they let me know.. Or if not, is there anyone who can advise on a way around this?
Comments
When you say 'brickwork isn't brilliant' what exactly do you mean?
Feel free to send me a message, I'll happily read the report. I'm not a Structural Engineer but was for many years head of underwriting and Claims for a large building societies Insurance division so have read 10's of 1,000's of reports and dealt with more claims than I care to remember.
I've dropped you a PM with the Report, images of the brickwork is on there
A friend of mine recently had a leak from a broken CH pipe going under his kitchen floor, as he didn't have "track and trace" on his insurance policy he had to pay for someone to come in and dig up his kitchen floor (Karndean tiles) and the concrete base to find it.
Worth checking with your insurance company to see if you have this as its for all damage in your property that requries this type of investigative work. Luckily i have this.
It's trace and access, also this would only be in the event you have a leak or if unknown to confirm whether there is any liability. Typically the excess is less on these claims, but if there is a leak then the excess will be higher/ Escape of Water claim.
Unfortunately, there is a few grey areas with the initial post. Subsidence is quite specific, so if there is no subsidence which has caused the cracking, its highly likely there is no cover.
Without going into too much detail, but send me a PM if you would like to be more specific and i might be able to advice/ help.