What happens if I don't mention minor subsidence to a new home insurer?

[MNersanonymous]

We had minor subsidence about 3.5 years ago which was fixed without any underpinning although there are still some cracks in the walls (but they are small and it is an old property).

I'm trying to see if I can get a cheaper insurance quote but one firm just said they wouldn't insure us due to the history of subsidence in the last 4 years.

What happens if I don't mention it at the quote stage? Is it fraud? If it is I wouldn't do that. Problem is it was v minor and it's a pain! Not a pain enough to commit fraud though of course.

I'd think you'd have to mention it - if you don't and try to make a claim later on its likely that your insurance will be invalid

Some companies refer you to a special unit who will underwite the insurance. I would mention it.

I don't think not mentioning it at the quote stage would be fraud, but it might be if you carried on without telling them. If you don't mention it at all & it subsides again, they won't pay out if they find out about it & I would guess that someone who knew his job might well be able to spot the difference between old & new subsidence.

Can you get a quote with a higher excess for subsidence? - we have one of these - I think the excess for subsidence is about £3,500, I forget what it is for everything else, but it's much lower.

Message withdrawn

My insurance is £1000 excess for subsidence

What happened Chequers - I'm the people who lived here before had had problems and we didn't find out before we moved in...although it is 6 years ago since we bought the hosue so probably too late to do anything about it

Hi

I work in insurance and would STRONGLY recommend that you disclose all facts to potential insurers. If you dont, and they offer you a policy you could find out at a later date that your insurance is invalid. Worst case scenario, you have a house fire, lose everything, they then find out that you withheld info at the inception stage of your policy and your policy is cancelled - leaving you with no cover for the fire damage. If you withhold info about this subsidence, it is not only future subsidence claims which are affected it is all claims, it is sooooo not worth the risk. I'm sorry if I sound preachy but I have dealt with similiar scenarios in the past and it is heartbreaking to see people lose everything for the sake of saving a few quid on their premium

If you are looking for cheaper insurance (arent we all) I would ask for the quote and explain that the subsidence was minor, was fixed correctly and that you have documentation etc to show the extent of the repairs.

Most policies carry a large subsidence excess as standard - normally £1000 - but this will be higher if you are in an area where subs is a common problem.

We changed our insurance about 12 years ago, when the Halifax (who our mortgage is with) suddenly got in a panic about subsidence & massively increased our premium because of our postcode - a house with the same postcode had had bad subsidence. They wouldn't change their minds even when we pointed out that the reason the other house had subsided was because it had been built on the site of a pond without proper foundations.
So we changed to Royal & Sun Alliance, who quoted about half the price if we took the extra excess - we've already saved over £4,000 in premiums.
About 5 years ago the Halifax suddenly started writing to us to ask us to return, so presumably they've now changed their minds about the risk.
We tell them to sod off politely decline.

Don't do it! it would be madness. If they found out you would have no basis to claim on anything...

you will not save money.

because they will find out after you try to make a claim for something else and your policy will be declared invalid.

they have researchers whose full-time job it is to find stuff like this out.

and not disclosing information that you knew about when the policy was incepted makes your policy invalid at best.

Think perhaps I'll just stick with the current insurer!! It's not worth switching and having to deal with all the proving it was resolved stuff...I will try and beat the existing insurer down a bit on the renewal quote.

The question my dh has now is do a few minor cracks caused by a wisteria creeper type plant constitute subsidence??