Subsidence

[Nimbus1999]

I bought a property in 2024 for myself and children following a divorce.

I had a survey done and 1960s detached garage (15 metres from the house at the bottom of the garage) was noted as being in a state of disrepair with subsidence and they recommended demolishing.

Fine - I’ll do that at some stage but just not now as I can’t afford to.

No issues with the main house so took out insurance on that basis, not bringing up the garage that needs demolishing.

I realise now that I should have disclosed about the garage and am very worried it might invalidate my policy. I’m happy to rectify this but the issue is, absolutely nobody will insure me. I think the damage is 5 years old and as the previous owner never claimed she didn’t tell her insurance company. She also didn’t mention it in the property information form.

Does anyone know what I can do?

Does your insurance po,icy include the garage as an outbuilding

Most standard insurers won’t offer cover but there are a few out there offering policies for these types of risks . They’d review the survey and most likely offer cover with subsidence excluded .
Try googling non standard insurance for subsidence and look for a broker or a company like Avantia who are flexible .
Has your existing insurer refused to continue cover ? If so you’ll need to disclose having insurance cancelled going forward as well .
Don't fret , everything is fixable but be totally upfront going forward.

Tricky one as there used to be an agreement that if a property had subsidence then the insurers at the time of repair would continue to offer the cover if sold (this was a while ago when I worked in insurance). However, if the garage is included as an outbuilding and it wasn't disclosed they may decide to exclude the garage or subsidence altogether, depending on what the survey said. Quite possibly they may void the policy due to non discloser which means you will probably need to go to a specialist broker and declare both the subsidence and voiding of the policy.

What's making you consider this now? Has the house started subsiding or do you need to make a claim for something else?

I'd personally demolish the garage and get rid of the subsidence altogether as a priority (now), rather than declare it with insurers.

Not an expert but if the garage is to be demolished and not used at the moment why does it need to be insured? You have to loo, at what outbuildings are currently on your cover, if it's not listed then does it need to be declared

It doesn’t have to be insured, perfectly happy for it to be excluded. But nobody seems to want to take it on, I’ve phoned numerous specialist insurance companies now and their issue is it’s existing subsidence and it’s not being dealt with.

I read that if my existing insurance company finds out I didn’t disclose the garage, my whole policy (for the main house) won’t be covered even if I have a fire or something. Seems very risky.

Maybe my best plan is to just knock it down, get rid of the problem and then never have to disclose the old garage had subsidence. Or would I still need to tell them? The foundations / footing are not the best due to the age so I don’t think a new building would have the same issue although obviously I don’t know for sure.

Outbuildings are normally automatically covered under the policy.

At the moment you are at risk of your policy being voided due to non disclosure.
To find out if you need to tell them about it I would look to do a new online quote and see what the questions are around subsidence, you. Ight get lucky if you don’t need to tell them (assuming you knock it down ASAP).

Home protect cover us and is pretty reasonable.

Why not just tell a new insurer you are knocking the outbuilding down as you don’t need it

Or just knock it down and keep your existing one

Ps. If you can wield a sledge hammer or route out the mortar and take the bricks down one at a time you can just pull it down yourself

nb you’ll need an electrician if there’s electrics though

It’s got an asbestos roof and it attached to my neighbours equally run down garage. So I’d want a professional to do it.

Ive tried telling them I’ll knock it down and they don’t have to insure it but nobody is interested.

This is what my current insurer asks. I did it via a comparison website and I don’t remember it being so specific to outbuildings but I guess it is.

If you get the roof removed, which obviously you’ll have to pay for, then it’s no longer classed as an outbuilding. It’s just walls in the garden

It's attached to the neighbour

I’d just get the roof removed. Specialists in asbestos removal will be able to do this with the care required