Home insurance about to be cancelled for non-disclosure

[bulubulu]

Really in a big fix and need your help guys.

 

I bought a house two years ago together with a conserrvatory which has been added by a previos owner about 10yrs ago.

 

Unfortunately, this was not built correctly from the start( I have just realised).

 

Previous owner I bought from may have investigated it but patched the problem before sale.

Unknowing to me the extent of the problem,

 

I bought the property and insured it as normal as the only questions on the compare site was :

Is the house in good state of repair and has it suffered from Subsidence.

 

Two years on, I have noticed further cracks apart from the previous one which has been patched

contacted the insurance company to see if I am eligible to claim.

 

They sent a Surveyor to come and inspect specifically for subsidence as they claim that is the only grounds on which they will pay out.

 

Surveyors report came up to say issue is not subsidense related but rather a bad design of the conservatory from the start

and inadequate foundation and that issue has been long standing because of previours repair .

 

I got furious that day cancelled the policy and switched my insurance to a diff. provider.

 

I have since been looking for a builder to rebuild conservatorry from scratch.

 

Company contracted by previous insurer has come back to me saying underwriters want to persue the case as Non -disclosure

as I did not tell them there have been previous repairs on it.

 

They are therefore requesting to have my pre purchase surveyors report which I have never had so got a copy from the bank.

 

This is where my problem starts.

 

The state of the conservatory was mentioned in the report which was unknown to me as I was a first time buyer

and did not know what should have been given to me.

 

Giving this report to them will be their evidence to stitch me up for non-disclosure.

 

Am I under any obligation to give them that report?

 

As I have already cancelled that policy with them,

can they still stitch me up for non-disclosure?

Is there anyway I can force them to close the case without any further actions

as I have now concluded to rebuild the whole conservatory from scratch.

 

NB: the main building is in perfect state just the conservatory which was not built properly.

 

Having sleepless nights as I have heard non-disclosure on my record will be disaster for good.

 

HELP PLEASE

[unclebulgaria67]

No you don't have to supply information to a previous Insurers after cancellation. But you were showing a bit of inexperience in trying to make a subsidence claim for a badly built conservatory. The Insurers you submitted the claim to would have incurred expenses in sending out a loss adjuster/surveyor to your address. So I doubt they are happy with you and probably think you have given them wrong information on purpose.

 

Did you inform your new Insurers of this recent attempt to make a claim ? If not, your new policy would be invalid, as you have given false information. The subsidence claim will be on a central insurance database and your new insurers will see this. If you ever tried to make a claim and the Insurers picked this up, they may refuse to deal with the claim and cancel the policy.

 

I would probably advise you to write to the previous insurers to explain what has happened and see if they will remove the subsidence claim from the record, as it turns out that the conservatory was just not built properly. Apologise to them for your mistake, as this is the first house you have ever owned and you made an error in not getting the conservatory checked locally, before even thinking about submitting a claim. You don't have to send them a copy of the survey.

[bulubulu]

I think I have made a class 1 error then by what you are saying. I did not tell the current insurers about the failed claim as I know I am going to deal with it myself. It was the surveyor they sent who told me I should have done my own investigations first. This is my first home and first insurance so am really new to all this. Do I have to call and tell the new insurers now or I should finish the build and start all afresh. Also with the apology letter, any luck with a template of what the content should be and is it definite they will still record the non-disclosure even though the policy is cancelled?

[unclebulgaria67]

If you did not disclose the claim to your new Insurers, your new policy is pretty worthless. You could tell them now, but they would cancel anyway due to the non disclosure, which means you then have a cancellation due to non disclosure. So you might have the silly situation of cancelling the Insurance again, if you manage to get the previous Insurers to remove the subsidence claim. Then arrange Insurance with another company, disclosing that you tried to make a claim for a conservatory, but found out that it was just badly built.

 

My suggestion would be to contact the previous Insurers by phone first of all. Speak to the claims department about the claim to explain that as a first time buyer with no experience of houses or Insurance you rushed into registering a claim for potential subsidence, when it was just a badly built conservatory, nothing to do with anything that you could claim for. Ask them whether the claim can be removed or record changed, as it was not a vaid claim. Explain that having an invalid claim for subsidence on your record on the claims underwriting exhange database will now make future insurance arrangements more complicated.

 

See how you get on with that. You might be able to resolve by phone. There is no template letter. If you want to send a letter, you could say something similar to the above.

 

Summary

 

1) Phone or write to previous Insurers to see if you can get the claim removed or marked as not related to an insured peril. See how you get on.

 

2) Cancel the new Insurance, paying any cancellation fee due. Then start from scratch arranging a new insurance declaring that you tried to make a claim on x date, but found out it was just a badly built conservatory, which you are going to have rebuilt.

 

Expensive time consuming lesson, but hopefully a learning experience.

[bulubulu]

Sounds very helpful. Thanks but any further suggestions from others welcome

[UKCA]

Hi there,

 

The thing with non disclosure is you have to intentionally do it. This may be hard for the insurance company to prove and since there is no actual loss to the insurance company I would see little reason in them taking this further. The ABI has some great information around this area.

 

I look to say what the actual report says. If it says there is damage the insurance company may exclude this from any claims made. for instance they should still consider any claims relating to other parts of the property. But it is important to note to the new insurance company that you have tried to claim on your previous insurance and this was declined.

 

If the old insurance company want the report I would suggest giving them a copy. They have the ability to apply a 'fraud marker' against you which other insurance companies may be able to see. Can't see have you have done much wrong.