This could get quite complicated, so rather than get into a long post with ifs and maybes, I will keep it short.

Contact your Insurers and see if they will send around a loss adjuster to take a look. You can explain that the first time you had been made aware of any subsidence issue was the visit of someone investigating subsidence to a neighbours. At this stage you really don't need to go into the issue of cracks as most properties have minor cracks due to movement. If they ask to see the survey you had when buying the flat, let them have a copy.

It is possible that if the subsidence is likely to have occured prior to the current policy, you may be referred to your previous Insurers. If the subsidence is likely to have occured prior to buying the flat, you might have a bit of a struggle on your hands, between the Insurers you continued with from the vendors, the surveyors if any negligence is provable and your mortgage company. Often the mortgage company can get involved, if the situation gets complicated, because you bought the flat, with a mortgage valuation survey from one of their panel surveyors. There is an extreme subsidence case on this forum, where the mortgage company have taken the property off the hands of the mortgage holder, because the house was basically a write off.

You may be required to obtain a structural engineers report, which would cost £500+. As you have a subsidence excess of atleast £1000, such a cost would not be covered by your Insurance.

Hi,

I bought a property around one and a half year ago. This property is a flat, converted from a Victorian house built around 1900. Because this is an old property, I expect that there will be cracks in the property.

Recently my neighbour filed a subsidence claim, and their insurer sent someone to investigate their property. The investigator also went into my flat and he told me that the cracks on my flat were caused by subsidence and recommended me to contact my insurer. What he said really shocked me as I really did not expect to buy such a property.

To make the matter worse, I had just switch to another insurer to get a better deal. I basically used the same insurer as my seller before I switched. When I asked for insurance quotations, when there was a question regarding subsidence, I answered no as I genuinely did not know that the cracks on my flat were caused by subsidence. Furthermore, when I bought this flat, the valuation report mentioned nothing about subsidence, all it said was there was evidence of movement in my flat and that any further movement was unlikely.

I am genuinely not aware of any history of subsidence in my area, until I was told by my neighbour. I am now very concerned that my current insurer will reject my claim if they find out about the cracks on my flat.

I would like to ask for your advice on what my next step should be. How can I convince my insurer that I genuinely did not know that the cracks in my flat were caused by subsidence.

Many thanks,
Dom