survey for a mortgage??

Question

if i had my house surveyed for a mortgage ,8 months later i find cracks ,possibly house movement am i covered ,??? by my buildings insurance??

in order to get a mortage on a property in the uk ,you must get a survey sent by the lender ,this was done

Answer 1

A survey is carried out to protect the lender from lending you money for a home which may not be worth what they have lent you for it. Do not listen to the jokers who say it only covers the boundaries, it will cover the condition of the whole property and if you view the surveyors report it should list any problems with the property. To much time has passed since the survey was done to make them liable and the surveyor would simply argue that the damage must have occurred in the eight months since he surveyed the property.

If you have buildings insurance contact your insurer and make a claim as subsidence is usually covered by such policies, although it will be no doubt subject to an excess ( mine is £1000 for subsidence and land slip). They will send a surveyor and tell you if they are going to pay out to sort it. Please be aware that insurance contracts are "uberimae fidei" (of utmost good faith) and you are obliged to report any changes that may affect the policy anyway and that failure to do so may invalidate your policy! So it would be wise to action this sooner rather than later.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The survey has nothing to do with the cracks, that is only for your property boundaries. Some cracks are normal, if you are noticing doors not closing or things that seems to have changed, call a good foundation company, most will do a free check for you. I doubt if you are covered by insurance unless you have a pipe busted under the house and that is what is causing the problem but, there again, you will have to check with your insurance company. If you had the house inspected 8 months ago the problem may not have been there. I take it the cracks are in the foundation or walls, maybe add to your question and be a little more specific as to what is cracked.

Answer 3

we had exactly the same problem when we bought our house 3 years ago.

Your buildings insurance will cover you for any claim of subsidence, unless subsidence was metioned at the time of the quote and they have excluded this cover (but sounds as though they havent) all you need to do is ring your insurance company tell them that you have noticed cracks in your walls and that you need a loss adjuster to visit and they will arrange it all. Depanding on the insurance company they may even paint the walls for you afterwards (so saves you on decorating!!) there is usually an excess fee of £1K though.

At this time of year subsidence is common because of the natural drying out of the ground causing the shrinkage under your house, also if you have any trees within 8 metres of the house the roots will also drain water away and this causes subsidence.

Good luck with it all, w have only just finisshed our work and we started it 2 and a half years ago.

We did not have to move out at the time of the work but sometimes you may have to depending on how severe the damage is

Answer 4

One of my neighbour's found he had subsidence, when he had all his windows and doors changed for UPVC ones.This was very upsetting and made him ill.The good side is that his building
insurance covered the repair cost apart from the first £1000,but
they had to go into rented accommodation while the work was done.Eventually they moved back in and was given a 25 year guarantee and a few years later they sold the property with no
problems.Get a proper survey done before you panic as small cracks do appear in plaster and bricks.A good test for movement
is to stick a glass strip across a crack in the brick work and if it moves the glass will break.I had a slight bit of trouble near a bedroom window of a zig zag crack in the brickwork. Had it
re-pointed 8 year ago and had no trouble since.

Answer 5

The survey only covers the boundaries of the land, not the building thereon. What you are looking for the the building inspection or building maintenance inspection.

Answer 6

>> Pinecone research, Surveysavvy, Greenfieldonline are some of the larger survey companies, who pay
>> regularly . A list of companies you can join for free , with details of amounts you will receive
>> as
>> payment, is available at http://tinyurl.com/mx9ga

Answer 7

Did you have a home inspection, an inspector should have found the cracks.

Answer 8

No, and your homeowners insurance probably doesn't cover this either.

Answer 9

ring them and ask