Household Claim

Situation

Our client owns a picturesque rural property built around 1900 that sits in three acres on a hillside with quite lovely views. Their property demonstrated signs of subsidence.

Claim

They contacted us initially as had noticed a crack has appeared in an internal wall. We reported to insurers and visited with the loss adjuster.

A small plastic measuring device, called a tell-tale, was glued over the crack to detect movement in millimetres. Within a matter of days the tell-tale had snapped and other cracks had appeared. 

The insurers wanted to monitor further and adopt a “wait and see” approach. Our client was quite rightly distraught and we insisted that Structural Engineers were appointed immediately, who ordered a geological survey.

Within only three months of the original report, we had established that a “slip” was occurring on a geological scale. The movement was so severe and the slip so deep that in effect our client’s home was sliding down the hillside.

Result

Through persistent negotiation we persuaded insurers that a fair settlement would be to “write off” the home and pay the market value. The land was completely unusable and could not be rebuilt on.

We paid our client £420,000. He bought a parcel of land (after a further full geological survey) nearby and built a new house with an equally wonderful view.