Bryony’s neighbour wouldn’t agree to subsidence repairs on their shared property. Should her insurer have looked into other options?
What happened
Bryony contacted her buildings insurer to make a claim for structural damage to her semi-detached house. Her insurer said the cause was subsidence, and it impacted the whole property, not just her half. It got some expert advice about what to do and decided work was needed on the foundations of the entire property.
This included the half owned by Bryony’s neighbour, Jonathan, who refused to talk about the situation with her when she tried to start the conversation.
The problem was that both houses needed treating. Otherwise, any future movement between the two houses might cause the same or worse damage in future. Jonathan’s property would also be damaged, and he would hold Bryony responsible.
Bryony's insurer spent a long time trying to convince Jonathan to go along with the planned works. It even threatened legal action. But he still wouldn't agree.
Bryony was frustrated that nothing was being done to fix the damage to her property. She complained to her insurer and unhappy with the response, brought the complaint to us.
What we said
Bryony’s insurance policy entitled her to get the damage to her house repaired properly. However, her insurer claimed that their suggested solution involving Jonathan was the only way forward. We could see that this was a very difficult situation, and we wanted to help sort things out as soon as possible.
Looking at the facts of the case, we agreed that Jonathan cooperating with the works would have been the best option. But we didn’t think this was going to happen.
We decided to speak to the expert that the insurer used. They told us about another possible solution to the problem which wouldn't need to access Jonathan's property. It was more difficult and expensive than what the insurer wanted to do, but it would prevent the subsidence from causing any further damage.
In the circumstances, we upheld Bryony's complaint and told the insurer to carry out repairs in line with the more complicated approach the expert had advised.