Hello there,

I am currently selling my flat which is one of three flats in a building where we each own a share of the freehold. I have received an offer that I have accepted. The buyer has had a survey done on my flat which has come back totally fine. My big concern is that the building as a whole currently has an insurance claim on it. This relates to a crack which was found in one of the other flats. The insurance company have been monitoring this for a year and assessed the whole house not finding any other evidence of subsidence yet pointing out other areas where the building could do with repair. I have got a quote for these other repairs and naturally notified my solicitor of the ongoing claim. He didn't see this as a problem but I would appreciate any other views on the subject.

If its ongoing, if you havent told your buyers, they may easily pull out at the last minute if they suddenly realize the insurance premium is going to hit the roof as it can do post claim, and/or they only want to buy a property which is dead easy and quick to sell on with no subsidence history to be checked out and worried about. With possible HIP packs next year, the subsidence history and amount of insurance will be there up front and your buyers may worry it will impede their selling on. Also if they find out later in the sale, they may demand a price drop to reflect the extra high insurance premiums and lessened ease of selling on. Depending on how worried you are about the possibility of being let down at the last minute, you may think it wise to tell buyers at the beginning when everyone can back out without loss.At this stage you can minimize the effect by being prepared and showing the correct paperwork, guarantees and insurance is in place .This would go a long way towards reassuring a nervous buyer.Alternatively it might see off the buyer who would have dumped you on finding out later. From experience, I can tell you its a horrible feeling as a ftb when youre threequarters way into the sale and you find such an important piece of information suddenly comes to light and you then start panicking about the effects it will have. Youve spent out a shedload of money, so youre scared to back out and scared about going on.

All the information has been given to my solicitor on the leasehold information form. The insurance is fine as when we took over the freehold the existing company (Norwich Union)continued to insure the 3 flats on the property at the same premium as before. If the crack in the other flat does turn out to be subsidence then all benefits to the claim would be attributed to the 3 freeholders which would basically involve a maxiumum of £333 pounds each.

Well if that is the case, then I think that putting that all together to share with anyone who makes an offer would be the right thing to do. Let you Solicitor handle when the information gets passed on. It should be enough for it to be available via your Solicitor when the question comes up after the Survey / Searches.

Ary.