[Closed] helping a neigbour

Interesting about the mortgage and insurance - I've just taken out a new mortgage and it was never mentioned (I insured it anyhow but no one has ever asked to see proof).

The banks and building societies used to be very hot on ensuring that there was buildings insurance cover, although in part this was also at one time a ploy to try to get the mortgagor to buy their insurance from the bank's insurance broking division, so that the bank received the commission on the insurance. Consequently to some extent the requirement to supply details of an alternative insurance company to the bank and have their interest noted was an obstacle which helped deter mortgagors from choosing not to use the bank's insurance scheme.

However, there is a genuine risk for the bank if the house is destroyed by fire etc. It may be that the banks don't bother where the loan to value is so low that even if the house were destroyed, the outstanding loan would still be lower than the value of the land for rebuilding. Equally, it may be that some banks have decided to just chance it and not check any more that there is insurance, on the grounds that it is very rare that they would lose out as a result of the mortgagor not having insurance, and the rare losses would be offset by the saving in admin costs in not doing the checks.

Apart from all the sound advice, best thread for ages.

a) its in huddersfield

Just leave all the doors and windows open and the harsh winds will dry it out in about half an hour.

Interesting about the mortgage and insurance - I've just taken out a new mortgage and it was never mentioned

So have we and the chap at Natwest made sure we knew it was a condition of the loan. They don't check, no, but it's stipulated in the T&Cs

Hopefully the lady will have freinds family or workmates who can all muck in and help her, best not to get to involved, as sometimes that involvement may turn round and bite you quite nastily.

Tough but thats life nowadays, and thats from someone who always trys to help and sometimes the above has happened and ive been bitten.

Ill give her a nice calm talking to tonight.

And then a weekend at Centreparcs to make up for the back door destruction

Perhaps it's not as bad as it sounds.

Typically the mortgagee will require the insurance company to 'note their interest' on the policy.

How is this possible as the insurance is a contract solely between the home owner and the insurer? The requirement to have insurance is a contractual agreement between the mortgage lender and the home owner. There is no relationship whatsoever between the insurer and the mortgage company.

I've never been asked to provide proof of insurance to the mortgage provider, nor have they asked.

Perhaps it's not as bad as it sounds.

I doubt it. I know someone who had just finished a two year complete renovation and went away for a long weekend. The same thing happened, hot water pipe to bath tap disconnected and the combi boiler was running the whole time pumping out hot water. The whole place was wrecked due to the flooding but more because of the steam. Basically everything in the house was skipped and the building was taken right back to the structure and redone. Thankfully they had insurance.

Noting an interest makes it a part of the mortgage companies business. Some insurance companies ask if there is another interest, some mortgage companies insist on being made an interest, many of both do neither..

don't get sucked in any further.

no takers for that one? disappointed.....

If the roles were reversed, think about what help you would like and do that.

think thats my take on it. youll have a bit better feel for the dynamics of this particular situation, how desperate she is, has she any other family etc, but i think id be sitting her down, tell her how utterly stupid she is to have gambled, shes in big financial sh1t now because of that stupid decision so shes going to have to suffer financially for a good few years now, its not the end of the world and spell out just where your help will stretch to and no more. only you can decide what youre willing to do but do what you can as a good neighbour/friend, amass a few karma points, but dont let anyone take the p1ss.

How is this possible as the insurance is a contract solely between the home owner and the insurer? The requirement to have insurance is a contractual agreement between the mortgage lender and the home owner. There is no relationship whatsoever between the insurer and the mortgage company.

It's perfectly possible and used to be standard (as I say, some/most/all mortgagees may have relaxed this requirement, taking a calculated risk of not losing money on homes which are uninsured and destroyed by a fire). Sometimes the policies were issued with the bank or building society named as a joint insured. The alternative was that the mortgagee required the mortgagor to have their interest noted on the policy, which effectively created a relationship between the insurer and the mortgagee (in other words, if the insurer paid out the whole sum insured for the house to the mortgagor without checking with the mortgagee first, then the insurer would be liable for the mortgagee's losses if the mortgagor did a moonlight flit with the money). In practice, this would be very unlikely to happen anyway, as the money would be more likely to be paid in instalments directly to the builder appointed to rebuild.

I've never been asked to provide proof of insurance to the mortgage provider, nor have they asked.

Like I say, a calculated risk, and it may depend upon your loan to value. The more money a mortgagee has lent, the more likely they are going to want to be certain that they will get their money back if the property is destroyed. In some cases the lender will want their interest protected to the extent that if the insurance company rejects the claim because of some excluded action by the mortgagor, such as fraud or arson, the insurer will still pay the mortgagee whatever they have financially lost.

Please tell me her name is not Louise! 😯

Late to the thread as usual. It's frightening how little safety net some people actually have in their lives, especially if they take a fatalistic view of risk.

Isn't there a device that can shut off the water or the combi boiler if, say, the water flows freely for more than a set time?

She's missing a trick for generating a revenue stream here....

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What sort of floors does the property have? If it's an old, wooden suspended floor I think the first thing to suggest would be getting a few floorboards up and hiring a submersible pump to empty the void underneath. Perhaps a builder would know, but I reckon that could cause structural issues if left, beyond the general internal condition.

Sounds like a horrific situation for your neighbour. 😥

i think id be sitting her down, tell her how utterly stupid she is to have gambled, shes in big financial sh1t now because of that stupid decision so shes going to have to suffer financially for a good few years now

Yeah I imagine that's probably what she needs now 🙄

Perhaps it's not as bad as it sounds.

We had similar - workman had opened a rad valve (in a loft room) for some reason or other then went away leaving the system to bleed over the weekend. Water ran through the floor, into our bedroom, through the bed, through the floorboards and into the kitchen.

Opened all the windows and got a few big industrial heaters and it dried out in a week.

But to be fair, it doesn't sound as bad as the OP situation.

i think id be sitting her down, tell her how utterly stupid she is to have gambled, shes in big financial sh1t now because of that stupid decision so shes going to have to suffer financially for a good few years now

Like this
[img] [/img]

Can't she go sleep in the loft? It'll be dry up there

😀

Can't she go sleep in the loft? It'll be dry up there

With the moisture in the house it'll be like the canopy of a rainforest 🙂

Whilst not having insurance is a bit dense, it seems a bit hard hearted in here today. If it were just her I'd find a way to put her up for a while.

For scaling the disaster - this happened to next door (detached luckily, owner was a friend but had returned home to Ireland, and was between tenants / on the market). New potential owners opened the doors to a whole house flood.
Builders in to remove floors, ceilings and some walls thorughout. Big industrial driers in for a couple of weeks - looked thoroughly seedy at night. Eventually refit of floors and ceilings, walls and redecoration.
Don't know the final costs but first estimates were in the 20K range :-O

Which raises the possibility that she may be able to sue the builder/plumber concerned if it can be shown that they were negligent, e.g. the fitting was not properly secured or the wrong type of fitting/pipe was used. If she has buildings insurance, then the insurance company or their loss adjuster would investigate that and do the work to get their money back. If they were successful in doing so, then that should virtually guarantee that she could also then claim against the builder/plumber/their insurer for the loss/damage of her own contents, although that is obviously going to be a slow process.

And if she doesn't have buildings insurance (hint: she doesn't)?

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[b]Nurse:[/b] Drink, doctor?

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[b]Nurse:[/b] You, doctor?

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[b]Mr. Bertenshaw:[/b] But my wife, nurse...

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Andy, speak to the local council. If the woman is on some kind of benefits they may help her. Also ask if the council run a furniture recycling scheme. Ours does. You can get decent 3 piece suites/furniture/appliances for a few quid.

Who's on first?

so spoke to her last night. Amazingly she seems fine about it all. Reckons that shes getting a skip today and shell have it all out and dry by the end of the week.

Im certainly not one to question her optimism