I wonder if you can help me. A friend has recently had a conservatory built to extend their property following which some cracking occurred. Rather than being a result of subsidence/heave,etc it has emerged that the firm responsible for building the conservatory had not gone deep enough when digging the foundations and have now suggested that to remedy the situation they would underpinn the conservatory. However, working in insurance myself I am aware that underpinning has a negative impact on buildings insurance but as I am not an expert in this particular field I would appreciate some advice. The building firm are saying that because the underpinning is being done purely to remedy the situation and not due to any subsidence then this would not have the same effect on insurance, however the concern is that any future problems with the conservatory would not necessarily be resolved by underpinning and that insurers would still impose a higher premium because the conservatory has been underpinned regardless of the reasons for doing this. Could you please advise whether in your experience this situation would have a negative impact on future insurance in which case my friend should not accept the firm's offer to underpinn and would instead ask them to pull it down and start again.
