Help us go home.

https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/family-desperate-to-move-home-after-living-in-airbnbs-for-over-year-following-neighbours-collapsed-house-4528172

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story.

Our family, Alan (Dad), Sam (Mum), Freyja & Orla-Phoenix (Daughters) have not been able to go home for over a year now, despite our best efforts, arriving at a point where we may lose our family home through no fault of our own. We are still waiting on everyone else involved to decide what the future holds for our family.

In December 2022, two houses in our road collapsed! We were allowed to go home just over a week later, being told we had to listen out for any strange noises and keep an eye on the cracks that had appeared throughout our house as a result of the structural movement coming from our next-door neighbour’s property, due to the houses collapsing.

We were at home with our two young daughters (then aged 3 and 8) on New Year's Eve 2022, when we heard a loud noise that sounded like boulders falling down the outside of our home, we ran outside, with our daughters, and saw dust coming out the front of the remaining structure of the collapsed houses. We thought it was loose bricks falling off in the strong winds, but we later found out that this was our next-door neighbour's house starting to collapse as well! We contacted Portsmouth City Councils structural engineer, who replied very soon after which we appreciated due to it being the holiday period.

On 8th January 2023, the Councils engineers came to investigate what had happened. From our garden, they could see through one of the windows of our next-door neighbour’s property and it was obvious that the wall that was damaged by the collapsing houses, had now collapsed as you could see straight through it. The remaining part of their structure was only being held up because it was using our house as a counterweight. We were then removed from our house by Portsmouth City Council under the dangerous buildings act, as our home had become structurally unsound due to the collapsing of our neighbour's house and so wasn't safe for us to live in.

Our Insurance Company, Policy Expert, had supported us during the initial collapse and so we contacted them again, informing them we were removed from our house. They told us they would pay for our accommodation in an Airbnb for 2 weeks while things were being assessed. They also advised us to start looking for a 6/12-month rental property, but within 3 days of us moving into the Airbnb, our Insurance Company decided that we were not covered due to latent defects, although there was no evidence of this in our original survey report. The only information about latent defects, at this time, came from a news report. Our Insurance Company effectively walked away at that point, leaving us and our two young children homeless, with no idea what to do next! Thankfully, Portsmouth City Council's housing department, our local MP Stephen Morgan and the LibDem councillors stepped in, and they have been supporting us ever since.

While we were trying to figure out how we were going navigate this unbelievable situation and keep our young family safe, our Insurance Company said they would pay for our first two weeks accommodation as they had already offered us this before realising that they had made a mistake and we weren’t covered. After we disputed their claim that we weren’t covered, our Insurance Company, Policy Expert, through their claims company, Trinity Claims, gave us their complaints procedure and the Financial Ombudsman information. We were also told by Trinity Claims that we had legal cover in our policy that could be used, but we were then informed by their legal team that it couldn’t be used against Policy Expert or Trinity Claims.

Before we went to the Financial Ombudsman, Policy Expert said they would get a surveyor to carry out a survey of our house. They said this was as a goodwill gesture as this wasn’t covered in our policy either! The survey doesn’t show any correlation between the latent defects found under our DPC level and the damage caused to our home, although it was used by Policy Expert to reinforce their stance on our claim. We’ve since had our own legal representation advising us and we’ve been informed that the insurers are supposed to show how their findings of said latent defects correlates with the damage to our property, which caused us to be removed from our home. At the time of writing, they have still not shown this and have only offered 10% of the costs that would make our home structurally sound. These repair costs have risen since the initial offer and will continue to rise, in part due to the length of time it has taken to negotiate getting to any resolution regarding fixing our home.

We made a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman about our Insurance Company in March 2023 and we are still waiting for them to reach a decision! We have given them all the information we’ve received from our legal representatives, our structural engineer, and all other entities involved.

We have also applied to borrow money on our mortgage, so we have the funds available to fix the structural damage that has been done to our house, but again we are still waiting for them to reach a decision! Even after providing them with all the information, they asked for and multiple quotes showing the works needed, they have asked for another quote to confirm a final price for the essential works and how the money we’ve asked for would cover this. Currently, due to the length of time this process is taking, the amount we are looking at wont fully cover the structural work, let alone the final sum needed to bring our home back to how it was before the houses started to collapse.

We are hoping that Policy Expert will finally take some social responsibility in looking after one of their customers before we have to pull money from our mortgage, that will cripple our finances going forward, due to the increase in monthly payment and the interest incurred for borrowing against the mortgage.

During all of this, we are also trying to negotiate with our neighbours to get the party wall between our home and where theirs stood before collapsing, taken down and rebuilt. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, we have been unable to reach an agreement. The Council are now stepping in and taking us both to Court on the 5th March 2024 to get the work done. This means we could end up with a Criminal conviction and there will be more costs involved (fines, legal fees, Court costs and a higher quote depending on the building company the Council employ to do the work).

Throughout this entire process we are also having to find money we don’t really have to pay for a solicitor to help us legally navigate this awful situation.

The most recent builders quote to take down and rebuild the party wall is £45,000 + vat. This doesn’t include replacing most of the bricks below the DPC level of our house, the roof that now needs fixing, the damp that is now coming in that will need sorting, any other issues we are not yet aware of, extensive plastering throughout the house and redecorating the whole house once the building work has been done.

Asking for help isn't something we have decided to do lightly. We have tried for over a year to find the money so we can fix our house and go home, but unfortunately, we don't seem to be getting anywhere. The longer it is taking, the more damage is being done and the more likely it is that our house could be the next to collapse and then we really will lose our family home.

If you are able to help us, any donation will be greatly appreciated and will bring us a step closer to finally being able go home. Even sharing our story with people you know would be great help.

Many thanks,

Sam, Alan, Freyja and Orla-Phoenix

xxx