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‘We can see into the other room’: insurers face surge in subsidence claims
UK NewsBusinessSeptember 12, 2026 at 11:00 AMNational

‘We can see into the other room’: insurers face surge in subsidence claims

By Julia KolleweThe Guardian - UK News

Stressed UK homeowners tell of cracks opening up in the walls around them after two record-hot summers“We’ve got one wall with an absolutely huge diagonal crack, through which we can see through to the other room; you could easily put your fingers in it and chunks of plaster are falling off,” says Henry Biggs, 49, from Stroud in Gloucestershire.He and his partner started noticing cracks in their family home in June 2025, a few months after buying it, and filed an insurance claim for subsidence that was accepted by their insurer, Admiral, in the spring. Monitoring devices were only recently fitted, about a year after they first submitted the claim, and they have no idea when the damage might start to be repaired. Continue reading...

Stressed UK homeowners tell of cracks opening up in the walls around them after two record-hot summers

“We’ve got one wall with an absolutely huge diagonal crack, through which we can see through to the other room; you could easily put your fingers in it and chunks of plaster are falling off,” says Henry Biggs, 49, from Stroud in Gloucestershire.

He and his partner started noticing cracks in their family home in June 2025, a few months after buying it, and filed an insurance claim for subsidence that was accepted by their insurer, Admiral, in the spring. Monitoring devices were only recently fitted, about a year after they first submitted the claim, and they have no idea when the damage might start to be repaired.

Continue reading...