1- Does my insurance cover the defects in my home?: No; your insurance does not normally cover them. Your policy is usually a “comprehensive home insurance” policy that covers harm caused from your home, such as a water leak damaging the neighbour below, or it may include fire cover, or liability if a flowerpot is blown off your balcony into the street by the wind and damages a car or injures someone. It covers little else. But it does not cover any of the defects in your own home, such as cracks, damp, imperfections or poor workmanship.
2- And is the 10-year structural insurance (seguro decenal) that the Developer took out when commissioning the building any use to us?: Normally not either. It is called “decenal” because it lasts 10 years, but there are two problems: the damage must affect the fundamental, structural part of the building. Genuine cracks must appear in the building. The damage must affect the foundations, beams, floor slabs, load-bearing walls or structural elements, and must directly compromise the strength or stability of the building (so that it is at risk of collapse). To put it more simply: something that almost never happens. Only ten out of every hundred homeowners’ associations that consult us (10%) have damage that compromises the foundations and structure. Normally they have damp, hairline cracks, missing insulation, poor workmanship, domestic hot water problems, garages that are too small and do not comply, etc. And this damage is NOT covered.
3- So is there no insurance that covers construction defects? Yes, there is, but it necessarily involves suing. Who? The insurer of the architect, or of the quantity surveyor or technical architect. These insurers can be sued directly, because they cover all events or defects in the works or the building, depending on how many years have passed since the works were completed. It is not difficult to find these insurers, since around 90% of all architects and quantity surveyors are members of just two companies or mutual insurers.
If you have any questions, contact us.
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