B&SC Subsidence Consultants

04/06/2026

Interview with Director Bob Gibson on the benefits of using independent Subsidence Consultants.

We offer crack diagnosis and subsidence investigations, advice on r...

28/05/2026

We offer Certificates of Structural Adequacy from £295 + vat (depending on what information is available and whether or not an intrusive investigation is necessary).

These are invaluable in obtaining subsidence insurance cover on reasonable terms, for properties which have suffered subsidence in the past - which has now been resolved.

Along with most other structural engineers, we offer Certificates of Structural Adequacy on projects that we have been involved with. However, unlike other engineers we also offer them on subsidence projects that we have not been involved with – provided we are satisfied that the repair has been r...

04/05/2026

Do you feel that your subsidence claim did not result in a “good outcome” for you? We have an opportunity to change things for the better in the insurance industry this summer - get your voice heard by the industry in 2026 - let us have your story.

Following the Which? super-complaint to the FCA last December, FCA intend (during the summer of 2026) to widen their scope of their investigations into poor claims handling (in particular through outsourced services like delegated authority loss adjusters and such). We intend to assist them in this by providing examples of specific areas where we believe the new Consumer Duty (to achieve “good outcomes” for consumers, without causing them “harm”) has not been met.

The Consumer Duty was introduced into the financial retail sector in 2023 to try and improve the conduct of the likes of banks and insurers. It aims to level the playing field somewhat by setting higher standards of consumer protection than have existed up to now. Firms must now “act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers” and “avoid causing foreseeable harm”. Some examples we commonly see of non-compliance might be;

• the unfair withdrawal of subsidence cover during or soon after an accepted claim

• offering cash settlements on complex cases where the full cost of repairs is uncertain, or

• Inadequate mitigation - proceeding to repairs (or offering cash in lieu) before the property has fully stabilised

• unfairly repudiating claims through misdiagnosing the cause

• voiding the cover unfairly

• excessive delay in handling or concluding matters

• inadequate site investigations undertaken

The Regulator uses consumer feedback and other market intelligence to monitor insurers compliance with the new Duty, and can intervene and ultimately take enforcement action with specific firms. They won’t act in the same way the Financial Ombudsman does however - hearing evidence from both sides on specific individual cases and making a ruling. They rarely intervene in specific cases - usually their focus is on the broader perspective.

We are looking to compile a list of cases where we think the Consumer Duty has not been met (breaches must be post July 2023) and invite you to contribute by sending us a succinct resumé of your experience which you are unhappy about - giving the names of the firms in question and attaching proof (copy repudiation letter etc.). We will review and summarise the list further to make it easier for the FCA to digest. You can remain anonymous if you wish, but it would be more credible if we could offer the FCA some contact details for verification if they wish to. Such details would of course not be made public and remain confidential to the FCA.

Our hope is that with enough evidence of poor practises, the FCA will be able to get things changed for the better going forward. We’re not looking to raise official complaints about specific cases - just to give the Regulator some of the information that it is currently looking for - as it relates to our small sector of the industry.

Together perhaps we can help the FCA try to get things improved all round, so consumers are better served and the industry’s reputation is improved. Please do get in touch if you have a story you’d like us to draw the FCAs attention to. Either post here or send us your (summarised and succinct please) story to;

[email protected].

Alternatively, you can contact the FCA directly yourself if you prefer to. See the following link;

https://www.fca.org.uk/contact/report-wrongdoing-misconduct

Some links to documents referred to on this post are below;

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/fca-response-which-super-complaint.pdf

https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/finalised-guidance/fg22-5.pdf

https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/flooding/recovering-from-a-flood/best-practice-offering-cash-settlements-to-customers-after-a-flood/

If you're a firm or professional with information about potential or actual wrongdoing or misconduct in an area of financial services that we regulate, you can report it to us.

28/04/2026

Latest MORECS data shows complete recovery having taken place in clay during the winter and spring (the green line on the graph). It has happened later than in 2025 and more suddenly (due to a lot of rainfall in Jan/Feb). No signs yet of beginning to dry out again yet.

MORECS is a continuing Met Office study modelling the moisture content in clay at a specific location in North London. It is used by the industry to compare patterns with previous years. The red and blue lines are recent "surge" years (where major subsidence took place in 2022 and 2025 due to heat and prolonged dryness), and the orange line was 2023 - a more "normal" pattern where there was no surge of subsidence. The higher and wider the peak of the curve - the dryer the clay was.

18/04/2026

Cash Settlements "the cash cop-out". There has been an increase recently in insurers and loss adjusters attempting to settle claims by way of a cash payout - without fully explaining the consequences of that - which can be very bad for consumers on subsidence claims. A cash settlement removes the protection consumers get from ABI Guidance which requires insurers to maintain subsidence cover on reasonable terms after a claim is concluded. We have numerous clients who have had their subsidence cover withdrawn after accepting a cash settlement, leaving them with great difficulties insuring or selling their properties at the proper value.

Which? has written an article about this scandal recently (see below link), and also made a super-complaint to the FCA about the recent increase in unfair handling of insurance claims generally. The Financial Ombudsman has seen a huge rise in complaints recently - so much so that it is re-thinking how it can continue to be funded going forward.

The ABI and Financial Ombudsman are generally disapproving of insurers trying to settle subsidence claims on a cash basis - they are usually too complex and final costs too uncertain for that to be a fair solution. Where a customer particularly wants a cash settlement the insurer should be making absolutely sure that it will be sufficient to cover the cost of mitigation and repair, and should be clearly advising the customer of the likely consequences - such as withdrawal of subsidence cover, and loss in property value etc.

Don't let your insurer tempt you into accepting a cash settlement on a subsidence claim unwarily! If you've already accepted cash and wish you hadn't - you might be able to get that reversed.

Which? is warning consumers to carefully weigh up cash settlements offered by their insurers, amid concerns some firms may be offering cash to curtail their own costs, rather than pursuing the option that is in the best interests of their customers.

03/04/2026

Is this the new norm in London?

See our latest blog on Londons street trees;

https://bandsc.co.uk/is-this-the-new-norm-in-london/

26/03/2026

Some people think you cant reclaim your own subsidence expert's fees under your buildings insurance, but in most cases you can;

Despite what you may have been led to believe, it is possible to reclaim professional fees incurred from your own appointed subsidence expert (be that a structural engineer, building surveyor or other relevant professional) under your buildings insurance.   Almost without exception, buildings insur...

11/03/2026

Double-counting of subsidence claims; make sure you don't get your subsidence claim double-counted, as it will not only cost you another excess, but potentially also a premium hike or withdrawal of subsidence cover. See the arguments you can use against this common practise in our latest blog;

The scenario of clay-shrinkage subsidence returning a few years after it has been (supposedly adequately) mitigated and repaired is unfortunately all too common. This is usually because inadequate tree management had been carried out in the first place and roots have again caused cracks to appear th...

08/01/2026

In the current insurance climate, most insurers are asking whether you have any cracks in your building before offering cover (on new policies or renewals). Most buildings have a few unimportant cracks here and there, but do you need to disclose them? And what happens if you do?

The problem is that all cracks begin as small and insignificant looking. Some stay that way but others grow to show that there is more of a problem - perhaps subsidence or some other significant structural issue. So if you have some cracks, the insurer doesn't know if they are the start of a subsidence problem or not. They won't want to insure you if it is, so they are likely to either decline to offer you subsidence cover, or ask for an expert's report before offering it. They might even just decline to quote at all.

By getting an expert's report on the cause of the cracks (assuming that report confirms it's not subsidence) you can safely disclose the cracks as required, thus protecting your insurance position, but back that up with the report which will reassure the insurer that the matter has been properly looked at and is not a risk which should concern them.

Many people fall into the trap of not disclosing the cracks, which just gives the insurer an excuse to decline to deal with any claim that you may make (even an unrelated one like a fire or water damage) by voiding the policy from inception based on non-disclosure. Insurers seem to be doing this more and more at present, and we have many clients in that unfortunate position.

Don't fall into the trap of invalidating your insurance through non-disclosure - and thereby wasting all the money you are paying in premiums. Don't give your insurers an excuse to wriggle out of a claim. Have any cracks looked at professionally by an independent subsidence expert and get a written report which you can show to an insurer (or prospective purchaser) to reassure them that all is well. We offer this service across the UK for £295 + vat.

https://bandsc.co.uk/remote-crack-inspection-surveys-via-video-link/

For a little free expert advice, join our Facebook Group UK Subsidence (clay shrinkage and trees) and post a picture;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/subsidence/

11/12/2025

International subsidence on small islands. In the past fortnight we've had 2 international clay shrinkage cases - one on Guernsey and the other on a Greek Island. Both unlikely places I would have thought to find shrinkable clay, but it was there sure enough!

In the UK we look at subsidence very differently from other countries around the world - see our blog about that here;

https://bandsc.co.uk/is-the-uk-out-of-step-with-the-rest-of-the-world-on-subsidence/