Record subsidence claims: what home insurance claims teams should ask
The ABI says insurers opened more home subsidence claims this summer than in any quarter on record. The volume will test triage, the excess conversation and the garden wall exclusion.
Insurers opened 13,000 new subsidence claims in one quarter, and I think this autumn will show which home claims teams built their process for a bad year and which built it for an average one.
That figure, from the ABI Property Insurance Tracker published on 2 November, covers July to September 2026. In the same months of 2025 it was 8,000. The ABI’s claims figures go back to 1991, as the Independent noted, and this quarter is the highest of them. The ABI links the surge to the prolonged hot, dry spell, and the Met Office says summer 2026 was provisionally the UK’s warmest on record.
I would rather a claims team over-investigate a crack this autumn than explain next spring why it was waved through.
How many of those claims are subsidence at all? The ABI’s warning signs are specific. It flags cracks wider than 3mm, about the thickness of a £1 coin, and diagonal cracks that are wider at the top than the bottom. A customer who has checked for those before calling gives a better description, and the first call gets shorter.
Does the customer know the excess? The ABI’s subsidence guidance says most policies carry an excess of around £1,000 for it. Many homeowners will hear that for the first time on the phone, mid claim. That is a hard moment to deliver a number.
Who explains the garden? Walls, fences, patios and driveways are not usually covered unless they are damaged at the same time as the house. My guess is that this line produces more complaints this winter than the cracks themselves.
And is the money ready? The average subsidence payout held at a record £20,000 for the second quarter running.
If you run a home claims book, how many of your policyholders know their subsidence excess today, before they ever pick up the phone?