Vivid Housing Ltd owns the freehold on the 82 flats in the 20-storey block in Collins Place, Portsmouth. The company has run smack-bang into one of the nasties in the latent defects insurance business. It pointed insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality SE to five worrying defect items in the 12-year-old building.  Dear me, said the insurer, these so-called latent defects, even if they are defects, are not covered by the wording in the policy.

It said defects would be covered only if they destroyed the building or physically damaged the premises, or represented a “threat of imminent destruction or physical damage to the premises which requires immediate remedial measures for the prevention of destruction or physical damage within the period of insurance”. 

So, what were the worrying items?

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