Loss Assessor Manchester

Mill conversions and city-centre apartments

Ancoats' historic cotton mills are now homes. Murrays' Mills, begun in 1798 and recognised as the world's oldest surviving steam-powered cotton mill, and Royal Mills have both been turned into apartments, and the Northern Quarter has seen warehouse-to-flat conversions since the 1990s. Newer towers around Deansgate and Spinningfields add a large stock of modern flats.

In a block of flats, an escape of water rarely stays in one home. Water from one apartment can reach the flats below and the common parts, and the buildings policy is usually held by the freeholder or management company. We establish which policy covers each part of the damage so that nothing is missed. Our burst pipe claims page explains the process.

River flooding on the Irwell and the Mersey

On Boxing Day 2015, during Storm Eva, the River Irwell burst its banks in Salford and flooded hundreds of homes in Lower Broughton and Kersal. In January 2021, Storm Christoph brought severe flood warnings for the River Mersey at Didsbury and Northenden, where the Didsbury flood storage basin helped protect around 3,000 properties.

Flood claims turn on detail: how high the water rose, what has to be stripped out and how long the building needs to dry. We record all of it before the insurer's figures are agreed. See our flood damage claims page for more.

Old coal workings and ground movement

The British Geological Survey records subsidence linked to abandoned coal workings in the north and east of the Manchester district, including around Swinton, and the City of Manchester Stadium stands on the site of the former Bradford Colliery. Clay-rich ground brings a separate shrink-swell risk.

The cause decides where the claim goes. Damage from past coal mining is normally handled by the Mining Remediation Authority, formerly the Coal Authority, under the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991, while clay shrinkage is usually a claim on your own buildings insurance. Establishing which applies is one of the first things we look at.

Conservation areas and listed buildings

Swan Street sits on the edge of the Smithfield Conservation Area, one of three designated in 1987, and Ancoats has had its own conservation area since 1989. Manchester has 844 listed buildings. Repairs to a listed building can need listed building consent from Manchester City Council and matching traditional materials, which affects both the cost and the timescale of a claim.