Family desperate to move home after living in Airbnb's for over year following neighbours collapsed house

Alan Orbell and his family have been through a traumatic ordeal over the past year and are now desperate to return home after their neighbour’s house came crashing down at the end of 2022 - forcing them to leave their own home too. 

Since then a catalogue of issues has meant the family have been forced to stay out of their home with no sign of when they can return - or how they can pay for it.

Alan said: “We are just trying to work out a way to get home. We are so desperate. We’re at the point where we’ve tried everything we can think of because all we want to do is to move forward.” 

On December 7, 2022, 25 Langford Road collapsed, and 27 Langford Road was structurally damaged causing damage to Alan’s home. The Orbell family were moved out of their home for three days whilst the area was made safe and put into emergency accommodation. They were allowed to move home providing they monitored their property for any further concerns. At the end of December, 27 Langford Road began to collapse and the family were moved out of their home on January 8, 2023. Mr Orbell started a claim through his insurance company, PolicyExpert to help cover the costs. 

Number 27 then later collapsed and, as a result, Alan’s home has been damaged, leaving the connecting wall exposed and their home was deemed unsafe. Since then, the family say they have been moved from pillar to post and have completely uprooted their lives. 

Alan contacted PolicyExpert to advise them what had happened and Trinity Claims, their claims company, confirmed that they would put them up in an AirBnB for two weeks while they looked for long term accommodation. Following an inspection of the property, the insurance company found that their claim was invalid due to ‘latent defects’, something the family dispute as they say it is not what caused them to be moved out of their home. As a result, the family has only received an initial payment from the insurance company which paid for the accommodation costs. The family have since disputed PolicyExperts initial offer and the reasoning behind why they have no further cover offered. 

A spokesperson for the Trinity Claims said: “Whilst we have every sympathy for the policyholders’ situation, the majority of home insurance policies will not cover an incident, where the cause is a “latent defect”. 

“We recognised how difficult this situation was and went above and beyond the policy terms by paying for additional alternative accommodation and an independent expert’s report, which they could use for their own purposes. We understand that this is a disappointing outcome, however, we have a duty of care to all customers to ensure we assess all claims accurately, in line with the policy terms, so that we can continue to keep insurance costs down for everyone.”

Alan has filed a complaint against his insurance company and he has been to the Financial Ombudsman Service who concluded that the company’s decision was correct. However Alan is in the process of appealing this. 

The decision has left the family with yet another challenge and they have to find more than £70,000 to repair the exposed wall and further damage in their home without any insurance payout. The Orbell family say they have exhausted all options and are holding out hope they can borrow money against their mortgage to help pay for it. 

Their repair bill is also increasing with the furniture, carpets and everything they left behind being further ruined as a result of the wet weather. 

Alan added: “We have been fighting since the day we were moved out of our home - we have had to fight for everything. 

“There is no final sum to fix our house to get it back to the way it was the day before all of this happened - £70,000 would rebuild the exterior wall.

“We could lose everything. I’ve had to have conversations with our four-year-old about houses falling down. My kids will live with this forever. My other half is a silent witness to everything around her. 

“I was signed off work for two months because I didn’t want to be here anymore and the only reason I’m still here is because of my partner, Sam, who has been my rock, my kids, friends and family.” 

The family are now in limbo, desperately hoping that they receive some good news from their mortgage adviser or the Financial Ombudsman. The family has also been working with Portsmouth City Council since the houses collapsed to keep a roof over their heads. 

A Portsmouth City Council spokesperson said: "We have been working closely with families that have been displaced from their homes and council staff have kept up contact with them to make sure they are supported and know what options are available to them.

“This is an important part of our role as a city council and we will continue to support the residents involved until the situation is resolved."

Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, has also been offering his support. He said: “Residents on Langford Road have been through misery since the house collapsed in December 2022 causing huge disruption and damage, with life changing consequences to people’s lives and mental well-being.”

Alan added: “We are lost.”