Subsidence screening · early access
See which addresses have moved before the claim arrives.
Structural Movement compares stereo elevation models of your property book year on year and ranks the sites where ground height has changed, so your first look at an address does not have to be a claim. We are taking early-access requests from subsidence teams.
- Input
- Geocoded address list, your property reference
- Output
- Ranked watch-list (CSV), point layer
- Flag
- Observed / not observed / unreadable
- Year 1
- Baseline. Watch-list from the second pass
Panel 01The job today
The first inspection is the claim
A dry summer ends and the notifications start to come in. Each one begins with a policyholder's photos of a crack over a door, a call to the handler, and an instruction to a loss adjuster or engineer. That visit is the first time anyone has looked at that address for ground movement. By then the claim exists, the policyholder is worried, and the file has a clock running.
Between claims the book is managed at postcode level. A clay-susceptibility layer or a postcode's claims history makes every address on the street equally suspect, including the ones on a bit of sandy fill and the ones next to a line of mature oaks. Inspection budget gets spread evenly, or follows last year's claimants, and neither tells you which houses are moving this year.
The claims lead sees the pattern each autumn and cannot do much with it. The renewal round is already priced, the engineer diary is full of the addresses that called in, and the quiet ones are simply not on anyone's radar.
A yearly pass over the whole book changes the starting point. Structural Movement measures ground height at each address from repeat stereo imagery and sorts the book by how much it has moved. Your desk sees a short list of places worth a referral before the phone rings.
Panel 02What you get
What an early-access screening would return
An early-access request starts with a pilot area of your choosing and a conversation about what your desk would do with the list. What comes back is three things.
2.1Elevation-change readingPer property
For each address in the pilot book, the change in ground height between this year's stereo elevation model and last year's. This is a reading of the ground at the plot, at the scale the imagery resolves. It is not a measurement of the building.
2.2Ranked watch-listCSV
Your addresses, ordered by observed ground movement, with your own property reference, the reading and a triage tier. It opens in the spreadsheet your underwriting analyst already uses and joins to the policy file on the reference you supply.
2.3Plain flagMovement observed or not
Each address carries one of two flags, or a third saying the pass could not read it. The flag routes an address toward someone qualified to assess it. It is not a diagnosis.
Panel 03How it works
How it works
01Book in
You send a geocoded list of the addresses in the pilot area with your own property reference. We agree the area and the run date around your renewal and inspection calendar.
02Capture
Stereo imagery is taken over the area in a clear-sky window, from VHR satellite or aerial, at 0.5 m or finer.
03Model and compare
An elevation model is built from the overlapping images and set against the prior year's pass. The first year has no earlier pass to compare with, so the first delivery is a baseline and the watch-list starts from the second.
04Watch-list out
The ranked list and the flags go back to you. We walk the desk through the top of the list.
Panel 04Where it fits
Where it fits
It sits upstream of claims, as an annual desk-level triage pass. The list tells you which addresses to put in front of an engineer or a site visit first, instead of spreading limited inspection budget evenly across a postcode. The visit, the diagnosis, the monitoring programme and the claim decision stay with the people who do them today.
Panel 05Limits
Limits
L1Height change at the plot, not the wall
A satellite elevation model resolves height change across a plot or a stretch of street. Differential settlement in a masonry wall, the kind that opens a crack, is a finer movement than a 0.5 m model is built to show. Small, gradual movement will not separate from noise in the model, and a quiet flag does not mean a sound house.
L2Trees and shadow
Dense canopy and deep shadow block a usable elevation read. The address is flagged as unreadable for that pass and is never scored on a guess.
L3Cloud
Stereo capture needs a clear-sky window. A cloudy season can delay a pass or skip a year for a given area.
L4Once a year
This is a screening cadence. It is not live monitoring, and movement that starts and finishes between two passes can be missed.
L5Not an assessment
Nothing here is a structural assessment, an engineering certificate or a subsidence diagnosis. Cause of movement (clay, trees, leaking drains, mining, made ground) is for a qualified assessor to establish.
Panel 06Who it's for
Who it's for
For
- Subsidence and technical claims leads at an insurer with a book on shrink-swell clay
- Portfolio-risk and underwriting teams deciding where next year's inspection budget goes
- Teams willing to be early users and to compare the list with claims they already know about
Not for
- Anyone wanting a structural report, a cause of damage or a claim decision
- Monitoring of a single house or a live crack
- Real-time or monthly movement alerts
- Areas under dense tree cover
Panel 07FAQ
Questions before you ask for early access
Is this a structural assessment?
No. It flags ground-height change for a qualified assessor to review. Causes and remedies are theirs to work out.
Is it a product I can buy today?
It is early access. We are working out the first pilots with subsidence teams, so what you get is shaped by what your desk needs from the list.
How sensitive is the reading?
It is built from 0.5 m or finer stereo passes. Movement smaller than that model resolves is not reliably separate from noise, so slow, small settlement can go unflagged.
How would we check it against our own claims?
Pick a pilot area where you already know which addresses have claimed, and keep that history back. When the watch-list arrives, compare it with what you know and decide whether it is good enough to plan with.
What about addresses under trees or in shadow?
They are flagged as not readable for that pass and listed, so you know which part of the book the list says nothing about.
How often does it run?
Annually. It is a screening cadence for a yearly review, not a live monitor.
Does weather affect capture?
Yes. Cloud can delay or skip a pass for a given year.
Will it fit our claims and policy systems?
It comes as a CSV and a point layer joined on the property reference you send. We do not write into your claims system.
Who owns the results and the imagery?
We have not set out ownership or licence terms on this page. Ask when you request early access and we will confirm them with a person.
How is it priced?
There is no price on this page. The cost depends on the size of the book and the imagery source, and we scope it with you for a pilot.
Tell us about your book.
Send the region, the rough number of properties and when your next portfolio review falls. We will say plainly whether a pass can be ready for it.
Request early access