Underpinning / subsidence

samuelkelsey · 13 February 2018 at 8:48AM

Morning all,

We recently put and offer on a property which was accepted (ours is also under offer), after some digging on our local councils planning portal we have discovered that in 1996 the property was underpinned due to subsidence. The selling agents neglected to mention any of this (obviously) after probing the vendors they stated it was due to tree roots under the garage.

Our current contents / household insurance provider (LV) have essentially told us they wont insure us at our new property which is workable. However my question is has anyone had any experience of this and did it affect your mortgage application in anyway? Do we need to do any extra checks? Due to it being 20+ yrs ago will my local authroity hold the details on work completed?

Thanks in advance

Sam

csgohan4 · 13 February 2018 at 9:11AM

Advisable to get a structural survey of the house to make sure it is sound, who knows what else the vendor is hiding.

It may come up in the survey it may not, but if it does and there are ongoing issues, lenders may put a lower value or put a retention on it limiting how much you can borrow

silvercar · 13 February 2018 at 9:16AM

Something underpinned 20 years ago with no further movement, may be better secured than anything.

Providing there has been no recent movement, you should be able to find lenders and insurers.

Always worth asking the vendors who they currently insure with.

Davesnave · 13 February 2018 at 9:17AM

No one here can tell you what the local authority may hold on this; you'll only be able to find out by asking them. It's certainly possible paperwork exists which isn't on-line yet. My local authority only made paperwork that old available on-line in 2017.

As you are finding, with lenders and insurers, a willingness to engage with underpinned property varies, and then each case will be judged on its merits.

My daughter bought an underpinned house, which had plenty of documentation from 1995 when the work was done. She only needed a buildings survey which confirmed no significant movement in 20 years, which is plenty of time for reinforcement to be tested. She has ordinary mortgage deal and doesn't find the house expensive to insure.

hazyjo · 13 February 2018 at 11:06AM

samuelkelsey wrote: »

The selling agents neglected to mention any of this (obviously) after probing the vendors they stated it was due to tree roots under the garage.

How would they have known? I doubt the vendors would have told them - or do you know different?

Davesnave · 13 February 2018 at 11:20AM

hazyjo wrote: »

How would they have known? I doubt the vendors would have told them - or do you know different?

They may or may not have known, but attempting to prove what they knew will likely be unproductive.

However, if they claim not to have known and valued on the basis of ignorance in this regard, then there is more reason to offer at a price reflective of the 'new' situation!

samuelkelsey · 14 February 2018 at 12:05PM

Thank you for all the replies, and I 100% agree we have no way of proving if the agents withheld information so there's little or not point doing anything about it.

Having spoken to various professionals and surveyors we decided not to purchase due to the complications around insurance, mortgaging and future re-sales.

Thank you again for all your help!!

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Underpinning / subsidence

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