underpinning

bonnie_2

i am looking at a smaller house, but the one next door which shares the same walls needs underpinning and is empty as they cant sell it. would this effect the other house and what would happen eventually if it wasnt corrected.

John_M_Business

Depends on which walls need underpinning. Im assuming that the shared wall cant be the ones responsible, or the house you are looking at would be affected. Therefore it must be other walls, which are unlikely to affect your house... but any underpinning is more likely to improve the strength of adjacent buildings too than not.

The worst thing that could happen is if the underpinning didnt take place, because you might be left with a delapidated or falling apart or building site next door. Probably best to avoid!

bonnie_2

how long would it take to fall down, we did notice that the windows in the house were buckled.

suki1964

The "buckling" would have been down to the subsidence and is usually the first indication that theres a problem. Now the house has been underpinned its not going to move anywhere in a hurry.

Hubby underpins near on every house he works on. London clay has dried out causing subsidence problems in a lot of areas, people are still getting mortgages on the properties

Ian_W

If the house next door needs underpinning but hasn't been, I too would avoid. Surveyer is bound to comment and lender may be reluctant to lend until next door's been done. Also as subsidence is usually an insurance job, surprised it hasn't been done fairly quickly and the one you're viewing is up for sale before it's done.
Would be suspicious the sellers want out because they think/fear they may have or get the same prob.

tanith

I too would avoid this house... my brother had subsidence due to tree roots it not only affected his house but the two houses either side of him , even though this was not visible to the naked eye , on having surveys done both neighbours too needed some underpinning.

Doozergirl

...or it might not be affected by next door's problems and you might be able to negotiate a good price for the property on the back of it. Why not contact the agents selling next door and establish the reasons for it needing underpinning.

I lived in a house as a child where next door had to be underpinned but we didn't. We've also had houses underpinned ourselves where the problems wouldn't apply to next door.

stumpjumper

There's an empty property on the end of a terraced row in our village that is subsiding. It's now got so severe that it's starting to move the other houses in the row. The owners of the other houses are having a difficult legal battle trying to get the owners of the empty property on the end to sort it. This has been going on for a long time and the people in the affected houses can't sell and are stuck in crumbling homes!

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole!

bankersmug

To offer the other side of underpinning, I had a full structural survey carried out before purchasing my property, and they didn't even notice any underpinning had taken place. It was only after I had the survey that the vendors told me about it (they had to by law), and it didn't put me off buying the place. The only disadvantage I found is that the insurance is more expensive and you can't shop around. I'm now selling and have to accept that some buyers may be put off, but it should be for financial reasons, not for the structure which as someone else here pointed out, is usually more stable as a result of the underpinning.