Buying an underpinned house

snowjoe

First poster so please be gentle! Also long post warning but I would really appreciate your help/advice/experience!

Myself and my partner are FTB and have had an offer accepted on a semi detached house. Our offer was 35000 lower than the original asking price (25000 less than the new asking price) so we felt we got a good deal. Our land search came up stating that the house had been partially underpinned in 1994. We have received some documents after a lot of asking. We have the certificate from council and a couple of documents from the consulting engineers of inspection reports one is a structural report before the works and another about correcting the cosmectic damage. Our surveyor has been excellent and is reading through paperwork and delaying a survey until we have the full information from the vendor.

I am aware that next door has a decent sized crack which has appeared recently. I know this house is council owned. Is it possible that one half of a semi was not underpinned whilst the other half was? The documents reveal that the cause was poor drainage running alongside the flank wall and in the couple of years before it subsided the drains were compromised by builders constructing new houses to the right of the property.

We have had our mortgage approved and have managed to get buildings and contents insurance for under £600 and still only has an excess of £1000 for subsidence. I know this is a lot but a comparable quote with no gorund movement would be £100 less, we have accidental damange, legal protection and specific items included which have put up the premiums.

Reading around verious forums I am in a quandry about whether to proceed or not. Even if our house is structurally sound what potential implications are there if next door is cracking albeit the opposite flank wall to ours which was underpinned. Is is possible to find out if a house has been underpinned from the council?

Do I proceed as we have insurance, and it appears to not have moved since (subject to full builidng survey) and afterall it was a great price OR walk away beacuse underpinning puts a black mark on your property and makes it difficult to sell on at full market value?

Thanks in advance for your help
Joe

Fire_Fox

I think it's a positive that the adjacent house is council-owned - although they are often slow to respond to queries, they are likely to be willing to investigate and/ or underpin their property if this needs to be done. What does your solicitor say? Is he willing to write to the council on your behalf?

ruggedtoast

I wouldnt touch it with a pole. No need to take second best in this market, ftbs are like hens teeth and prices continue to drop.

Re. the insurance. You have an insurance offer now, what about next year, or if you start to claim? Insurers will often string out a subsidence claim for years while they "monitor" it. In the meantime your premiums rocket and no one else will touch you.

Subsidence is the home owners worst nightmare, I really wouldnt buy a property thats already started to shift.

Greenwellies_2

Hi,

Not sure if this will help, but when I saw your post I remembered it

click here

GW

snowjoe

Is it worth going as far as a building survey or should I get out now before getting it done and save myself some money?

cattie

I don't know if this will help you, but the cottage I bought had structural problems a couple of years ago due to tree roots. Comprehensive remedial works had been carried out.

I loved the feel of the house when I viewed it & felt that as the problems had been addressed by the insurance company, then the house should be sound. I instructed my own buildings surveyor, who told me it was a good house in his opinion.

I spoke to the vendor's insurance company, who happened to be the same insurers I had buildings/contents insurance with at the time. They told me the buildings insurance could continue if I bought the property. ( There is a code of practice with insurers & if a house has structural problems & a claim met/being monitored, they are honour bound to allow the new owner to continue to insure with them)

I expected to see a steep rise in my buildings insurance when I moved here but was pleasantly surprised when it only rose by a couple of pounds each month.

Currently I pay £25 per month for joint buildings/contents. Buildings has £1k excess, which I believe is standard for property with previous history.My contents is unlimited blanket cover, with accidental damage included.

I live on the borders of SE London & Kent, so clay soil is the norm here & a lot of shrinkage causes structural problems.

I think if a house is good & nice enough, it will always sell. Ok, if it has had previous problems it may take a little longer, but there is always somebody out there who won't find it a problem, as long as insurance is always available for property. I knew when I looked at this property it was the one I wanted & the remedial works it had needed didn't put me off.

snowjoe

Thanks for all your suggestions/thoughts. Its really tricky knowing what is the best or right thing to do.

We are still asking for more documents from the vendor if these are not forth coming then it makes the decision to back out much easier/straightforward. It does represent a fantastic bargin for the area. Whilst it is on a busy road it is walking distance to town centre and station and even has a parade of local services less than 5 min walk away. Location is ideal which is why I think it will sell regardless of its history.

I asked another local agent about his perceived value and felt it was worth more than we offered despite having been underpinned, there seems to be a shortage of properties in the local area at the moment. The ground surrounding the property seems to be good and it only subsided because of the disturbance to the drains from reckless builders 20 years ago when then built new houses around it. Hopefully something that won't happen again.

I have started making enquiries with the structural engineer who oversaw the work to see about the possibility of them doing a follow up structural assessment of the property.

Would the council be able to tell me if next door has been underpinned, would I have to pay for this information?

Thanks
Joe