Verify that an area has a history of subsitence

oli_ro

How can you verify this ? Is it captured in any searches done by the solictors or do you need to a full structural survey to have this covered ?

Sorry, I have meant to reffer to subsidence, of course.

Milliewilly

I learnt this the hard way.

You must have a suspicion hence your question.

From my experience the first thing I would do now is check online to see if the city you are looking in has a forum and post a question on there to ask the locals.

Is there a history of mining? Is it on a slope, is there water nearby i.e maybe running under the house foundations. Then look at the houses from the front - have the windowsills / lintels dropped or cracked? Are there cracks in the road / driveways, is the road fairly straight i.e pavements paralell with the road? In my case when you looked up and down the road it was obvious where the houses had slipped back and there had been years of tarmac patching on the road and pavements, the road looked very squiggly.

Knock on a few doors and ask the neighbours, or in the local post office / shop.

If you are in any doubt get a LOCAL structural surveyor - not one the bank sends from miles away who doesn't know the area (in my case the Surveyor came from Leicester to Sheffield and hadn't a clue the area was notorious for subsidence)

Richard_Webster

Environmental searches will give a generalised view about subsidence risks but this tends to be based upon soil characteristics rather than actual experience so is not very helpful.

It is therefore best,as has already been suggested, to get a local surveyor who will know the area.

Jonbvn

RICS have a good guide on subsidence:
http://www.rics.org/site/download_feed.aspx?fileID=181&fileExtension=PDF

From this guide:

There could be movement in the ground beneath your home if you find:

• New or expanding cracks in plasterwork
• New or expanding cracks in outside brickwork
• Doors or windows sticking for no particular reason
• Rippling wallpaper that isn’t caused by damp.

jsh99

For a mining area go to the coal authority web site (I can't post the link!!!) and run a check to see if a report is required by putting your post code in.

If you need one it can be ordered on line, costs £50 and ours came back the next day.

JSH.