Advice For FTB

twig101

ill try and keep this short but feel free to ask more information.

Went to view a house back in early september.
negotiated price on the house.
payed for full survey and payed initial search costs to solicitor.
Solicitor rang early December to say that she is still waiting for coal mining report but she has everything else. She should have coal mining report end of week and could we come in to discuss everything,

Went to solicitor and was told house was broken into last year which we weren't told about. But we did not ask. Not overly concerned about that.

Major thing is that the house had a subsidence claim in 1977. we were never told about this and this affects the price of the house? how hard it is to sell on and more important for us as FTB's the price of the insurance.
Initial insurance quotes were £150 for buildings but once we found out about subsidence quotes rose to £400 +

our solicitor has advised us to ask for a full mining report which i believe will give us a better idea of what was wrong with house and what work was carried out.
Seller has agreed to pay for this and we are currently waiting on the report to come back.

I have been in constant communication with the sellers estate agent and have tried to get through to him that we will want to renegotiate the price no matter what this report says which i believe is understandable? what does everyone else think?
my opinion is that the price we agreed for the house was not based on the fact that the house has had a claim for subsidence.

Other question is that the sellers speak to a few of my parents friends at school due to their children being in same class and feedback from them is that the seller is not prepared to move on price and will pull out.
My second question is can I claim any of the costs i have incurred back through them as the only reason the deal is falling apart is the fact they have with held information?

Hope i haven't waffled.
Any advice is appreciated.

flora48

The bungalow I have recently bought was substantially underpinned in 1983 but this was not revealed to me until late on in the process; in a report from my solicitor in the standard pre- contract enquiries. I never met the vendors so never asked about subsidence. Following this I did ask for mining and environmental searches. I had a Homebuyers Survey, which stated there was no evidence of further movement. Insurance was difficult as mainstream insurers run a mile. I insured quite reasonably with Woodstock who took the view that it had been OK for 20 odd years. Do you need a mortgage, will your lender still lend on a property that has had subsidence? Did you have a full strutural survey, did the surveyor point out subsidence problems? I think you need to ask all these questions before making up your mind. I suspect that you will not be able to claim expenses from the vendor unless they withheld the subsidence info when asked in pre-contract enquiries, perhaps your solicitor can clarify this. Lastly I would not take too much notice of hearsay, school gates are a notorious hotbed of gossip. Clarify the facts, talk to your surveyor and solicitor, after all you are paying for their services, then make up your mind whether or not to go ahead with or without a price reduction.

Yorkie1

In answer to your second question, no you won't be able to reclaim any costs (assuming the house is in England / Wales), I'm afraid. Until exchange, either party can pull out without any financial obligations to the other.

If there is a history of subsidence then you were lucky to get insurance quotes at all - most high street insurers won't touch it with a bargepole. You are right to be concerned about the impact on the house's value and the seller is frankly bonkers to take the described position.

I would seriously consider whether this is the right house - perhaps wait to see what the mining search brings up, but I imagine I'm not alone in thinking that I wouldn't want to touch a house with a bargepole with subsidence history. It's not just whether it will move whilst you are in it but, as you say, the insurance costs and difficulties when you come to sell it.

Doozergirl

It had problems 33 years ago it hasn't moved since? It hardly sounds like a problem property now. Think how many houses have been built in the last 33 years. It's stood the test of time already!

Are you using a broker for insurance? If you go through comparison websites or speak to call centre people you will find that quotes are not going to be all that favourable because they aren't looking at the case properly. If you speak with a broker or a specialist broker that deals with previous subsidence then I think you'll find that the quotes now should be much more in line with normal houses. After all, insurers are in theory taking more of a risk with newer houses with no history at all than one house that moved 33 years ago. If might be a mining issue but sometimes things just happen that cause houses to move - if it's fixed, not only is it unlikely to happen again but your house stands on firmer foundations than any other house in that street.