Buying a house - subsidence concern

Yorkie1

Whilst every house is different, it is not always the case that subsidence - once treated - will not come back.

A close family friend has a house in SE London, built mainly on clay subsoil. She is on her third separate subsidence underpinning / insurance claim in 2 decades.

diable

sarah_id1 wrote: »

What do you mean by flooding issue! and how can the vendor tell you that. Vendor may always say that he doesn't know if there was such a thing before he purchased it.

If the vendor has a house with a basement within a flood plain that sometimes ended up with 5ft of water in it from time to time.

marc1000

marsman

Your experience is extraordinarily similar to what I'm going currently through - I've been through surveys and searches, and only now that the responses to solicitors enquiries have been returned have I been informed about past subsidence (2 insurance claims, last in 2009).

Coincidently I also got £10k off the asking price, and the past subsidence is apparently limited to cracks under a bay window.

The sellers are refusing to give me any further information about the extent of works, and there's now a deaffening silence from them, the agent and their solicitor.

£2K down the drain on fees but a close shave - I thought subsidence an urban myth, but agree with others on here who recommend 'run like the wind' at the first sign

marsman802

Hi Marc

It's unbelievably frustrating. Obviously these things must come out in the conveyancing/surveying but would've been much more helpful to just tell us up front.
I can see both sides of it. If I was selling I'm sure the agent would advise not to let these things out of the bag because you try to get a buyer down the line to the point where they can't afford to lose the money already committed. However, this situation has only served to put us right off for not being clear with things.

We have been given detailed info on the works undertaken actually through the certificate of structural adequacy and I've had the estate agent phone me yesterday out of courtesy. It was at this point I said how the subsidence thing has spooked us. He did say there wasn't any underpinning and he didn't think it was actually subsidence work per se until I pointed out the actual insurance claim states "Subsidence Damage". I sent him off with some questions on insurance and he has said Aviva insure the current owners and continue to do so.

On Monday we plan to speak to the surveyor who went for a second look on Friday and see what he says but we've already started looking on rightmove again...

We don't want to have the same hassle other potential buyers will have should we sell the property in the near future and inevitably a claim so recent will have an effect. If the claim was 3/4 yrs ago I might be a little less worried but only 6 months is not enough to convince us to continue.

I do have one last play and that is to ask for another £10k off the property to account for the risk of future damage, hassle when selling and increased premiums. We've already got £10k off the original list price so I don't think they'd go for it but, you know what, tough luck. It's not worth the risk is it?

Marc, just seen your msg - we're not in your locale but actually Twickenham area!

Marvel1

marsman802 wrote: »

Hi

Currently going through a house purchase. Quick trail of events:-

- offer accepted
- homebuyers report completed (no mention of subsidence)
- solicitor uncovers subsidence work carried out in 2010 for cracks due to clay shrinkage.
- Certificate of Structural Adequacy states "(damage)...caused by clay shrinkage subsidence, this was caused by variations in the moisture content of the clay subsoil resulting in volume changes, which in turn affected the foundations"

I would walk away, this is me mind,

marc1000

Glad to hear not the same property!

Good luck marsman, I agree very frustrating (actually I'm now angry at myself for not doing the homework earlier, but you live and learn ..) and good luck with the negotiation. Personally, if my sellers now offered me a 50% discount I'd still walk away

I'm guessing the next buyers are going to hit the same worrying dilemma - if they read this excellent forum then I hope it's not in London N14!

shar46y

Thanks to marsman802 for starting this topic! Although now I'm worried after reading all the comments here!

We've just received the surveyors report for the house we are buying (late Victorian semi) and it says that the property suffered structural movement in the 1990s and was underpinned "to include walls for the rear reception area, kitchen, etc... There is no evidence to suggest any further movement has occurred and regular inspections are undertaken by the overseeing structural engineers and there is an ongoing Certificate of Structural Adequacy."

We also had a chat with the surveyor on the phone and he was happy with the condition of house and said all the works have been done to a high standard.

But now I'm worried that it'll be expensive to insure or at worst uninsurable? :eek:Should we really pull out?

Marvel1

shar46y wrote: »

But now I'm worried that it'll be expensive to insure or at worst uninsurable? :eek:Should we really pull out?

Try a quote on the house to see what comes up.

Orpheo

sarah_id1 wrote: »

What do you mean by flooding issue! and how can the vendor tell you that. Vendor may always say that he doesn't know if there was such a thing before he purchased it.

Quite obviously the vendor can only tell me what they know. If they are aware that the house has been flooded in the past and they say that it hasn't then they are lying. All of this information will emerge through a good conveyancing solicitor, but having the information up front will save all parties time and money as when I find out that a house has subsidence or is liable to flooding then I will pull out of the purchase. I pulled out of a purchase 2 years ago because the vendor withheld infomation that I discovered through the surveyor's report.

Vendors can get as "offended" as they like with the questions that I ask, I don't care. What I care about is not throwing away my family's money.

shar46y

shar46y wrote: »

We've just received the surveyors report for the house we are buying (late Victorian semi) and it says that the property suffered structural movement in the 1990s and was underpinned "to include walls for the rear reception area, kitchen, etc... There is no evidence to suggest any further movement has occurred and regular inspections are undertaken by the overseeing structural engineers and there is an ongoing Certificate of Structural Adequacy."

Me again, have done a lot of reading of this forum and mostly it has been terrifying me. I have read several comments that insurers really don't like houses that have been partially underpinned (as I said above, only the rear of the house had suffered movement). :(Also, the consensus seems to be that (even if we are able to obtain a mortgage on the house) we would be stuck with the same insurer indefinitely? The vendors are having a further inspection by the structural engineers in order to transfer the warranties to us, so would this report be acceptable to insurers?

It seems likely that we ought to be negotiating a price reduction but how on earth do we calculate a price for The Unknown? Anybody else had experience of doing this?