Anyway to find out about Subsidence before getting halfway through a sale?

madmish00

The property we are interested in is in an area where I believe there was an issue with subsidence after mine supports were removed in the 90's. According to the title deeds the house was originally a semi is now a detached and we believe (from people in the area) it is because the property was damaged.

We only have scraps of information from locals and can't seem to find any more information. The property was bought in 2004 by the current owners and is mortgaged so ther obviously wasn't a problem there but not sure how this would affect house insurance.

Is there any way we can find out more information before we decide to buy the property as I don't want to pay out for a full survey and mining reports etc if we can find out more information first.

What/Who should we be asking to find out more

kingstreet

Ask your solicitor to get a mining report from the Coal Authority. It's only about £30.

Richard_Webster

Also try getting insurance for the house - the insurance companies seem to have shared info about subsidence claims.

I once had a case in an area with not a particularly bad record for subsidence where there were no signs form survey or from documents supplied but when client went to insure the bigger cheaper insurers refused because of the previous record!

jamesperrett

Richard - I seem to remember that you are based in Southampton. When my job was relocated to Southampton a few years ago, we were warned about the difficulty of obtaining insurance in some local postcodes due to subsidence problems. It didn't seem to be related to particular properties - just postcodes. A perfectly good property could be tainted by other properties a few streets away with problems.

Of course, insurance companies may have become more discerning in recent years.

James.

puddleduck

Have you asked the current owners if they had a full structural survey done before they purchased, and if so, if they wouldn't mind you having a look at it? Obviously this shouldn't be your only route of investigation and you can't rely on it, but it might give you some insight into what experience they had with the survey / mortgage / insurance and some ideas on what to do next.