Subsidence

Exciter

Hi All,

We've recently found our dream home but it has recently been revealed that the property has a history of subsidence.

The problem occured in 2005 when the Victorian drains were inspected and found to have moved and cracked with age. This caused the brickwork to unkey by a few mm in the front hallway of the house. The insurers renewed all the affected drains at the back of the house and put stainless steel stitching rods and resin into the mortar joints to strengthen the wall before plastering and redecorating in the hallway. No underpinning was required.

The vendor has a letter from a company called Capita Symonds Insurance Services saying they have inspected the wall and found no further movement. I don't know the date of this letter although I will find out.

Even more concerningly we left some questions for the vendor including asking who his insurance provider was at the time, what his premium was before the incident and how much he was paying after. He 'couldn't remember' who was insuring him at the time but stated his premium doubled from roughly £250 to £500. He was obliged to stay with his original insurers for the first year after the incident but can now use anyone. He also said he is now back down the £250 mark and produced a certificate to back this up. I looked into this and his new insurer is an internet only insurer (ehome) who do not insure houses with a history of subsidence! Am I missing something obvious here or has the vendor been pulling a fast one on his insurance?

If we did want to buy the house what documentation/certification would we need or would you recommend we obtain and what should the vendor be able to provide us with from his previous claim?

We are first time buyers so have been a bit slapdash when asking for information - not really sure of what we need to ask for and what kind of questions we should be asking. Also I think there may be a bit of a communication breakdown between the agents and the vendor (I very much doubt you would forget who was insuring you when you made a large subsidence claim). It would be nice to be able to go back with a definitive list of demands and questions before we even consider going any further.

Thanks for reading this far and thanks in advance for any advice/info.

PasturesNew

I think the usual answer is: unless you're paying cash and won't be trapped in it as you're unable to move on when you want ... don't touch it.

Lenders don't like it; insurers don't like it; future buyers don't like it.

DizzyDasher

What kind of survey have you had? If you have a full structural survey then I would call your surveyor, who should be able to advise.

On one hand, depending on the soil type and the type of repair, it may be that the problem is essentially fixed, in which case the insurance may never in practice be called on.

On the other hand it sounds as though the previous owner has moved insurer to save a few quid in the short term - when we were buying and there were concerns of possible subsidence we were advised that if it did turn out to be subsidence then we would have to stick with the vendors' insurer longer term, as any further recurrences of the problem would then be covered... but our surveyor was pretty good on the phone with practical advice on these kind of "what if" questions.

Personally I would probably walk - this is something the vendor should have come clean about up front and does make a difference to the price, and I suspect the change of insurer will make it difficult to get covered. However, if you are still really keen talk to your surveyor, as they may be able to advise both on the likelihood of recurrence and also on some good insurance brokers for non-standard situations of this type, so you can get an idea of the insurance costs.