The house we like to buy has been underpinned need some urgent advice please!

jahudson72

I think your vendor is trying it on - refusing to pay for an engineer's report and not having any paperwork??? I appreciate you may have spent a few hundred quid here on survey's and legal fees but surely it would be better to either:

a) Say you're not prepared to go any further until they pay for an engineer's report, if they want to sell the house they will.

b) If they refuse and you really want to check this out then you must of course pay for the report yourself.

c) Else spend 300K on a house that you're not sure about structually.

I think the people that are selling this house are trying it on as they may well known you've sold your place. Go into renting for six months, the market will pick up again in the Spring.

firsttimetom

I think until you threaten to walk away that you won't get the vendors to agree to anything.

I would simply phone the estate agents tomorrow and say that you will be unwilling to proceed with the purchase without a full engineers report. You will tell the agents to call you on Monday with the vendors decision. If they won't do it then tell them that the sale is off - if they are serious about selling the EA will be back on the phone by Wednesday agreeing to the survey.

You have to ask yourself will you be able to sell the house without any kind of paperwork in the future.

Regarding the valuation, things crop up that may change your mind about how much you think a property is worth. If you weren't informed about the lack of paperwork when you put in the offer, then that would definately constitute a lower offer in my opinion.

Good luck, but if you choose to pull out, do not be surprised to find that house still on the market for £250k in 12 months. And 3 months is nothing - we have been looking for 3 years and are only just buying now - it's a buyers market out there, you have to use that to your advantage.

ruggedtoast

We were buying a semi that had longstanding movement on our survey. The bank didnt care and the surveyor pretty much said not to worry about it.

Just before when we planned to exchange our searches finally came through and the next door house it was attached to had been underpinned.

Evidently the subsidence next door had at some point damaged "our" house.

To cut a long story short, the vendors and EAs lied constantly about this and changed their stories every time we spoke to them. No paperwork ever materialised and in the end all we could do was pay another £1000 on a full structural survey.

I could find only one insurer who would cover us over the phone on a non standard policy. In the end we pulled out and it was a great relief.

They dropped the price and it went STC again right away, and that fell through too. They are renting it out now.

I'm glad its their problem not mine.

zooloo

Thanks for all your advice. I agree I need to try harder to reduce the price. I don't think they will do the survey. So it just leaves me two options. Either to do the survey myself but before I do I want to say to them before I even think about it they have to reduce the price. As rightly said it is a buyers Market at the moment!

Anyone has anymore advice or experiences please continue to advise! Will keep you up dated!

babyj3

You mention a survery - there are 3 types
1 - mortgage survey
2 - homebuyers survey
3 - full structrual survey
You need the full structural - ask the sellers to pay for it or provide one
Also depending on the amount of time since the underpinning any insurance company can confirm if the house is in a 'no risk' postcode and this should not increase your premiums - try an insurance broker and make sure you get everything in writing never trust word of mouth - it is deniable
You can ask the vendors to supply a full structuaral survey (they are expensive but they can use it if you drop out with another buyer)or anything you want them to supply- they can always say no but remember you are in the dominant position as they want to sell and yes lower your offer after you get the survey as a lot of people would walk away rather than have any hassle like this
If the insurance company does not comfirm a no risk postcode I would advise you to walk away as you may be denied insurance in years to come and perhaps not too long i the future which would impact on the value and saleability of the house

babyj3

Just a thought but if the underpinning was done when the present owner purchased the property then their solicitor would have done all of the relevant searches and got paperwork to confirm it was done to bulding reg. standard and the name of the builder who did the underpinning - but this is generally kept with the title deeds so it may be that the sellers have not got any paperwork but they can and should get their solicitor to obtain copies of all relevant documentation and pass it onto you
It is not good enough for them to say they have ahd no problems - how do you know they are telling the truth and even if they are that is no guarantee that you won't have problems???They will never sell if they have that attitiude and their estate agent knows that
Please don't be fobbed off by these people
Be very wary:)and as I said before get everything in writing
Good Luck

zagfles

Structural surveys aren't that expensive - I got one as I also bought an underpinned house - it was half the price of the homebuyer's report! A bit over £200, but was 12 years ago. It deals purely with the structure, so all the details in the homebuyer's report such as gutters, loose towels rails and other petty details aren't covered.

Insurance is always a problem with an underpinned house - in my case it wasn't due to subsidence but to support a big extension including a garage at a lower level than the main house. But even so, mention underpinning and some insurers won't want to know, regardless of the details. But if you can get a mortgage, the mortgage company will always insure you, though of course you are likely to pay a bit more than if you have the option iof using comparison sites.

babyj3

zagfles wrote: »

Structural surveys aren't that expensive - I got one as I also bought an underpinned house - it was half the price of the homebuyer's report! A bit over £200, but was 12 years ago. It deals purely with the structure, so all the details in the homebuyer's report such as gutters, loose towels rails and other petty details aren't covered.

Insurance is always a problem with an underpinned house - in my case it wasn't due to subsidence but to support a big extension including a garage at a lower level than the main house. But even so, mention underpinning and some insurers won't want to know, regardless of the details. But if you can get a mortgage, the mortgage company will always insure you, though of course you are likely to pay a bit more than if you have the option iof using comparison sites.

I have bought and sold several times and always had a full structural survery incorporating the homebuyers report - the surveryor I use details everything he finds wrong with the property from minor/petty details to anything he finds that is serious - the last report I had cost over £1000 but was well worth it to know any defects - plus you can use the report to work out how much it will cost to put any defects right as even what are described as minor probelms can add up moneywise when you do the costings and you can use it to try to negotiate against the asking price or ask the sellers to put matters right before buying
After all you are commiting to spend a lot of money when buying a house and don't want any nasty shocks - once you move in it becomes your home and you want to enjoy living

zagfles

babyj3 wrote: »

I have bought and sold several times and always had a full structural survery incorporating the homebuyers report - the surveryor I use details everything he finds wrong with the property from minor/petty details to anything he finds that is serious - the last report I had cost over £1000 but was well worth it to know any defects - plus you can use the report to work out how much it will cost to put any defects right as even what are described as minor probelms can add up moneywise when you do the costings and you can use it to try to negotiate against the asking price or ask the sellers to put matters right before buying
After all you are commiting to spend a lot of money when buying a house and don't want any nasty shocks - once you move in it becomes your home and you want to enjoy living

Maybe you misunderstood me, I'm not saying you don't need the homebuyers report, I got the homebuyer's report as well as the structural survey. I presume the OP already got some sort of homebuyer's report/valuation before putting the offer in.

I just wanted to point out you can get a purely structural survey to cover concerns re underpinning, and that shouldn't be too expensive. Cost me a bit over £200 12 years ago, so maybe £300 or so now?

sunflower_2

zooloo wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice. I agree I need to try harder to reduce the price. I don't think they will do the survey. So it just leaves me two options. Either to do the survey myself but before I do I want to say to them before I even think about it they have to reduce the price. As rightly said it is a buyers Market at the moment!

Anyone has anymore advice or experiences please continue to advise! Will keep you up dated!

you really seem to be totally ignoring the advice on here and seem only to be interested in getting the property cheaper :eek:

if you want the house regardless of the underpinning - pay the amount you offered.

if i were in your shoes and read the advice on here - i would not want the house even at half the price.
my advice is to take the good advice and walk away

although you will prob ignore this and think again about getting money knocked off