Subsidence - What are the implications

Clearlier

So it sounds like aside from the repair bill the long term implications are higher insurance costs possibly mitigated if underpinning is done. I don't suppose anybody has any examples? If it helps, the property is a 3-bed dormer.

If we're to proceed to a second viewing then we should ask the EA for the following:
- sight of the report showing that the drains are causing the problem
- sight of the quote the vendor received to fix the problem
- why the vendor hasn't fixed the problem
- why no insurance claim

Following on from receiving the above information we'll also need to ask our mortgage broker about the possibility of actually getting a mortgage on the house given it's issues.

Propertyman - we have a budget to buy and a budget to renovate. The nearest house price-wise to this in a similar location if asking £45k more. It has been on the market for 7-8 months and the EA did indicate that there was room for negotiation on the price.

My feeling at the moment is that this is probably more risk than we're will to take on but I'm getting a better feel for that as we work through it. If we could get to a stage where we could say if we spend £5k on this then it's fixed and insurance costs an extra say £250 per year then it's interesting. If spending £5k fixes it for the moment but leaves a lot of uncertainty and an extra insurance cost of £1,000 per year then we walk away. It sounds to me from the responses like a full structural survey done by somebody specialising in subsidence (assuming such a speciality exist) is the only way of establishing that. Before we do that though, we should take a look at the reports already commissioned and find out if we could possibly get a mortgage based simply on what the vendor is saying (more info. could obviously come to light from our own survey).

The above is put very simply. My concern from some of the posts is that it's not quite as simple as that.

We'll need to do some more thinking! Thanks again for everybody's input, it feels like I have a better understanding of the situation.