Subsidence question

casterweb

Hi All

I've made an offer on a house that was accepted. I was shown around the house by the EA, as the owner is deceased. The immediate family just want rid. I had the survey (homebuyers) late last week.

I've just received the report. The report says there is structural movement but it's not progressive. It's a victorian house so I was expecting a few defects but not this. There are no cracks in the walls you associate with subsidence, everything looked normal.

I had a chat with the surveyor yesterday and he told me the downstairs wooden floor in the dining room has a significant slope - a drop of about 6 inches towards the one corner (The area was covered with a large cabinet when I went to look)! He said the rest of the rooms were ok. He said it hadn't been underpinned and doesn't need underpinning as in his opinion the movement happened sometime ago and had now settled.

Now I've read about people having big problems with houses that have subsidence eg very expensive buildings insurance, difficult to resell etc etc so I'm now very weary about this house


However, I've had a think about it.

1) The surveyor doesn't mention the word "subsidence" in the report, only structural movement that is no longer progressive; so when I apply for buildings insurance, and the insurer asks the question: "Has never shown signs of heave, landslip or subsidence"; do I have to declare this movement? Is subsidence and movement the same thing?

2) The wooden floor can be relaid to make it level (not sure whats involved?) and then re-carpetted. This would mean that if I bought the property and decided to sell at a later date, the problem wouldn't be apparent to the buyer or surveyor (unless they ripped the carpet up!). So would I legally have to mention this to the prospective buyers when selling it?

I'm thinking that if the floor is sorted then no one is the wiser - only me and the surveyor know of the movement problem, and anyway, the floor will have been corrected and according to the surveyor, the movement has ceased.

Any thoughts?

oldvicar

Nearly 20 years ago I bought an old (Georgian) house. Great big crack in the wall. Surveyor described it as "long standing and not progressive", and the house is still standing. There are (long standing) metal re-inforcements ... wall ties are they called?

Would be interested in people's experience on the insurance question though. Originally had the mortgage lender's insurance, with no special conditions. Subsequently have never thought to say 'yes' to the subsidence question - never thought of it as such.

lostinrates

We got a mortgage and insurance through our bank ...a few weeks AFTER buying they called and said they wouldn't insure,...we only found one company happy to do so in fact.

Its NOT easy getting insurance...which is crazy in many cases where remedial work has been done as those with appropriate remedial work is presumably less likely to have problams in the future than one its next door to that hasn't.

ruggedtoast

I have a sinking feeling about this thread.

casterweb

lostinrates wrote: »

Its NOT easy getting insurance...which is crazy in many cases where remedial work has been done as those with appropriate remedial work is presumably less likely to have problams in the future than one its next door to that hasn't.

The property I'm interested in hasn't had any remedial work done - so I'm not minded to even tell the insurers about the 'movement'. The walls have no cracks - so no tell tale signs. The floor is the only giveaway. Once that has been sorted it will be difficult for any surveyor to even know there was any movement in the first place IMO

Note to mods: Can you dump this thread in more appropriate forum? Thanks