Structural Movement and Underpinning

chriswadds

Hi All,

Me and my girlfriend are in a simular position to quite a few of you. We had seen a beautiful "new build" property on rightmove that we decided to go and view. When the EA showed us around he told us that the property we were viewing and the others in the surrounding terrace had been underpinned about 3 years ago due to heave and that it was actually a new build property about 15 years ago. The housing associasion bought all the properties back and did the "repair" work. The EA said that it was the houses on the other side of the terrace had suffered with the heave and that the side that we looked at was only done as a precaution.
I know that all the questions that the above would raise have been covered in a way by some of your previous posts. My problem is, we are only been offered a 2 year gauentee once/if we complete on the property. Should I be worried that it is such a short ammount of time?

If any of you could help that would be great!

PEAR_2

hi all, need advice, got call from surveyor that prospective house has structural movement, now need sructural engineer to establish if movement is ongoing or has stopped. don't know if i should continue with prospect of buying this house on auction-day?

lincroft1710

PEAR wrote: »

got call from surveyor that prospective house has structural movement

Now you know why it is being auctioned!

I would look for somewhere else.

Izzi17

I am a single mother who pays the mortgage . Unfortunately I didn't know things about properties exc. my ex husband was taking care of that part ( both of us are on the mortgage). We are lease holders it is the first property which we bought 7years ago . My ex husband is not living in this country anymore. A few months ago I got the letter that they want to do under pinning to both properties on both side of my terrace house . I have done research about that and unfortunately I found out that my ex husband cancelled building insurance ages ago . We have two big trees on both sides of the house one I think belongs to council and I had a structure engineer to look at my house . He said that's the movement are caused by the trees . Do I have a case against the council and if it's gonna be difficult to win it. I don't have much money and I can't have a legal aid or I can't use CAB.

Izzi17

One day after the structure engineer ,he told me then that's is nothing serious I got an home insurance that was a week also ago . On that day when I got insurance I called the engineer to ask him to give me a report to have some confirmation that nothing major is wrong with my house . He said to do that he needs to do some tests , from that day the cracks are getting bigger and the engineer is doing tests as well for a month. Is that mean I can't really claim on my new insurance ? Shall I let them know anyway what's going on ? I don't know what to do .

ruggedtoast

You would probably be better off starting a new thread rather than reopening one from 2007.

You will have no luck claiming on your current insurance for something that they believe was affecting your house before the policy started.

dacouch

ruggedtoast wrote: »

You would probably be better off starting a new thread rather than reopening one from 2007.

You will have no luck claiming on your current insurance for something that they believe was affecting your house before the policy started.

They will also probably void the policy for non disclosure of the subsidence

ac427

I am in a similar position the OP and other prospective purchasers in this thread.

I found a property that has been underpinned almost 40 years ago due to subsidence. There is no paperwork from the original works available.

The vendor has had a full structural survey carried out that states there has been no recent movement and that the cracks are dormant. There is a certificate of structural adequacy also and i have a copy of both.

i am now looking into buildings insurance and finding that it is going to be around the £660 mark. Whilst this isn't too bad the resale position is scaring me.

I am not buying the property for investment but the thought that i would have to discount the sale price just to sell it in the future fills me with dread.

i do not want to upset the vendor but nor do i want to be saddled with a property that won't sell without a discount.

eddddy

(It might have been better to start a new thread... but anyway...)

Due to the subsidence history, you will probably buy the property at a discount and then probably sell it at a discount. (i.e. you might be no worse/better off than if you 'invested' in any other house.)

In fact, you will probably be getting 'more house for your money' (it will be cheaper than other similar sized houses), so some people might argue that it's a good option.

ac427

Thanks Eddddy, i was thinking about a new thread but all these tales of woe seem to fit well.

It it is true i would be getting more than value for money than compared to the equivalent property without subsdidence.

I guess the $64000 question is how much discount should be sought?

I am thinking 10% but wonder what discounts others have gotten in the past?