Fist time buyer advice needed!

Mrs_Dogboy

Hi everyone,
We have seen an ideal house but it was listed as having building works completed "under a previous insurance claim" when I called the estate agents to arrange a viewing she said as we were first time buyers we shouldn't even look at it as the claim was due to subsidence (sp?) pls can someone advise what this would mean? We are looking to stay there for a fair few years (it has lots of potential) and don't understand how this will affect us - apart from higher insurance- and why being a first time buyer would make a difference?

Many thanks.

P.s the house has already been reduced by 50k and says open to offers but estate agents said they would want asking price. We are not in a chain so should we offer a lower price?

PasturesNew

Subsidence: House was built, land under it moved for some reason, which might still be ongoing..... house fixed (probably underpinned by pumping tons of concrete under the bit that was collapsing) .... mortgage companies won't touch it, insurance nigh on impossible/expensive.

A house like that's for somebody that knows what they're doing/buying and has a HUUUUGE deposit (if not cash) and will be either fixing it as they are professional builders, or renting it out as they're established landlords with other places/a track record.

It's cheap because it's broken.

Oh ... and if you ever wanted to sell it, you might find you can't shift it as you'd struggle to find a buyer able to buy it.

Mrs_Dogboy

Many thanks for your reply- we have had such conflicting advice!

Fire_Fox

Welcome! What the house has been reduced by is irrelevant if the place was overpriced to begin with. A house with a history of subsidence should appear to be the bargain of the century compared to land registry sold prices for the street and area.

What has happened since the insurance claim, has there been annual monitoring and has the vendor's surveyor/ structural engineer confirmed the house stopped moving? Too often they are underpinned and left. Ideally you would continue regular monitoring, this may help with resale value/ ease of sale but there is a cost implication, as well as the extra on insurance and the fact you are stuck with the one insurer.

kingstreet

Property sounds potentially uninsurable, possibly even unmortgageable.

You could spend £400ish on a mortgage report and valuation to find out.

Chances are, the agents have been through this at least once with another buyer and have found out the problems the hard way - by someone wasting their money.

Ask the agent if there have been other surveys or valuations carried out recently and what the results were.

Your FTB status infers the possibility of a limited deposit. If the property is mortgageable, the amount of money needed to bring it up to scratch to "value up" and to bridge/avoid a retention may be considered prohibitive.

Price reductions on "defective" property only benefit those with a large amount of cash.