buying house with previous underpinning

lmentry

Myself and o/h are in the process of buying a previously underpinned property but all the current owners have supplied us with is a typed schedule of work and say they never had a certificate of completion.
They informed us that they were unable to get a mortgage when they bought the property until the work was carried out so am I right in assuming their lender would have wanted to see a completion certificate? and would they have kept a copy with the deeds?

The house is a 1930 semi and the work was carried out in 1984 and, as far as I can see, the house seems structually sound with no visable evidence of further movement ie.cracks.
Our solicitor has informed the vendors solicitor of our concerns and they are looking into it but the current owners say they spoke to the council and were informed they "have no records of this type before 1991" which strikes me as a little strange, surely there must be a archive dept?

We would get a full building survey done anyway because of the age of the property and the fact it has a small extension but would prefer proof of the underpinning having been carried out correctly before paying out for this.

I know there aren't any specific questions in this post but any general advice or opinions will be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

LM.:undecided

silvercar

If you have a full structural survey that shows there has been no movement in the property in recent years then you should be fine from an insurance point of view and in getting a mortgage. The need for warrenties, guarantees and completion certificates is when the underpinning has been done recently and so there is some doubt as to whether it has solved the problem.

lmentry

Thanks for the reply.
Spoken to the current owners and although they have looked again and phoned various people at the council they have been unable to get any proof of the work having been carried out.
They are willing to get a structual engineers report carried out at their expense and if that comes back ok, we will get a full buildings survey.We will then be hoping that if there are no signs of movement, most insurance companies would be happy to insure the house.

LM.

Why can't house buying be simple!

Poorgirl_2

We're the vendors in a similar situation. When we bought 8 years ago there was talk of the house having been underpinned but we have no evidence. Our buyer is asking the council for evidence but if he can't find it he will pull out. We will be sooo upset if this happens as desparate to move on. We know the house to be fine and the initial survey done by the buyers valued the house only £5,000 below our asking price - we said we would acceopt that.
Advice please.

silvercar

We once looked at a house where the owners had themselves commissioned a structural survey to check for subsidence. The road was known for subsidence problems and the immediate neighbour had gauges on the outside to monitor for movement, so the sellers decided to pay for this investigation to show prospective buyers that their house was clear. Wouldn't negate the need to do your own survey but would provide peace of mind to buyers.

telfordwhite

The lack of certificate in itself isn't a problem but as poorgirl suggests It may be difficult to sell on without them whether theres a problem with the structure or not..