New House - Mine Entry

PMD56

Hi,

First post on the forums and just looking for some advise.

I'm in the process of buing a new house, it's pretty much all gone through however my solicitor has contacted me and advised that the coal mining survey has shown a mine entrance 'within, or within 20 meters of the property boundries' (the actual location is around about at the start of the front garden or possibly under the footpath). It advises that the mine was capped in 1994 with the house being built around 2000.

I've had no experience with queries on searches so just wondered what the general advise would be?

Thanks for your help

djp64

Hi

I had this (three mines / entrances in total) when I moved from Bucks to W Yorks. Not many mines in Bucks so completely threw me at first and first reaction was to pull out. Did some more research and these are fairly common in W Yorks so don't seem to phase buyers. I did further research and found that British Coal (think they're now the Coal Authority) guarantee / underwrite / insure against any damage caused by the mine entrances where they've been filled / capped properly and are shown within their records. IIRC there is an enhanced mining report you can get from the Coal Authority that gives more information on the type of mine and its risks.

Went ahead and bought the house and then sold it again without any problems

Debbie

Catherine_Johnson_2

Personally I'd avoid it. Even if you had no problems at all with it, it will still put some buyers off when you come to sell, so you'd be cutting down your potential market. Given a choice, and all else being equal, everyone would go for the house which wasn't built with a mine entrance in the front garden.

Even though it may come with insurance etc etc, that's going to be only of little comfort if the garden, or worse, the house collapses some time in the future.

gooner63_2

Personally wouldn't bother me....price probably reflects this....just ask yourself what are the chances of collapse.... probably less than winning the lottery....I know people will post pics up ...saying...".look at this"....but were they capped ...?

kingstreet

The solicitor will need to give a copy of the mining report to the lender so the surveyor can determine if the property value is affected.

The mortgage offer may remain as it was, be altered, or withdrawn, based on the surveyor's opinion of the property's mortgageability.

PMD56

Thanks for all the replies.

My solicitor has asked the other party to get an enhanced report from the Coal Authroity so I guess it's just a matter of waiting for that to make a more informed judgement.

Thanks

kingstreet

PMD56 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

My solicitor has asked the other party to get an enhanced report from the Coal Authroity so I guess it's just a matter of waiting for that to make a more informed judgement.

Thanks

While you're waiting, start checking if you can get standard terms for your buildings insurance.

The firms I use tend to ask for a copy of the valuer's report and mining report before they'll make a decision.

droiderm

I am currently renting a property which, I believe, has a mine shaft/entrance in front of the house, under a shared footpath.
A couple of times over the past view years the path has sunk (not a massive amount) and caused water leaks which inevitable gather around the front of the house. It hasn't risen too high, but is of slight inconvenience non the less. It has caused electric cut out of the mains before too.

Not a huge deal, and I don't think it would stop me personally buying the house.... if I liked it.

kingstreet

droiderm wrote: »

I am currently renting a property which, I believe, has a mine shaft/entrance in front of the house, under a shared footpath.
A couple of times over the past view years the path has sunk (not a massive amount) and caused water leaks which inevitable gather around the front of the house. It hasn't risen too high, but is of slight inconvenience non the less. It has caused electric cut out of the mains before too.

Not a huge deal, and I don't think it would stop me personally buying the house.... if I liked it.

Presumably, if there are problems with drainage and subsidence, the shaft hasn't been treated in any way.

If there's an untreated shaft, adit or entry within 5m of the property, you're likely to find the property is very difficult to mortgage and/or insure.

It gets better the further away it is, but if it shows up on the report, within 20m, there's a good chance it would be downvalued by around 30%.

PMD56

I've had a look at insurance (compare sites) and the ones i've seen don't ask regarding mines during the application process and from what I can see in the policy wording it's not detailed in there either, so I would assume it would be OK based on that?

The house is located in the black country so it can't be an uncommon things for the solicitors to have to advise on!

I'm not too worried about any possible damage to the property as I'm confident it's far enough away not to have any impact but I'm obviously still concerned about the value when it comes to resale in however many years time.

Thanks

Furts

I will put in my penny worth. I have come across this with construction work and my (off the record!) advice would be to walk away...fast

For example you probably do not know who capped the mine, nor to what design and details, nor to what standard.

The location is so close it is scary...and you may not know of what problems have occured ( if any) since it was capped.

The original build warranty has now expired - so you could never make a claim on this.

Finally the surveys are not pinpoint accurate - the shaft could be under your house - and I have witnessed this happening. So even if the shaft is approx 20 metres away this is misleading - this is the centre. You then need to determine how wide it was to determine the edge - which could be under the house.