Selling house with history of subsidence

SouthernJimmy

I would be interested to hear about the experiences of anyone who’s tried to sell a house which has previously suffered from subsidence.

Following an extensive period of monitoring of my house by the insurance company’s structural engineers there is a distinct possibility that underpinning may be required, What concerns me is the difficulty of subsequently selling the house at anything approaching the market value that it would have had without a history of subsidence. Does anyone have any experience of this and what impact this has on sale price?

Given that underpinning is so expensive, I’m wondering if there are any circumstances where it’s better to rebuild a house from scratch. Obviously the insurance companies will, at best, only pay the cost of underpinning, but if the house owner put this money towards a re-build and financed the rest themselves, the return might be greater than the loss of value, particularly as brand new houses always sell for a significant premium anyway, especially so if its on a largish plot.

Opinions welcome.

silvercar

If the plot is big enough, have you thought of building two homes on it?

Generally if a house has been underpinned and has been stable for a few years there shouldn't be much drop in market value.

Selling a house with subsidence before underpinning will obviously cause a drop in value, the insurers may agree to compensate you for this difference rather than pay for the underpinning. You could then sell to a builder.

If a house has been underpinned recently you would need to have the underpinning guaranteed and the existing insurer to agree to insure the property for the next owner. I still think there would be samll drop in market value, due to the potential hassle factor.

SouthernJimmy

Thanks for your thoughts. It's on a quarter acre plot so maybe could take 2 houses. Neighbours might not be too happy though.

Debt_Free_Chick

I had £20k of underpinning on a house valued at £135k five years ago.

Put the house on the market as soon as the work was complete, with no kitchen but a "finished shell" for any buyer to create their own kitchen.

Sold to first viewer at full asking price and completed inside 2 months.

I was, however, completely up-front and honest with the buyers and gave them copies of all the structural engineers reports etc. I think that, with an insurance claim, the work has to be done to the insurer's standards. They have a vested interest in making sure it's done properly, as they continue to insure the property.

It all rather depends on the buyers, the state of the market, the reasons for underpinning and the quality of the work.

The rebuilding insurance for that property at the time was about £200k - so rebuilding would not have been economically viable. Anyway, it was an Edwardian house and couldn't have been replicated .... plus it was end of terrace!

As a buyer, underpinning wouldn't necessarily bother me - but I would want to understand the reasons for the subsidence and probably get a structural engineer's report, in addition to a structural survey.

HTH