Underpinned bay window - pros and cons please

Jaybo10

Hello all,

I am looking at a Victorian terraced house that has had the front, single storey bay underpinned in 1991.

A full structural survey was done 2 years ago and everything was sound. The vendor also has the completion certificates from the council.

I am currently waiting on the info about the root cause of the problem.

Now I know from my my internet browsing that the word 'underpin' seems to get people running to the hills however I was wondering if it really is such a problem?

I realise insurance will be difficult and expensive and it has an effect on resale (the reason we are looking at it is because it is priced lower then other houses on the street and now falls into our price bracket). On the other hand, I know several people who have had underpinned properties and it is relatively common in some parts of clay ridden London.

From our perspective it is a lovely house, requires no work and its bigger then anything we would normally be able to get..

Your thoughts are welcome..

ruggedtoast

Its about resale and insurance costs and its impossible to say without knowing the area, the price, and the house.

If you're talking about a sought after 5 bed townhouse in a confirmed London property hot spot where underpinning is common, then no, (as long as it doesnt start to move again) underpinning shouldn't cause you problems reselling in the future.

If its somewhere less desirable with a lot of other non underpinned property on the market then it might do, but in any case it should be factored into the price.

My personal experience of this was when I almost bought a semi in a sought after location. We had almost exchanged and then it came to light that next door (the other 50% of the building) had been underpinned in the 80s, and there was historic cracking to the one we were going to buy which would have been explained as damage from that movement.

We never got a straight answer as to what this was about out of the duplicitous sellers or their agents so pulled out. This was a few years ago and the place seems to have been on the market ever since.

After being STC back to available, STC back to availabe, a rental, STC for some time it eventually sold for about 11% less than we had originally offered, and is yet again on the market with the new buyers for an inflated asking price and not moving.

This leads me to conclude that the buyers thought they were getting a bargain due to the underpinning and would resell at top whack to others who wouldnt care about it; which hasn't happened.

Jaybo10

Its a big 3 bed terrace in an 'up and coming area' in London (zone 3).

The sale price reflects the fact it is underpinned which is why it falls into our affordability range, and therefore I would expect the same for the sale price.

The vendors have been upfront about the underpinning and are supplying all the info they have (they only found out about it when they bought it).

Its difficult as almost everyone I have spoken to has said its no big deal yet the interweb is full of horror stories!

jayship

A family member recently bought a house in London that was underpinned in 1990 and was able to negotiate a lower price. Most properties in that area are built on London Clay and not uncommon to see properties underpinned. However there is always a stigma attached and many buyers will walk away.

The insurance was not a problem and competitive as AXA are not concerned about properties underpinned 15 years ago. I hope this helps.

chappers

Is it just the bay thats been under pinned.
If so and the rest of the house is sound I wouldn't worry.
Single storey bays on these houses were built seperately to the main house structures usually on even less "foundations" than the main house.
It will be important when getting insurance to point out that only the bay has been underpinned and that the rest of the house hasn't needed any remedial work a broker would probably get you the best deal.
As a builder I wouldn't be worried about this at all, in fact any of the bays that have been underpinned to modern standards will be more structuraly sound thean the others.
The fears around underpinning come from the fact that there is usually serious subsidance risk if a whole house needs underpinning, alot of the bayfronted houses of the 50s had their bays built on a 4" concrete slab and these obviously fail all the time.

Jaybo10

Out of interest. What is the difference between getting a building survey and the house being assessed by a structural engineer? Many discussions around underpinning refer to a structural engineer survey..

blackshirtuk

Jaybo10 wrote: »

Its difficult as almost everyone I have spoken to has said its no big deal yet the interweb is full of horror stories!

I would take the view that you know about it and it has been sorted, and you get a reduction in price,

it could happen to any other house you buy without any of the pro's but lots of cons!

withabix

Bay window subsidence is a problem in Victorian houses. I have seen a lot of it around Lytham St. Annes, where the majority of houses are Victorian with bay windows.

The foundations to the bay window are often inferior to those under the rest of the house and the bay window subsidence can be quite severe as a result, because the load on the window foundation increases once the subsidence has started (as the bay windows breaks away from the house), increasing the problem.

advice_please_2

We recently pulled out of an offer after building survey showing movement
With the bag windows made out of stone it would have been a costly job to get fixed with windows etc

securityman

Its a shame that after 22 years this could/will still affect the price.
Not for you, but for anyone who has had subsidence that's been repaired.
It's something a property is stuck with for ever it seems.

Jaybo10

securityman wrote: »

Its a shame that after 22 years this could/will still affect the price.
Not for you, but for anyone who has had subsidence that's been repaired.
It's something a property is stuck with for ever it seems.

I agree, the work in this case was done 22 years ago.

We have decided to put in an offer on the house but we are going to get a structural survey done. If anything thing nasty comes out of that or we are unable to get insurance then we will walk away.