Is Homecheck.co.uk information reliable

tony4966

Was reading Matrin's top 50 tips for buying a property and one of them is to use homecheck.co.uk to check various aspects of the property before doing a home survery.

Homecheck gives three 'worrying' feedback of the property I was checking.

1. Moderate risk of subsidence
2. High risk of Historical industry land
3. High risk of Pollution risk

Does anyone know about these three problems? How worried should I be? It sounds pretty serious...

To get details of these three problems having to pay for a report. I wonder whether anyone has used the site before and please share your experience whether it's worth buying a report from them.

Many thanks.

tony4966

Nobody?!:embarasse

Davesnave

In answer to your question, I find the results for my postcode very unreliable.

I am within an area potentially liable to flooding, but my house isn't likely to flood from either streams or ground water. I would go as far as to say it will never flood.

Historically, there has been industrial use close by, but I have the earliest OS map and I'm aware of nothing. So, the high indication for possible industrial contamination looks dodgy too. The only contamination I know of was caused by the previous occupant, who was an 'organic' smallholder!

Apparently, the risk of subsidence is medium. We don't have it.

We don't seem to have any amenities within 1km either, which is unsurprising, as they are all at lest 2km from here.

vegasbaby100

I would not pay much intrest. We live in a tiny village and it is saying that pollution is high and we have nothing but fields around us. and also that past industrial use is high when the closest thing to us is the 2 farms that have been farms for the last 4 generations at least

tony4966

Many thanks to the replies above!
Cheers!

DRP

Well the results from my postcode would have scared me off if i'd seen them 10 years ago...

The flooding risk is a joke. Nothing around here has flooded in living memory and we're at least 15m up a hill above the river (~4-500m away) and the other side of the river is much much lower.

As the site says , it is to be used for deciding to conduct further survey/research, rather than taking at face value.

DaftyDuck

It's neither particularly accurate, nor useful. Most of the information is available more accurately by trawling the internet, or by visiting the area. Flood risk by postcode is useless. I am listed as high flood risk, because an area within 500m is at risk. That might be the area below the cliffs on the seafront... I'm 30 metres high, and climate change/rising sea levels ain't that bad yet! Nice view from this window, though. It does give you some quick idea of crime rates for an area, and it might save me the bother of going to look at a house and getting my car nicked in the process if crime rates were that high.

My house is also "previous industrial use" - a WW1 airfield... but since that was seaplanes, and my house sits where the main gate and slipway access used to be, I doubt there's much problem.

Schools, well it lists them, but not much more information. You can find more on the local government websites, and same applies to planning.

I'm sounding hugely negative, but one thing that is positive is doing any of that kind of research! Stick the postcode in the internet, what comes up? Try the neighbouring postcodes. Planning portals at the local council, try the national crime database (police.uk?) Use Google Streetview... yes, it's out of date, and you can drive round 'now', but what was parked up 'then' in your streets?

So, would I buy a report from them? No, never. But I'd mine their free information, and a lot more besides.

ca55ie

Agree with comments above. Just tried my postcode - apparently at risk of flooding because there's no flood defences - probably cos there's no streams, sea or waterways for a 2 mile radius and we're at the top of a hill. Also the warning of previous industrial use - it was a farmers field - I know cos I saw it before the house was built!!