Buying a house with past subsidence problems

dominoman

We are in the process buying a house. Just in the last few days we learned (via the seller’s solicitor) that the house had subsidence which was apparently fixed via underpinning 7 years ago.

Our structural surveyor has checked and can see no recent movement. However I am worried the subsidence history could recur and even if it doesn’t it could affect future resale.

Will this affect the value for future buyers? Would you try and negotiate some money off with the vendor now? He did not tell us of the subsidence until well after our offer was accepted.

makeyourdaddyproud

Did the vendor own the house at the time of the subsidence? If so, why didn't they tell you about it? That piece of info would have saved you time and money.

Yorkie1

Insurance is likely to be a major issue - does the seller's insurance company cover the subsidence risk, what is the excess on it (sometines if it's over £1K then a lender may be difficult), and will the policy be transferred to you?

Maidenover

By coincidence we too viewed a bungalow today that has been underpinned. The story we have been told is that there was a huge willow tree at bottom of garden (about 60 feet from property but just next to garage)and the roots got into the drains and caused problems with small part of kitchen and also the garage. There is a large tree root in the area next to the garage which is dead. The owners have all the paperwork relating to the underpinning and insurance for the property is about £500. I am not happy about it and will probably walk away because we would want to extend the property or do a loft conversion and I want to be sure the foundations are sound.
Just as we were leaving the owners told us that the huge property just down on the main road (about 800 yards away) had major problems with underpinning and was costing a fortune to be done. Honest and naive all at the same time :eek:
I should add the property is in Tankerton near to Whitstable Kent and I have just discovered the whole area is built on London Clay which is well know to have problems with movement so maybe the Kent Coast is not for us after all or maybe we should just accept it as it doesn't look like the area is falling down. It's just the word 'underpinning' sends a nasty shiver through you when you hear it.
Would be really interested in hearing about your experience and what you decide to do.

dominoman

We decided to go ahead with it despite the subsidence. The only thing we are considering is whether to go back with a reduced offer, as we were not aware of the subsidence issues when we made the original offer.

Buying a house in London (and Tankerton sounds same) nearly all of the houses are on London Clay so subsidence is common, but then most houses are still standing 100+ years later so I don't think it is necessarily a deal-breaker.

Having said that I still expect some kind of discount (especially as we offered around 100k over market value for the house already)

shegar

dominoman wrote: »

We decided to go ahead with it despite the subsidence. The only thing we are considering is whether to go back with a reduced offer, as we were not aware of the subsidence issues when we made the original offer.

Buying a house in London (and Tankerton sounds same) nearly all of the houses are on London Clay so subsidence is common, but then most houses are still standing 100+ years later so I don't think it is necessarily a deal-breaker.

Having said that I still expect some kind of discount (especially as we offered around 100k over market value for the house already)

Offering 100K over the market value..?:eek: You must have too much money or not enough sense........

charteredsurveyor

Underpinned properties are not generally at any higher risk of futre movement than any other property in the vicinity. After all, the movement that they have suffered in the past has been identified, assessed by a professionsl (e.g. a Structural Engineer or Building Surveyor) and has been resolved in acordance with all required standards and the remedial work (i.e. the underpinning) is usually covereed by a suitable insurance backed warrantee. This is a much better position to be in than the guy next door whos house is probably built on the same type of ground but is still standing on 100year old shallow foundations.

As long as the underpinning was carried out a long time ago, is covered by an insurance backed warrantee that is transferable to any new owners and you have the property checked by a surveyor to confirm that there are no longer any signs of any ongoing movement, there should be no issues but just also make sure that it does not have a major impact on structural insurance premiums or availability. Of course, if the proper paperwork and warrantees are not available then alarm bells should be ringing!

The real problem is that the word "underpinning" gives insurers, mortgage lenders and buyers cold feet which causes problems obtaining insurance at reasonable prices and drives down the value and salability of the property. Because of this, underpinned properties do tend to sell for less and take longer to sell but by how much is subject to the individual circumstances.

Yorkie1

My godmother lives in S London on London clay.

Over the last 20 or so years, she has had 3 very major subsidence claims. So just because it gets fixed once, is not an indication that it won't happen again with a clay subsoil.