Moderate Ground Instability - London

Sanoffo

The Environment Report has come back on a property we are buying marking "moderate" risk of "natural ground instability in the area within 50 metres of the centre of the property".

Our solicitor has highlighted that we may wish to follow this up, although stressed this can be quite common. Follow up options are;

1) Home check ground stability report expanding on current info - £24
2) Subsidence postcode report based on claims in the area - £18
3) Full structural survey

The house is a 1900 mid-terrace in Walthamstow, East London. The soil in the area I think is clay so seems like it will be a common problem if we buy in the same area. We did see some movement cracks (<1mm width) in the bedroom but these looked normal for a property of it's age.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do?

cattie

Most of London & the surrounding suburbs is built on clay soil, so a very, very common problem & not one particular to East London.

Think how many houses there are in London & you will see that whilst the soil can be problematic in some cases, it is only a very minor probability with many houses.

As the house is a mid terrace it is going to be a bit more stable than an end terrace or a semi.

To put your mind at rest pay for the checks that the solicitor has mentioned. I'd always opt for a full structural survey on such an old property anyway. When arranging the survey, can mention your concerns to surveyor & ask that he pay particular attention to those areas when carrying out your survey.

jimthelocallad

Hi Cattie

Am in the same position as you were a few months ago would be keen to hear what you learnt about the 'moderate' classification. Likewise am hoping to complete on a mid terrace in walthamstow built in 1900

Think we will likely pay for the additional expanded report for peace of mind along with the claims report - (thanks Sanoffo)

For anyone in a similar situation the BGS has a lot of useful info on it to better understand what their reports include. You can download a version of one of their reports although they seem to operate on a 1-5 scale. I'd assume moderate sits at 3 - one for me to look into.

They also have a page which talks about the geology around lee valley which is interesting if moving to the area.

I'm a newbie on here so not allowed to post links but easy enough to find