Coal Mining Subsidence

NewbuyerNE

letter arrived from solicitor this morning saying that for the first time in his long career he has had a response back from the Coal Authority saying there has been 3 claims within 50 meters of the property boundary for subsidence due to coal.

The records for this started in 1994 and our vendors last bought the house in 2008 and nothing showed up to say they've had any work done on the searches.

Has anyone had any experience with this and how likely is it that our property will be deemed 'stable' considering the timescales? (the houses were built in the 1950s)

agrinnall

Unless the property is significantly cheaper than similar properties in an unaffected area I'd be walking away and looking elsewhere - in fact, I did!

NewbuyerNE

agrinnall wrote: »

Unless the property is significantly cheaper than similar properties in an unaffected area I'd be walking away and looking elsewhere - in fact, I did!

no it's priced as you would expect for that area which is really sought after (the whole estate is built on mines, as we'd expect in this part of the North East) - it's just 3 properties have had subsidence, there could be others throughout the estate but the report only reports on those nearest to us so don't think it's an anomaly.

Our house has had no subsidence claims or work done to it.

agrinnall

The house that I walked away from had had no subsidence or claims either, but why take the risk when there are properties elsewhere that aren't going to disappear into a hole in the ground.

NewbuyerNE

agrinnall wrote: »

The house that I walked away from had had no subsidence or claims either, but why take the risk when there are properties elsewhere that aren't going to disappear into a hole in the ground.

that's the thing, when we put other postcodes in the area onto the homechecker website, they all come up with the same ratings of severity since it's all coal mining below - perils of NE buying!

I'm sure there's areas, such as along the coast, which are fine but our budget doesn't come to that unfortunately

NewbuyerNE

Just an update on this in case anyone searches in future and needs some help (I found nothing online to ease my worry)

We paid for buffer reports on each property that claimed for coal subsidence. Reports back in the post the following day from solicitor saying they're spaced 13 years apart and all 3 were rejected from the coal board as no subsidence was present.

I almost cried I was so happy - imagine if I'd just walked away like the previous poster said! and all for £46

apparently coal claims are made from the mine owner not insurance companies so some people could try their luck (if they weren't aware of repercussions).