FTB - House has "underpinning"

haddock_n_chips

Ok so we have got our mortgage in place

The house is a fairly modern end terrace

The mortgage company agreed they are happy with the mortgage etc...

however our solicitor has done the local searches and found documents relating to "underpinning"

At first we were ready to jump ship as the seller was "unaware" of any issues and had declared so on the solicitors questionnaire

Due to the age of the home we did not go for a full survey as we didnt think it was needed.

The seller has managed to find some documentation on the underpinning and various calls to the company that did the work reveals that the underpinning was confined only to a porch/cupboard on the front of the property. I cant post pics as the site wont let me......

But it is a small pitched roof extension over the front door with a brick cupboard on one side (the boiler is inside the cupboard)

A previous owner had claimed on insurance to cover the works as it had slipped forward slightly, probably due to unsuitable foundations rather than subsidence.

Now the trouble is getting insurance!! They all run a mile when you say it has had some underpinning.

Our current insurers wont cover it without a desktop survey(?!) and then it would go on to specialist cover (hence mega prices)

We both really like the property and dont want to lose it but this is becoming a nightmare!

If the people that had done the works had reffered to it as foundation repair (all they did was bung a load more concrete under the porch) then none of this would be a problem, but a simple local authority search brings up builing regs paperwork for "underpinning"!

Any help or advice would be greatly apprecitated!

dominoman

Hmm. Tricky. A shame they declared it as underpinning. It would have been better and cheaper to just do the work at their own cost, if it was a simple matter of a cheaply made porch.

All you can do is accept that insurance will be higher for a period of time. It could be a blight for future buyers too so I'd work out the cost of the extra insurance, multiply by ten years, and ask for that deducted from the price. It will come to 5k or so I expect (500 extra per year)

haddock_n_chips

It's really annoying that it has been classed as underpinning!

Also being first time buyers its all very confusing

Guess we'll wait for mortgage company to say they are still ok now we've found these works

Also got to try to find an insurer that will be ok with it....

It feels like a mountain out of a mole hill as it's not subsidence and not a structural partof the property. Yet insurers will ask has the property had any ssubsidence or underpinning.

Thank you for the reply

I_have_spoken

Sound like a mid-terrace I had, the house units was all on one concrete foundation but the porches were on separate footings and after 20+ years everyone had had them rebuild due to movement away from the main 'pad'!

I had mine done, IIRC at my expense as there was £500 excess on insurance for 'underpinning' anyway.

It's a pity the seller hasn't insured it with declared underpinning, IIRC the current insurer is then obliged to offer the same terms to next owner (or is that flooding?)

marlot

What happens if you demolish the porch? Does it still have to be declared?

haddock_n_chips

I dont know if it has to be declared still if the structure is not there

It will still show on the local authority search though as it was done with full building regs approval

As i said our current insurers want a desktop survey done which is £175 then insurance premium would be around £700!

So we approached another insurers and they said they would want a full structural survey before they even looked at insuring it, so that would cost about £1000 for the survey then the insurance again would be around £700

Its not looking good

Such a silly little thing really but again this could crop up when we sold it and this would affect the sell on price....

Aaaggghh!! They joys of buying houses!