Help... Groundsure survey issue

Lisa_Cane

Hi All,

So long story short,

We had a buyer for our house, their solicitor used groundsure for a survey who shows medium to high risk of subsidence - which was news to us as it never came up when we originally bough our house and not a know issue in the area.

So buyer contacts council, water board and independant surveyor who all say there is no risk what so ever and they don't understand where groundsure got their data from and want to know more from groundsure - and council are asking for hard proof.

So anyway our buyer pulls our despite the other surveys and says they will go ahead if we can get groundsure to retract their survey - is this possible? If so we have no idea how long it's going to take so what can we do - we have contacted them but heard nothing.

Any ideas would be much appreciated, very upset that it has fallen through even though our house is not at risk as confirmed in other surveys done on it.

AnotherJoe

Put it back on the market and hope your next buyers arent using a scaremongering similar service. My suspicion wold be a service like this is almost duty bound to increase the risk because of comeback if there is subsidence. So they'll probably only say no risk if you live on a solid granite surface in Cornwall. Where they'll say the radon will get you.

BTW there's no way you can get a company you have no financial relationship with to retract anything.Its nothing to do with you, you arent their customer.

If your buyers are still keen but spooked why not write a short letter to them along the lines of "council, water board and independent surveyor all say there is no risk what so ever so you might wish to ask Groundsure how they can justify their findings unless you plan to find each and every house you look at in future at some risk of subsidence due to a service that disagrees with multiple other professionals. Our house is now back on the market we wish you luck in your future endeavours".

davidmcn

Lisa_Cane wrote: »

So anyway our buyer pulls our despite the other surveys and says they will go ahead if we can get groundsure to retract their survey - is this possible?

No, it's a ridiculous request. If they want further information about Groundsure's methodology, they'll need to contact Groundsure. Their reports are just very rough desktop interpretations of geological etc data, so I expect they'll give the same answer for a wide radius, and aren't going to change their answer - they're not "surveys" of the property itself.

Rodders53

These surveys are typically very broad brush... based on some old historical data records (with potential for errors in input / transfer, potentially?).

It might be worth - if the spooked buyers have not passed on a full copy to you already - buying your own, and reading it in detail to see what the precise issue is?

https://www.groundsure.com/report/ground-stability/ see the sample report...

dc197

If the report is based on your house's location (it is) then all houses on the street will have the same risk. All you can do is explain to buyers how the ground survey works.
The houses I just sold and bought both have "medium to high risk of subsidence" due to my area's soil.

lewishardwick

As above, really.

pretty much all of London is at risk of Subsidence.A log of these companies just punch a post code into a computer and charge for the results.

My searches came back with a **BIG RED WARNING FOR RADON** just as a lot of ares do. I doubt any of the properties where I'm looking have been specifically designed to consider it...

Lisa_Cane

Thanks all for your replies I appreciate them,

We had some further information from yhe geological survey association who have said the land immediately around our house and underneath that groundsure should provide information on is fine and minimal to no risk its only part of some land 50 meters away that has some risk due to deposit of sand and other stuff from an old river and newly constructed houses shouldn't be affected anyway.

We have provided this to our buyers and are awaiting further information from groundsure. .. but not sure how much more information we could provide to prove there is not an issue.

Id like to add that it was the buyers themselves that confirmed with the council, water board and independent surveyers who all said there were no issues and no reports of anyone claiming on insurance for subsidence for 5miles around.

Not really sure how much more proof they cuuld need :undecided

AnotherJoe

It's seems pretty clear that there is no real issue but your buyers are likely nervous FTBers who want an impossible level of confidence. Just move on. Do it politely and they may come round but I don't see what else you can do. Groundsure is nothing to do with you they aren't going to change anything on your behest.

Lisa_Cane

Thanks, they aren't first time buyers though.

They want to do up the house then sell on, hence their nervousness about any slight issue cropping up.

AnotherJoe

Then move on, at least if you start by putting it back on you aren't losing time by waiting for them to stop faffing about.

kimplus8

I agree with the above- they either have completely unrealistic expectations of ground surveys or they are try to encourage a discount for the risk they are taking.