Buying an underpinned house

ladidadi

We're in the process of buying a house in St Thomas in Exeter. The neighbourhood suffered a flooding in the 1960's and as a result many of the houses suffered subsidence which is widely known. We asked the vendors whether the house has been underpinned as we know some in the area are, they said they were not aware. Two months into the purchase it became clear the house was underpinned. We are concerned about insurability as it turns out most insurers won't insure, and we are also worried that the market value of the property is lower than what it would have been if the house wasn't underpinned. The vendors don't seem to appreciate any of these concerns and are pushing to exchange as soon as possible. We've already incurred costs and don't want to lose this money but equally if the market value is not the same anymore we're risking potentially a much bigger loss if we buy at the price agreed previously.

In your experience if it's an area where subsidence has occurred, would prospective buyers be OK with underpinning? We certainly aren't and are quite worried. I would appreciate your thoughts.. Thanks.

Chanes

If the house has been underpinned correctly then you have an advantage over someone whose house has not been underpinned in that it should have better foundations. Imagine a few houses away which suffered the same flooding and had not been underpinned, would you be happier buying that?

I can see how you are concerned but if the job has been done correctly I do not understand why an insurer would worry especially if has been underpinned for years and suffered no further trouble?

Doozergirl

In the 60s? And with a clear reason.

It really shouldn't be an issue at all at this point.

Some people may not like it but they'd also probably walk at some other trivial matter if it wasn't that.

DigForVictory

+1 for if it's been done once rightly, you need not worry.

Indeed, better to ask to see a house insurance form so you know which boxes to tick.

ladidadi

Chanes, Doozegirl, many thanks for the prompt reply.

The house was underpinned in the 70's.

We're worried that 90% of insurers won't insure.. what if those who will now, won't in 5 years, they're not so many and the premium is higher.. We'll be left at the mercy of a few insurers and won't have many options. Also I'm not an expert so I'm worried what the standards were in the 70's and whether additional works might be needed as time passes. To establish the current condition will require a professional opinion which will cost yet more money and the vendors are not even willing to let anyone else check the house anymore.. they just want to exchange and move on.

Doozergirl

Most insurers ask questions over a certain time period - 10 or 20 years, not 40 or 50 - it should not affect premiums as it is not a excessive risk.

Where is the proof of underpinning?

Chanes

Have you been refused insurance? If the house has been correctly underpinned (and given it was more than 30 years ago, I would guess it was) then it should be OK. I am not aware it is a type of work that expires? I would think a chat with your surveyor should help put your mind at ease. I am a flighty buyer but I don't think this would worry me too much, I understand your concern, it is a serious chunk of money but every house has a hitch I think.

dacouch

Doozergirl wrote: »

Most insurers ask questions over a certain time period - 10 or 20 years, not 40 or 50 - it should not affect premiums as it is not a excessive risk.

Where is the proof of underpinning?

Most Insurers ask if the property has ever been underpinned and / or suffered subsidence.

Very very few ask the same question with a time limit

ladidadi

Doozergirl, we haven't seen any proof yet. We got the information from Buiding Control so we only know it's been underpinned in the 70's. I'd expect the bank will want to see the papers and we'll ask for these but were wondering whether to proceed with the purchase at all as the vendors don't seem to appreciate that this will require more Q&A, paperwork, etc. and are saying the underpinning shouldn't matter and we should proceed to exchange and are threatening to pull out if this takes much longer.

ladidadi

Yep that's what we're seeing so far, unfortunately most often the question is, has it been underpinned/ever suffered flooding/ever suffered subsidence. The answer to all of these being yes.. so you can imagine the sort of premiums.

ladidadi

Thank you all very much for your replies.

Does anyone of you own an underpinned house or have you ever sold one? We could probably live with the high insurance cost if the vendors agree to reduce the price a bit for this but how do we re-sell? If prospective buyers are worried as much as we are, we can never sell it we fear.