Buying an underpinned house

dacouch

Is the whole house underpinned or just parts of it?

ladidadi

dacouch wrote: »

Is the whole house underpinned or just parts of it?

We don't know yet as we only learnt the other day and haven't seen any documents. My guess would be it's only the rear tenement as our surveyor had said it's typical for this area that the rear tenements would start moving away from the houses.

Doozergirl

Go to an insurance broker. Or do the comparison sites and then go to insurers direct with the question.

I think you're making more of this than needs be. Nobody goes digging back in the 70s for paperwork. It's irrelevant. Not many of us have a house that hasn't evolved heavily since those days.

I cannot get my head around why people are happy to buy houses with no foundations and are scared of houses with them! Given the stark choice, there is only one answer.

Same with ancient building work. People panic when work as old or older than themselves doesn't have sign off, yet don't even consider that the original house would never have been signed off.

ladidadi

Doozergirl wrote: »

Go to an insurance broker. Or do the comparison sites and then go to insurers direct with the question.

I think you're making more of this than needs be. Nobody goes digging back in the 70s for paperwork. It's irrelevant. Not many of us have a house that hasn't evolved heavily since those days.

I cannot get my head around why people are happy to buy houses with no foundations and are scared of houses with them! Given the stark choice, there is only one answer.

Same with ancient building work. People panic when work as old or older than themselves doesn't have sign off, yet don't even consider that the original house would never have been signed off.

Thanks, we will do. It will just take time as most insurers on the comparison sites don't quote if the house is underpinned. We found a few quotes but they're expensive, so given this and the vendors pushing for exchange with no further questions asked we were wondering whether it's worth continuing. The vendors don't want to allow us much more time. It's been 2 months so far and if it wasn't for the underpinning we could sign now so I don't think we've been slow but they're in a rush to get this done.

eddddy

Last time I checked (a couple of years ago), you could get online quotes from the following buildings insurance providers (with standard premiums and excesses) ...



Axa - are only interested in the last 10 years. They ask:

To the best of your knowledge has your property experienced subsidence or heave in the last 10 years?

Legal and General - are only interested in the last 15 years. They ask you to confirm:

ALSO, IF YOU'RE BUYING BUILDINGS INSURANCE, YOUR PROPERTY (AND ITS OUTBUILDINGS) HASN'T BEEN:

- Affected by subsidence, heave, landslip or structural movement in the last 15 years.
- Underpinned, or provided with other structural support in the last 15 years.

And Halifax don't hve any time limit, they only ask you to confirm:

The home including any brick, stone or concrete outbuildings:

- Does not currently have any damage which you know is caused by subsidence, or have been advised could be caused by subsidence

- If subject to any previous subsidence damage, has had that damage fully rectified and is no longer required to be monitored.

Here's a post from back in 2012 by somebody who did even more research on this: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67511071#Comment_67511071

ladidadi

eddddy, thanks so much, this is very helpful! Axa and L&G sound good!

Looking at the poll results though, it seems that many people are as worried as we are and would just avoid such a house.. I'd do the same if we hadn't spent on reports, mortgage, etc. already.

Davesnave

I think it's a bit like finding out that your intended partner for life isn't a virgin after all.

Like all such revelations, much depends on the circumstances, but here you are presenting us with a poll already, despite not having the full picture.

St Thomas,hmmmm. Well, it's not Alphington or Topsham, is it dahlings?

Would I buy it? If the paperwork and insurers all checked out fine, I'd have no issues at all.

But in St Thomas?

Err, No.

That's the trouble with polls. The answer you want to see is rarely there! :rotfl:

DaftyDuck

Has it flooded since the 1960's, and is it still at risk?

That would be as important to me.

Madmel

They built a huge flood relief system after the 1960s floods and apparently things have been ok since. Last Monday, there was loads of rain in the area and from the photos I saw, the flood relief did its job.

OP, ask who the vendor is insured with. We live in E Devon and have a non-standard construction house. Lots of the comparison sites cannot cope with this but we found NFU Mutual helpful. They have an office near the big Tesco at Pynes Hill and they seem to know the area well.

St Thomas isn't the area I would choose but it is convenient for the city centre, trains and riverside. So much of this area is now really expensive compared to wages so I guess the OP doesn't have a lot of choice.

warehouse

When it comes to selling in the distant future are you going to have the same issue with people buying your house? That would be my concern.