Mine Shafts

missprice

davidmcn wrote: »

There's this site for London, not sure if there's anything similar covering the rest of the country:

http://www.bombsight.org

That's utterly fascinating, sadly not my area, but still interesting thanks.

sultanabran

I live in a historic coal town so there are quite a lot of mine shafts in and surrounding my town. It's never caused any issues as far as I'm aware but how are these mines secured? Are they left as mines and the entrances sealed? Are they filled in with material?

leighlad86

On the mine entry report we had back its unknown if the shafts have been treated they just know the shaft is there and that's about it. Looking at the map there are about 5 or 6 houses near me which have sold recently and new people moved in with shafts directly underneath so how much of an issue can it be?

Is my solicitor just being over cautious or should I take his advise on board? Why are these things never simple?

leighlad86

I had a chat with the coal authority yesterday as nobody can give me any facts just opinions. They advised the coal seam was very deep 790m and last worked in 1964. Any subsidence relating to it would have happened within 6 years of abandonment and there's been no claims within 50m for subsidence.

The shaft is closer than i thought. It's 3m away from the back of the house so i suspect the mortgage lender will decline it as it's too close.

I asked the guy would he buy the house given the facts and he said it wouldn't put him off as his own house is built over a shaft.

There's 7 million properties on coalfields in the uk and about 130'000 lie within 20m of a shaft are all these cash buyers with no insurance?

iDragon

790m deep? I personally wouldn't be worried by something that deep.

davidmcn

leighlad86 wrote: »

There's 7 million properties on coalfields in the uk and about 130'000 lie within 20m of a shaft are all these cash buyers with no insurance?

Merely being in a coalfield is irrelevant, it's being near a shaft (or near shallow workings) which matters. And I would expect those 130,000 to have some greater difficulty with mortgages and/or insurance.

burnsguitarman

Going by your username, and the postcode you are buying in. I think it's safe to say, that we are local to you.
Can I ask.....is your solicitor a local firm? The reason I ask, is that the local companies have far more experience and knowledge of our local area of former mines.
We were once selling and the surveyor came from out of the area. He highlighted all kinds of 'problems' associated with disused mine shafts, that to be honest he had blown up out of all proportion.
If your solicitor is local, then I would probably be wary, otherwise it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

leighlad86

The solicitor is based in sale, so fairly local however they aren't in a coalfield area so might not come across this often. I have tried speaking to local solicitors but they wont help as i currently have a solicitor they just say speak to them.

I will see how it pans out with the mortgage and take it from there. Friends, family, work colleagues and local surveyors seem to think it isn't much of an issue.

Thefutureisbright

Leighlad - how are you getting on?? I'm now in a similar situation! There's a mineshaft 20m from the property.

What has the lender said? (I think we're with the same lender from a previous thread)