Trying to buy house with mine shaft less than 20m away

Samm0202

Hello!
Long time lurker, first tine poster looking for advice/reassurance/success stories hopefully.

We are currently in the process of buying and selling - we have concluded our sale and have to move out of our property on Friday.

The house we are trying to buy has a disused mine shaft entry within 20m of the property. The Coal Report only came back after we had already received our offer of loan from Virgin Money.

As it stands, our solicitor has provided the surveyor with a copy of the Coal Report and Interpretive Report confirming that it is very unlikely the mine shaft entry will cause any issues but if it did, our property could be affected. The Coal Authority confirm they are liable to fix any damage and we have already cleared this with our building insurance provider and are covered.

Things are now in the hands of the surveyor who will reassess whether this affects valuation then they will pas this information on to Virgin Money for their consideration as to whether they still wish to lend.
I'm not looking for advice on whether or not to buy the property/the future saleability etc as I have read numerous threads on this already.

I'm looking to hear from people that have been in similar situations and have had their mortgage provider go ahead with lending! If you are mortgaged with Virgin Money - even better!!

Thank you!

AnotherJoe

Have you split your sell and buy then? And already exchanged with your buyer (but not seller)?

Samm0202

Yes. Possibly naively, but we didn't foresee any issues with the purchase. Regardless, our buyer was on the verge of pulling out if we did not conclude sale and that is something we didn't wish to happen. We have made alternative living arrangements meantime so not a huge issue.

AnotherJoe

At least that means you can take a more balanced view about whether to buy this house.
Do consider the effect it will have on some buyers when you come to sell.

Samm0202

Thankyou, as I stated, I've read numerous threads on future saleability. We have decided that we do wish to pursue the purchase of the property. Just looking for success stories in order that we have as much information on most likely lenders, should Virgin Money withdraw the offer.

davidmcn

I suspect their verdict will depend on the opinion of their surveyor rather than being a consistent company-wide policy. In some areas mineworkings are quite common, in others it's more rare so probably more likely to affect marketability.

scottishblondie

We!!!8217;re actually going through the same thing at the moment. We found out last week and are still waiting for the surveyor to revalue and the Halifax to give the ok.

We still want to buy, but the solicitor is mainly concerned about future saleability.

Today was supposed to be our date of entry so the whole thing really only came out at the last minute and thrown a real spanner in the works!

lookstraightahead

Not the same but similar. We bought close to a lovely village pub with a fab landlord. Not a problem with the mortgage but while we were there it changed hands and the reputation went down. It was a nightmare to sell and we lost a lot of money on it, I remember two buyers wishing to go ahead but couldn't get mortgages.

Samm0202

Wow, you could be me haha!
Our date of entry was Friday gone! Then pushed back to this Friday but, as it stands, we’ll be moving out of our house with nowhere to go! Thankfully we have lovely parents and can move in with them meantime but we still desperately want the house. Our surveyor was only given the full plans (requested because house is less than 20 years old) yesterday so I guess I might be in for a long wait.
It’s so disheartening isn’t it? When you’ve come so far in the process only to have this issue. Can I ask where you’re buying?

scottishblondie

We are in a Glasgow suburb with a lot of mining. The house is from the 1930s, so it!!!8217;s been around for a while but the current owners didn!!!8217;t know about the mine entrance, even though they only bought in the 90s when the coal reports were very definitely available!

Fortunately we still have our house and were planning an overlap anyway, so we aren!!!8217;t homeless!

Samm0202

That’s one small silver lining then at least. Not a huge consolation though when you’d expected to be in your new place by now.
We’re in Paisley just now but moving to Larkhall - which is a mining village so I doubt we’re the only people who have encountered this issue!! Just difficult when you don’t know anyone that’s been through the same.