First time buyer and have tree subsidence

BigBoo

Hi all,

I was wondering if i can get some advice. I feel like in life i have the worst luck ever, from losing parents both in the last three years (sudden and both were under 60) and to then losing my job and then getting ill myself and now the house we have just purchased has subsidence.

I had around 5% deposit for a house with my partner and we wanted to stay in North West London (where we both grew up) now houses prices are crazy and we are both in mid/late 30's and just wanted a nice two bed starter home. Only planned to be there 2 years or so then move out of London, make a little something on it. We found a nice terrace house, top end of budget but 13 years old in a nice development. The house has a tree in garden a large one (about 10ft to house) we were told under survey it's fine a little risk but the tree was there before the house built so all fine, they had to build the foundation deep enough etc. and the house next door has two of the trees and he said all fine been there since first built. there was a low risk on the survey done and the report that the neighbour had down said low risk if remove tree or kept it. Now 1 year after we had brought we noticed some cracks over the door (we would of noticed before as we painted the whole house) they were getting worse so we called insurance people and they did some tests in the garden dug holes and yes now 18 months since purchased (for a large sum of Money as it is London) we have been told it is subsidence from the tree we had to pay the £1,000 excess. and we are in process of getting the tree removed. It also turns out that the neighbour on the other side had a tree and subsidence and had to remove it a few years back (all ok now) and then two doors down from that the same issue. I am in a state, I wish we had never purchased the stupid house, all my money down the drain, I wanted to move in 2019 but I do not see how, as who will even buy it. Are we going to now lose all the money? I am so scared we will not get anything back and will be in negative equity it is a nice starter home but I am reading about subsidence and even if remove tree and no underpinning it will not sell or if does for around 20% less then value, which we can not afford.
I feel like I am living in a bad dream, after death of parents, my illness and now this with the first house we brought.
Help what is going to happen???

arciere

You said you had to pay the £1,000 excess. I presume that's for the works that need to be done in order to fix the problem? So why should you lose 'all the money'?

moneyistooshorttomention

I read it as upsetting enough to have to pay out £1,000 of money unexpectedly and, presumably, insurance terms in future will be more difficult/expensive. That's bad enough.

But it read to me as the main concern being:
- loss of house value
- more difficult to sell the house in future

and I would be very concerned about that. If OP is in an area like London then I fully understand the fact he had the security of knowing "I'm in an area where house prices just DON'T go down - ever. They just steadily rise" - as I've come from an area like that and it is quite an emotional "safety blanket" to have that knowledge. A "safety blanket" that doesnt apply to much of the country - but, when you know that you have it personally, it hurts to find your house has gone down in value.

So - yep....that loss of house value:eek:

Cakeguts

House prices do go down in Northwest London so even when you bought it you would not have been able to totally guarantee that you would get your money back.


From the beginning you had an idea of making money on a house that may not have worked. In the early 90s house prices in London dropped a lot. There is no reason why this could not have happened again. There is also no reason why house prices could not have become static. As it happens they appear to be going down anyway so you probably won't make any money on it even if it didn't have subsidence.


Do not remove the tree until you have checked that doesn't have a TPO on it. I wouldn't be surprised if it did as the builders obviously had to build round it.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm a tree protector basically - but trees can have "accidents" happen to them if they honestly are a genuine nuisance and I would say subsidence counts as "genuine nuisance".

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If you remove a large tree 10 ft from the house in clay soil you could end up with heave which may cause more damage than any subsidence you already have.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Has a proper arboricultural report and investigation been carried out which recommended removal of the tree rather than just reducing its spread and height?[/FONT]

daveyjp

It has been a very dry summer. The soil will have been dried out far more than for the last 40 years and, especially in London where the soils are clay bases, properties may have moved.

However it would be better to leave and monitor the issue for 12 months rather than jump in and start taking a large tree out in one go, which another poster has said could cause more problems than it solves.

I assume you have also checked the tree isn't protected?

Davesnave

BigBoo wrote: »

Help what is going to happen???

When it comes to house prices, no one knows, but in relation to the house, you will still have it and it'll be fixed, so that's a roof over your heads.

Ten years ago, there was a cash crisis that affected all home owners in the country, and contrary to what another poster implied, houses in every area lost value. We were reminded then that no one has any automatic right to expect their property value to increase above general inflation.

Some people in less affluent parts of the country have still not recovered from the 2008 Crash; in other words their house is worth less now than it was in 2007. You may currently see yourself as trapped like those people have been, but this is very unlikely to happen in NW London where the local economy is buoyant.

In other words, it may take a little longer for your house to gain it's former value without its relationship with the 'S word,' but it's a very common phenomenon throughout the London Basin, and in this exceptionally dry year, you'll hardly be alone.

suki1964

The same thing happened in 76, large swathes of houses in SW London needed underpinning after the clay soil dried out so much

The area I mention is now called Nappy Valley, the roads leading of Northcote road SW11 between the commons

Its an extremely expensive area to buy and as I say, large amounts of houses had to be underpinned

My husband worked as a builder in the Putney/Fulham/Chelsea areas for 30 years and most houses he worked on needed underpinning

Davesnave

Also, in economically buoyant areas people are far more willing to buy underpinned houses.

Like many others on the estate, a house we rented in Bath in 2008 had subsidence. No one was buying it in those difficult times, which is why we were renting, but two years later it went for a good price to someone who was going to extend it.

A few years ago, my daughter bought an underpinned house in a fashionable part of a major city. She knew then it was the only way she could afford to live in that location, and because the work had been carried-out properly, with certificates, obtaining a mortgage was not an issue.

Norman_Castle

I don't think underpinning is now regularly used for damage due to trees. The trees change the water content of the soil but it stabilises at a different level so a building will move but stop moving when the moisture content becomes fixed.