Floor drop caused by drains. Will I need to pull out?

Lavadude

Hi,

What a nightmare house moving can be! The bungalow we want to buy had an issue with floor having dropped in the ensuite, being flagged on our full survey. We have now had a structural engineer go round and survey the issue and the property.

We have not had his report yet, but I spoke to him, and he advised that a void had occurred around 1meters from the external wall, and the concrete slab floor would need taking up, the void filled and new concrete slab floor. He thought it wasn't too much work, and the cause was most likely due to a leaking drain.

However, I am now worried that the house would now be uninsurable, as I guess this would be classed as subsidence? We are gutted, as we really love this property.

Any advice of how we should proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Davesnave

Who would have the work done; you or the present owners?

If it were me, I'd would want to be the one in charge when it's done, to make sure a comprehensive repair was carried out. Get estimates and knock the cost off the property price.

Yes, there will probably be an insurance penalty, but it's unlikely such a minor issue would make the house uninsurable. If walls and foundations are still fine, so will you be.

We put a new floor in our garage to comply with building regs when we converted it. The whole thing took two of us 2 days, but we had no digging out.

Lavadude

Thanks for the reply.

Have the report, it says the following:

"The visual inspection of the external envelope suggested no significant defects or cracks. No movement was noted in the masonry to suggest any adverse foundation movement has occurred"

I guess this would help with insurability?

The work involved to fix the issue is apparently the following:

"We suggest that the floor slab is removed locally around the voided area to confirm cause and rectified prior to the compaction of a new 200mm sublease and the recasting of the floor slab"

I guess I would need to speak to an Insurance company to have the property insured for exchange. Any ideas which ones would be best, when there is this kind of issue?

Thanks

Davesnave

He's saying no observable movement in the foundations and external walls so that's good. The rest is just basic details to outline the repair of the drain and renewal of the slab, but 'sublease' should read 'sub-base.'

I have no idea about insurance companies, as I use one who specialise in farms and rural property, but I don't see any of them thinking this is a big deal. If you had foundations moving and cracks in the bricks, that would be a different ball game. They will probably want you to have a council or independent building inspector monitor the work and sign it off on completion.

elonii

I'd call a few insurance companies for quotes. We had a minor issue when we bought our current house, I got a lot of ridiculous knock backs just because I didn't tick the right boxes for an easy life. It wasn't a structural issue, but a business usage issue compounded by the fact we weren't moving into the property for a month.



I had about 4 knock backs before I got onto a company where the staff on the phone can immediately speak to an underwriter, get a decision, and tell you there and then. I bought the policy on the spot. So if you do speak to a company and they say they won't do it - talk to someone else and don't be put off.


Good luck.

FreeBear

Lavadude wrote: »

"We suggest that the floor slab is removed locally around the voided area to confirm cause and rectified prior to the compaction of a new 200mm subbase and the recasting of the floor slab"

If you are doing the work, a good opportunity to install underfloor heating and beef up the insulation under the floor.

Lavadude

Thanks all. Insurance broker sent the Structural Engineer report to some insurers, who had no issue with it, as the report stated that it had not effected foundation. So have some quotes, which I can get activated upon Exchange. Phew.

Davesnave

It all sounds good!