Coal mining search issues

Chimpy9

Hope people can give some recent examples of this.

We are in the process of buying a house and the coal mining search has identified one disused mine shaft entry point within 20m of the property. The entry point is within a school grounds actually on the playground. Our lender has asked for a mining interpretative report to be done. We are now worried that the lender will withdraw the offer. Other houses have sold in the area and there is no evidence of subsidence either at the property or in neighbouring properties.
Has anyone experienced anything similar recently - did the lender withdraw, what was the outcome?

bumblebee1992

This is very standard procedure. Your solicitor will send the report to your lender for valuer comment. It depends on the how close the coal shaft is to the property although I wouldn’t be too concerned unless it is very close to or within the boundaries of the property. Good luck.

Chimpy9

Thank you for your reply hopefully will hear back soon.

davidmcn

I would be more worried about having a school playground within 20m.

scottishblondie

We had this during our purchase last July. The mine entry is just on the boundary of the property about 15m away from the house itself (we think). The interpretive report didn't really shed much more light on the matter, the mine shaft has been disused since at least 1890 and there wasn't a lot of information available.

Our solicitor requested a new valuation from the home report surveyor (we are in Scotland) which came back the same, but we were worried our offer from the Halifax would be withdrawn. It took a while to work through the channels, but they were still happy to lend.

The surveyor warned us that the presence of the mine shaft might "reduce the appeal" of the property when we sell in the future, but this entire area is riddled with mines and shafts so we are not concerned about that. It might be something you want to consider, however, if it isn't common where you are buying.

Chimpy9

How long did it take to get the Interpretative report and for the decision to be made? Mines are common in this area.

scottishblondie

I think the interpretive report took around a week to come in. The decision from the Halifax was made in about a week as well, but there were "technical difficulties" with the communication between them and my solicitor (some new secure messaging system) that meant we didn't hear about it for another 10 days after that!!

Chimpy9

Our lender is the Halifax too so will see what they say