Mine seams below house?

potato82

Hi all,
I'm close to completing exchange of contracts to move house (to Blackwood, South Wales), and our coal mining report has returned informing us that:

"The property is in a surface area that could be affected by underground mining in 7 seams of coal at 50m to 770m depth, and last worked in 1985. Any movement in the ground due to coal mining activity associated with these workings should have stopped by now."

This is really the only point of concern as the rest of the report came back clear. There are no mine entrances within 20m of the property and there has been no subsidence claims since the institution of the subsidence act in '94. Having spoken to a surveyor at the coal board, we know that there was a successful claim made against the coal board for that property, to carry out remedial repairs sometime in the 1970's, which they did. What they repaired he didn't know, but there has been no claim since then for this, or any other property within 50 metres.

Using the interactive coal board map doesn't reveal anything heinous (to my untrained eye), so I'm just wondering if anyone out there has had an experience with buying a house upon coal seams, whether it had any effect on building insurance, resale value, and most importantly if it poses any danger?

Thanks for reading!

davidmcn

The property being above a coal seam (with no likely potential for further movement) is pretty commonplace and not cause for concern, it's mine entries which would be more likely to be problematic.

The only potential issue there is that you now know of a previous claim - did your surveyor spot any past remedial works or other concerns?

potato82

Unfortunately the survey is booked for the coming week, it was just going to be a homebuyers survey but I'm thinking now that a structural survey might be in order?

davidmcn

See what the homebuyers' survey says first. Doubt you're really close to exchange if you haven't even had a survey done yet!

potato82

Frankly we've been holding off on the survey until we got the coal board report, as the result would influence the type of survey we choose. Thanks for your comments david, appreciate you taking the time.

unforeseen

I think you would struggle to find a house in Blackwood or the neighbouring valleys that wasn't above a coal seam. That's the whole reason these towns grew from little villages

scottishblondie

We purchased a house last year in an area which is basically all old mines. Our house sits on top of mine workings, and we also have a mine entrance in the garden approximately 10m from the house. We were well aware of the mining history of the area but not about the mine entrance. There is, of course, no visible signs of it so we didn't know until very late in the process.

The mining reports didn't really shed a lot of light on the matter as in our case the mine had not been worked since around 1880. There is no record of remedial works to fill in or stabilise anything, but there has also not been any movement or repairs to the house recorded. The house was built in 1920 so it's been there a long time with no ill effects.

Our solicitor had to ask the home report surveyor to re-value the property and then check with the lender that they were still ok to lend, but other than that it didn't have any effect. The surveyor still placed the same value on the house, but did warn it may reduce the appeal of the property. Given that there are hundreds of other houses in the area in the same position (at least 5 are directly affected by the same mine entrance, one of which sold 2 years ago) and how popular the area is, we aren't worried about that.

We had no problem getting home insurance - rather than buying online, however, I phoned the insurers to discuss and they weren't even interested in the fact that there was a mine entrance.

Whether or not it is dangerous is a question specific to your mine - given that nothing has happened in all this time it probably isn't. However, 3 years ago a large sink hole opened up in the playing fields of a school about 100 meters away from our house as a result of a poorly infilled mine that was also last worked pre-1900. So I guess it can happen. Personally speaking, we're not concerned. Take professional advice and make up your own mind on that front!

potato82

I think you would struggle to find a house in Blackwood or the neighbouring valleys that wasn't above a coal seam. That's the whole reason these towns grew from little villages

This is my inclination also, we love the house and the area, and as the house has been standing since 1941 my gut says it'll probably be OK. Thanks for the reply unforeseen.

Thanks for sharing your story scottishblondie, while I'll be keen to hear what the survey results are, it's good to hear a POV from someone who's been in a similar situation. After some ringing around today it doesn't appear that insurance will be a problem, so hopefully the survey will be good news and it'll be all systems go.

Thanks to everyone who's taken an interest in this thread, you've all been very helpful.