Surveyor thinks house might be underpinned

jus71_2

sorry for not replying sooner! The surveys says 'If you wish to know whether the property has suffered historical movement you may be able to obtain this information from a structural engineer. There are no signs of movement since the re-skinning'

but thats another £1k to spend which we don't really have. I contacted the local council who said no notifiable works have been recorded at that address.

To make matters worse, the builder who is doing a small roof job on our house told us to run away as in his experience the bricks could be hiding all sorts of horrors. He's suggesting the house could be in a poor state underneath and would take up to 20 years to show movement on the outer layer.

I suppose only a structural survey will find that out! The estate agent is going to ring the vendor to see if next door can shed any light on when and why the 2 houses were done, theyve been there a long time apparently

Tom99

What exactly do you mean by re-skinning?

jus71_2

there is an outer layer of new brick on the front and side of the house, so the house looks a lot newer than it is

Tiglet2

Have you sent an extract of the survey to your solicitor in order that they can specifically ask the question: Has the property ever suffered from subsidence, heave or landslip? Of course, the seller may just respond with "not to our knowledge".

If the seller admits there was movement in the past, your conveyancer would request all paperwork that relates to it, including whether there was an insurance claim and the repairs were in accordance with the subsidence classification and repair guidelines and whether an insurance claim was made by the vendor.

A significant proportion of subsidence repairs do not require underpinning of the foundations. However, if any underpinning has been carried out it is a notifiable operation under the Building Regulations and as such, inspections and sign off by the Local Council Building Control Officer should have been carried out. A formal Completion Certificate of Structural Adequacy should be issued by the Council at completion.

Is it possible that the adjoining neighbour's property was underpinned and not yours? It could be that the cause of the subsidence was on the neighbour's side only and while it may have necessitated remedial works to your property, it did not need underpinning and therefore the seller would be truthful in stating that the property had not been underpinned. If the seller has only occupied the property for 5 years and the underpinning took place next door many years before that, you won't know if your seller is lying or not when they state there has been no subsidence to their knowledge.

As far as you are concerned, ask your solicitor to raise a query with the seller's solicitor and see what they say. If there are no entries on the local search or any further information forthcoming, you will have to decide how you want to proceed, i.e. get a further full structural survey by a qualified structural engineer, pull out or accept that there may have been historical movement to the next door property and it did not affect your property other than remedial works and continue with the purchase.

Oh and any surveys or searches done will only be done on your property, not next door!

Tom99

jus71 wrote: »

there is an outer layer of new brick on the front and side of the house, so the house looks a lot newer than it is

I would be more worried about this re-skinning than whether it was a result of subsidence.
What was the original wall construction? Solid 9 inch brick? If so has this extra layer of brick just been added to the outside of the old wall? is the wall now c 13.5 inches wide? How is the new brick attached to the old wall, is there a cavity etc.
If the original wall was a cavity wall has the outer skin of this cavity wall been replaced so that the wall now if the same thickness it always was?
How were the window and door frames dealt with if the wall is now 4.5 inches wider etc.