Possible subsidence

aprilkm

Hello everyone,

We had an offer accepted a couple of days ago (yeeey!), and I am currently arranging the next steps.

While viewing the property, I noticed that the wooden floor on one of the ground floor rooms was a little bit lower on one of the sides (towards the external wall of the property), kinda like a small slope. I did ask the agent about it, but he did not know why this seems to be happening.

Now that I am arranging a survey, it keeps bugging me and I am afraid it might be subsidence, or (the more positive scenario) an issue with the joists where the floor is laid (maybe rotten joists?). I am obviously going to conduct a building survey instead of homebuyers report or simple valuation, but I know that surveyors cannot lift the floorboards or dig next to the foundations to check if it is an issue with movement or something else.

Unless the seller agrees to make a hole on his floor, what else can I do to ensure that the house is not "doomed"? Maybe calling a structural engineer to give an opinion? This will also be a visual assessment of the situation though and I suspect no one will be 100% sure that no movement is happening. One of the surveyors I contacted suggested that the area is known for being built on clay, and that is seriously concerning... I am struggling to remember if I saw any cracks on the outside wall (I think I would have noticed as I knew I need to be mindful of this), but I am 100% certain that there are no cracks on the inside of the property, or any obvious redecoration to hide them. Property is detached, so it should be relatively easy to detect an issue if we can get permission to use invasive techniques.

I have put on hold the searches via the solicitor to avoid incurring costs, and I am planning to conduct the survey first before the mortgage application and searches. is this reasonable? Could someone with similar experience please advise on how to proceed?

Thank you so much in advance!

hazyjo

How old is the house?


The floor wouldn't just fall in. There would (more than likely) be visible cracks on walls.


My last two houses have very sloping floors. Marbles would definitely roll in the bedrooms! My last house was 1930s and this is Edwardian.


Just mention it to your surveyor.


I should imagine most London houses (at least) are built on clay. it's very common.

aprilkm

thank you for the quick response!

I think the house is dated to 1930s. I would also expect that if it was due to subsidence there would be cracks on the walls, otherwise I would assume that the floor was either not laid properly (half of the room is an extension) or there is something wrong with the floor joists.

if there are no cracks on the walls, and without further examination by lifting the floorboards, can we be sure that it's not subsidence? we could fix a rotten joint for example, but want to rule out something worse..

sal_III

If the sloping floor is in the extension, it's more likely a botched job, rather than subsidence. Especially if the floor is level in the original portion of the room and there is no visible crack on the exterior.

Doozergirl

All houses move. 90 years is a good amount of time to move!

Jarviscocker

Wait until the lender have had their valuation done - which you’ve probably paid for.

Jarviscocker

You wait until the bank agrees to lend on the property. The bank may say you need a structural engineers report and at that point you decide if you want the hassle.

aprilkm

Thank you for your replies. I will ask our lender to do the basic valuation to get the ball rolling on that side and make sure that the property has been valued properly before I commission an independent surveyor for a building survey. Depending on what the surveyor thinks about the slope, I will proceed with a structural engineer if needed. I think that would be a good approach instead of doing the building survey through the bank, as they will have access to it and might cause unecessary concerns on the mortgage process.

it seems that the sloping floor is common in properties of this age, so as long as I get confirmation that it is not subsidence we can look into fixing the joists (not sure how urgent this will be).

Jarviscocker

Who is your mortgage with?