Coal mine entry on footprint of house... mortgage retracted

davidmcn

macman said:

I'm unclear: is the risk here associated purely with the possibility of mining subsidence (which is hardly unusual in much of the north of England)? Or is it to do with some potential right of access issue, whereby the Seven Dwarves might turn up one morning and demand the right to start digging for coal in the back garden?

Nothing to do with the mineral rights. It's the structural risk presented by having a big hole immediately under the house (which is rather different than the risk from a mined coal seam far below the house).

macman

Thanks, the OP's use of the phrase 'coal mine entry' rather clouded the issue.

daveyjp

A coal mine shaft can be 1m x 1m and 15m deep (late 18th and early 19th century large enough for a young child to be sent down on a rope) or much later and 4m x 4m and 100m + deep needing pithead gear and a cage lift.

Building over the former isn't a major issue as they are easily sorted.  There are lots of properties in areas of Yorkshire where they are present and no one knows about them as they were never mapped.

jtur99

From my point of view the risk are: subsidence, difficulties reselling if that has to happen, the house not keeping its value.
We plan on renegotiating the price now after this information, so I don’t feel as worried about having to resell it for less than what’s its worth without the coal mine underneath it. 

I would also tell potential buyers right from the off about it (we weren’t told). I understand this would have many buyers running out the door immediately and it would take longer to sell.

jtur99

daveyjp said:

A coal mine shaft can be 1m x 1m and 15m deep (late 18th and early 19th century large enough for a young child to be sent down on a rope) or much later and 4m x 4m and 100m + deep needing pithead gear and a cage lift.

Building over the former isn't a major issue as they are easily sorted.  There are lots of properties in areas of Yorkshire where they are present and no one knows about them as they were never mapped.

This is interesting thank you. We are trying to find out if it has been treated (filled in?) but that information doesn’t seem very easy to come by!

jtur99

macman said:

Thanks, the OP's use of the phrase 'coal mine entry' rather clouded the issue.

The report refers to it as a mine entry. 

pitbull

You may find this website useful:

https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/coalauthority/home.html

It allows you to do a search for mineshafts and gives information on filling/treatment etc.

I moved to Northumberland and found it very useful especially as my house is an ex coal authority house next to a disused pit.  If you think your area is bad, take a look at Wolverhampton (where I used to live).

jtur99

pitbull said:

You may find this website useful:

It allows you to do a search for mineshafts and gives information on filling/treatment etc.

I moved to Northumberland and found it very useful especially as my house is an ex coal authority house next to a disused pit.  If you think your area is bad, take a look at Wolverhampton (where I used to live).

This is really interesting thank you - I had a look at Wolverhampton just out of curiosity... wow! I wish I could speak to the people in those houses to see what their experience is!

daivid

I wanted to by a house in a mining area a few years ago and was advised by my mortgage broker (local) not to bother. The vendor had said the searches would come up with 'potential mines in the vicinity' or words to that effect and that a previous (attempted) buyer had got to that stage before the mortgage provided had backed out. The house was late 19th century, with no signs of any damage or movement. As I understood it the Coal Board (or it's successor) would cover any damage that occurred as result of historic mines so I would have been happy to live there as I felt the risk of anything happening would be low and in the unlikely event of an occurrence I wouldn't be paying to put it right. I think I ran quotes for home insurance at the time and they came back ok.

From what I learnt that village is a nightmare for getting mortgages as the coal seams ran right to the surface, so mining started as one man bands or families digging bell pits which they covered access to then moved on when they ran out of coal. There could be hundreds of these hollowed out pits and that phase of mining pre-dated accurate mapping. The default response on surveys seems to be 'possible mine activity' which unsurprisingly puts lenders off.

[Deleted User]

I personally would find it scary and frightening living on top of a coal mine entry.