Discovered Subsidence, straight away after moving into new house.

sophiallbn

Hi I’m hoping someone out there can help us with this rubbish situation We have found ourselves in.

We have cracks in the door frames, window ledges and skirting boards. We have 3 doors in total to the extension that do not open properly, one struggles to close, one catches on the side and bottom of the door and is out of upright, and another which struggles to close unless it’s slightly lifted. 

We bought our first property January 2020. We were told that our lenders would carry out a survey, so we never paid for a surveyor privately. As first time buyers, obviously our knowledge of this was a little off.

3 days before we were due to exchange, our solicitors informed us that the extension to the property was not signed off by building control. The extension was built in 2013, and since then had been sold. As we were practically homeless after already giving in the keys to our rented flat, we didn’t take it seriously and moved in anyway, as we were on honeymoon at this point and had no home to return to.

We 100% have subsidence in the extension, which we noticed immediately after moving in. When viewing the house, none of this was noticed. Not because it was I missed as such, but because the previous owner was full of clutter, and obviously hid the cracks very well. 

So trying to cut a very long story short, we have now contacted the insurance company who are sending a adjuster around this week, but I was wondering if anyone knows what the outcome will be? Could we claim money from the previous owner? Could we claim money from our lenders who did not pick this up? Any advice and help would be appreciated! 

lincroft1710

Too late now, but you should have commissioned your own survey and being told by your solicitor about lack of  building control sign off should have alerted you that all was not right. Unfortunately you have no comeback on anybody, so just hope your insurance pays up, but be aware there will probably be an excess of £1000.

Slithery

sophiallbn said:

So trying to cut a very long story short, we have now contacted the insurance company who are sending a adjuster around this week, but I was wondering if anyone knows what the outcome will be?

I doubt very much that this will be covered by your insurance as it sounds like a pre-existing condition.

sophiallbn said:

Could we claim money from the previous owner?

No.

sophiallbn said:

Could we claim money from our lenders who did not pick this up?

No.

Your lenders won't have done a survey at all, just a valuation.
If you wanted a survey then it was up to you to pay for one before purchasing the property.

mattyprice4004

Unfortunately this is what a survey is for - and while it's unfortunate you didn't know that, if you research things to do when buying a home for the first time 'get a detailed survey' is usually one of the first items on the list. 

I can't see it falling down to the vendors if you didn't do your homework unfortunately - it's the kind of thing a survey is incredibly useful to pick up. The lenders just had a valuation to check the house exists, the value is reasonable and it's habitable - so no responsibility on their part. 

Bear in mind that if your insurance company decide it's 'historic' (ie started before the inception of the policy) I believe they can reduce the payout to account for this, as it happened before the property was on risk by them. 

sophiallbn

mattyprice4004 said:

Unfortunately this is what a survey is for - and while it's unfortunate you didn't know that, if you research things to do when buying a home for the first time 'get a detailed survey' is usually one of the first items on the list. 

I can't see it falling down to the vendors if you didn't do your homework unfortunately - it's the kind of thing a survey is incredibly useful to pick up. The lenders just had a valuation to check the house exists, the value is reasonable and it's habitable - so no responsibility on their part. 

Bear in mind that if your insurance company decide it's 'historic' (ie started before the inception of the policy) I believe they can reduce the payout to account for this, as it happened before the property was on risk by them. 

I thought I did do my homework, but my family told me the mortgage company did the survey, and our mortgage company online via the mortgage page does state that they complete surveyor checks. So I’m so confused.

Slithery

That was just a valuation survey, they may not have even visited the property.

AdrianC

Caveat emptor, I'm afraid.

It's entirely down to you to satisfy yourself that the property is what you think it is.
You have various people on your side to help you do that...
Your solicitor goes through the legals (but never visits the property)
Your lender confirm that they think the property is reasonable security for the money, including a valuation.
But if you want to confirm anything about the state of the property itself? Survey.

I'm surprised you didn't notice any of these issues just on your own viewings, though?

blue_max_3

You may have a claim against the seller if you can prove they were aware of the problems and failed to disclose it. 
However, your solicitor advised you and you ignored that advice, so you would probably have ignored any survey report also (as you were homeless as you say).
Maybe just have the doors trimmed and live with it. 

eidand

I am afraid this is entirely on you.
you said : "We have cracks in the door frames, window ledges and skirting boards."

Those are all visible so I am not sure how you can say they were cleverly hidden. Your solicitor warned you, the cracks were visible, so not sure why you think you can blame someone else.

You're buying a house, the biggest expense of your life and you thought  you'd save a few hundred pounds on the survey?
It would have been money well spent ... now you will pay a lot more.

RelievedSheff

Welcome to the world of home ownership. You decided to take the risk of not having a full survey so you won'r be able to claim the costs back from anyone else. You will have to foot the bill for the repairs.

Now the first port of call will be to get a surveyor in and check that you have indeed got subsidence or if what you are seeing is just settlement of the "new" extension. Subsidence and settlement are two very different things, all new structures and houses take some time to settle in and bed in on their new foundations and dry out and some movement does occur during this process which shows up as cracks. These will often form around door frames and windows where differing materials are moving at different rates. Cracking to skirting boards and door frames will often just be the wood drying out and slightly shrinking back which can be easily fixed with some caulking and a lick of paint.

We moved into a new build last April and while the OH has been on furlough he has gone around the whole house and repaired all of the settlement and drying out cracks and redecorated top to bottom. He did also have to adjust a couple of doors as they were starting to catch on the frames.

So while you may be panicked at the moment, my advice would be to get a surveyor in. It really might not be as bad as you imagine.

silvercar

You don't know if it is subsidence, it could be settlement from when the extension was first built and the then owners couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. It could be historical subsidence that is no longer an issue or there could be movement now.
Contact the lender about the valuation, there is an argument that, even though the valuation is not a survey, anything very obvious should have been spotted as current subsidence will effect the value of the property. So the valuation may be wrong.
Also check your solicitor documents (or phone the solicitor). Did the seller declare any subsidence? Did they catagorically say there was none? There may be some misrepresentation.
If the extension was built in 2013, there may have been initial movement that has now stopped. It may not be as bad as you think. Given you have already bought, best thing to do is find the cause and the cost of putting right.