Underpinning - renegotiate (or run away!)

gecko_alp

We are in the process of buying a house, and have just found out through the conveyancing process that the house was underpinned in the late 80's. This was not disclosed by the seller at all, either in person or on the Property Information form - it has come through on the local searches carried out by our solicitor. We had a full buildings survey carried out on the house back in September, and nothing was mentioned at all. It is a large, detached Victorian house, and there are no obvious signs of movement, historic or current. 
I understand the implications of insurance, and difficulty in reselling (as obviously we are seriously considering walking away ourselves), but if we decide to carry on with the purchase, would this warrant renegotiating the price offered? Our offer was accepted at 5% under asking (a fair price I think, before the knowledge of the underpinning). I only found out about this at 5pm yesterday, and my solicitor will be pushing for answers on Monday, but it is clearly, a big concern for us this weekend, as we debate what to do.

Any thoughts??!!

GiGi85

We bought a house that was underpinned years ago. The vendors Were upfront about the underpinning. We did some research got some insurance quotes and decided to go ahead with it. There hasn’t been any movement since so we decided to go ahead. 

GiGi85

Should have said the underpinning was in 1991. 

Alter_ego

Unless there's something special about this house I'd pull out. If they failed to disclose this what else might there be?

Thrugelmir

Wait for further information.  

Tiglet2

Perhaps the seller didn't know about the underpinning, if they bought without a mortgage and didn't have any searches done, particularly if the seller at the time also didn't disclose it.  How long have the sellers owned the property?  However, if that is true, I assume they also won't have any paperwork.  Your conveyancer would ask the sellers to provide the Completion Certificate issued by the Local Authority and a Certificate of Structural Adequacy issued by the engineer/ surveyor who specified/inspected any repairs under an insurance claim.   They should both be available from the sellers but if they don't have them, your conveyancer may insist that they obtain a retrospective certificate, but of course it was nearly 40 years ago.

If there are no signs of any further movement from underpinning which was done nearly 40 years ago, I don't think it will cause problems with obtaining insurance or re-selling, but I would certainly try to re-negotiate the purchase price, particularly as the EA would have valued the property without knowing the history.

Alternatively, walk away.

Davesnave

Underpinned houses are usually stronger than neighbouring ones, but they carry a stigma, usually for around 20 years. After that, if there's been no movement, insurance ought to be OK.

Without the documentation, I'd be wary about paying the full price you agreed. My daughter bought an underpinned house with all the paperwork and 20 years elapsed since and she got about a 5% reduction on comparable property. Her insurance quotes are normal. 

gecko_alp

That’s an interesting point @Tiglet2, it could well be that there was no mortgage when they purchased. They have owned it for 20 years, and from what they have said, the previous owners had it for over 30 - it’s clearly been a very well loved and looked after home, which gives me a little bit of comfort in that any work carried out, was done right. 

Annoyingly @Alter_ego, the house is pretty unique, and definitely somewhere we see as our forever home (for now...I’ll never say never!) I have been keeping a very close eye on the market in the area, as it’s been a bit of a slog to even get to this point (we offered on the property in August!), but there is nothing that comes close for us, and this type of property comes up pretty rarely in the area. Our buyers are pushing us out, and very conscious not to lose them, we agreed that we would break the chain and move in with family. 3 hours later I get these searches through!! 

We’ll see what Monday brings, and what the solicitor can find out. Thank you all for your input, it’s much appreciated!

jbainbridge

So it's been ok for 30 years .. ask your surveyor what they think?

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Wait to find out why it was underpinned.

If it was a collapsed drain, find out where the drains are, how often they are checked, how much to get them checked yourself, who is responsible for them.

Tree? Has it been removed? Any others that might cause issues?

Soil - would probably make me think twice. That could cause further problems. 

Chop-D

We currently live in a house which was underpinned in the 80’s and we found out the day before we were due to exchange! We double checked with our surveyor that they still were sure there had been no signs of any movement once we had the knowledge of the underpinning and they confirmed that. I also did some research and called some insurance companies. A lot of insurers ask the question ‘signs of subsidence with the last x number of years’ and as it was done so long ago it wasn’t an issue for the insurers, we’ve had reasonable premiums each year. I feel that our house is better for having had the underpinning as my view is that with no further movement since then it shows it is solid! We had a specification of the work provided in the end which also helped us decide that it was safe to go ahead. Good luck for Monday, hopefully you can get some more info