Buyer not disclosed underpinning

Magik01

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help.

I moved into my property in 2020. Have recently discovered that it was underpinned in 1999 and was not informed of this when purchasing the property. The previous owners were aware due to documents they left, and on the property information form ticked no to the underpinning guarantee question.

where do I stand? If I had this information prior to purchase we either wouldn’t have brought it full stop, or asked for a reduction in price. I am now worried that if I were to sell I have lost out financially as it will knock money off the market value.

thanks.

EssexHebridean

Presumably nothing was picked up on the survey, either? I'm slightly confused how you've only realised this yourself now, mind you, as you said the sellers left documents relating to it behind? 

If the sellers lied on the TA6, then you certainly would have comeback against them though as you have a right to place reasonable reliance on the information given therein. However, I'm not sure that the TA6 question relates to the underpinning itself - so does their "no" simply mean that they do not have a guarantee for the works? Was one of the documents they left behind the guarantee? 

Edit to add - I assume you know that this is something you will probably have to inform your buildings insurer about.

unforeseen

How long is an underpinning guarantee? It appears to be 10— 12 years depending on company. There is therefore no guarantee as it was underpinned 21 years before you bought
The question is about the guarantee, not whether the seller was aware

user1977

Quite, you'd have cause for complaint if they had falsely declared that they did have guarantees which didn't actually exist (or had expired). Not sure you can complain about them failing to declare guarantees, even if they were still valid.

theartfullodger

Magik01 said:

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help.

I moved into my property in 2020. Have recently discovered that it was underpinned in 1999 and was not informed of this when purchasing the property. The previous owners were aware due to documents they left, and on the property information form ticked no to the underpinning guarantee question.

....

You "moved into "... when did you buy it please? Same date or earlier??

 Have there been any issues with the underpinning - eg cracks, sagging, drains?? If not be thankful....

EssexHebridean

Underpinning does usually lead to issues with buildings insurance though - it would perhaps be surprising that no higher excess or exclusion would be declared on that section? 

Magik01

Hi, the seller left all the documents along side all the other documents for garentee on appliances, extensions etc. which we had a very quick flick through. When we moved in it was Christmas time, we had a young son and I was pregnant, it was Covid and we were still working and it got stored in a draw because, well, life took over. 

We had a proper look through it all recently and that’s when it was discovered. It was done 24 years ago, but wouldn’t have paid what we did for the property if we had this information beforehand.

So we know the previous owners were aware, but did they do anything wrong NOT telling us, knowing it would affect the house value? 

user1977

Magik01 said:

So we know the previous owners were aware, but did they do anything wrong NOT telling us, knowing it would affect the house value? 

They don't need to declare anything which you didn't ask them about. That's the whole point of asking the other stuff.

Bigphil1474

OP, if they weren't asked the question, then they couldn't have lied. If they were and they did lie, then you may have some come back. Do you have any evidence that the property value is reduced versus what it would be if it hadn't required underpinning and versus what you actually paid for it? 

Our buyers surveyor was here on Friday and he asked me if there had been any subsidence or movement, structural damage, was any underpinning done, etc. and I had to answer him honestly. We'd had some subsidence but underpinning wasn't needed and we had all the paperwork we needed to show what was done. Sounds like your surveyor maybe didn't ask the right questions.

Magik01

I have an estate agent as a friend who has informed me that if a property has been underpinned it loses roughly 20% of its market value.

From my initial research, I found several articles that said that under Consumer Protection Against Unfair Trading Regulations (CPR’s), vendors are obliged ' to inform their estate agent – and any potential buyer - of material information that may affect an average consumer’s transactional decision, not only to buy a property but even “an omission that may affect a potential buyer’s decision to view a property'

Is this not correct?

unforeseen

If it was done 25 years ago is it still material? Or even 50 years ago.