Kitchen Extension Worries

RegentBellaBoo

Hi my Dad passed away last year (2024) and I am executer of his estate and as such need to sell his property.  He had lived in the house since 1962 and it has now been sold subject to contract.  The buyers solicitor during searches has found the house has been underpinned.  I know in the early 80's when Dad was trying to lay a new floor in the kitchen extension (built before my parents bought the house) he encountered a problem with the floor not being level & had a surveyor come out who advised the footings of the extension were not deep enough & this was causing the issue.  This resulted in the kitchen extension being knocked down & rebuilt and I believe (but not 100% as I had moved out by then) where the outside wall of the house met the kitchen extension extra support was put, this may have been underpinning? but not sure.  I have no paperwork I can give the buyer to support this and it was mentioned to the estate agent when I put it up for sale but was told as it was over 30 years ago, any warranty wouldn't now be valid & it wasn't an issue.  
Am I worrying about nothing or could this be a real issue effecting the sale of the house.

eddddy

It's up to the buyers to decide whether this worries them. It sounds like the estate agent is aware of the issues, and hopefully is keeping the buyer calm, etc.

The buyers might have an issue with buildings insurance. In my experience, some insurers simply ask "has the property every suffered from subsidence" and/or "has the property ever been underpinned" - and they decline to quote if the answer is "yes".

But there are other insurers who would probably insure on standard terms (with a standard premium), as the issues are 30 years old.

user1977

It might or might not be, it's up to the buyers really and nothing much you can do other than wait to see. Arguably an underpinned property might be better than one which hasn't (yet) been underpinned...

gwynlas

So you are not 100% sure that any part of the house was underpinned or  not but the extension was rebuilt 40 years ago.

Honestly you cannot give any further information than this and it would be unreasonable for you to be expected to do so.

Any buyer should engage a surveyor but they would be unable to give any different answer without perhaps digging exploratory trenches which they are not going to do

theartfullodger

Just provide such information that you have a source for , making it clear what you know and/or don't know. I had similar situation couple of years ago selling deceased brother's house, intestate, basically untouched since he bought in 1971.

If purchaser is unhappy you can't provide any more, tough, his problem.