Subsidence & remortgaging

Dcaswell · 15 September 2018 at 3:29PM

Hi All,

After some serious advice, not sure if this is the right place to post.

We bought our first home in December last year, the previous owner left the house in a disgusting state, even though it was immaculate when we viewed it in the August.

The boiler was knackered and the cooker, so we have had to stump up £3k within the first month of being here.

We have now noticed that the house is subsiding, clearly obvious from tthat he outside, our bay window is jutting out and sinking. Being a builder he clearly knew this was happening but didn’t disclose.

We are due to remortgage next December, now worried we will be stuck paying our extremely high rates and not be able to swap or reduce,

Is anyone able to give me some solid advice as I don’t know what to do, we have insurance for buildings, but extremely worried anout remortgaging.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated

Tia:

AlexMac · 15 September 2018 at 5:39PM

Dcaswell wrote: »

Hi All,... the house is subsiding, clearly obvious from outside,,,, Being a builder he clearly knew this was happening but didn’t disclose...
Tia:

Sympathies; but don't panic. You have no call on the vendor regrettably, as unless he'd actually had a professional opinion which revealed damage, or there had been past underpinning work, and that he lied about this when your solicitor asked via his (as they routinely do) it was down to you to rely on your own survey.

(and I can't blame you if you didn't commission one, or only relied on a Homebuyers, as I never bother, preferring to take a builder round when buying)

If it's only the Bay Window pulling away, that isn't such a big deal, and although ultimately (and assuming you declared honestly to your insurer that you knew of no past problem) insurance would cover any major problem, I'd be inclined to try to assess the extent of the problem before running to the Insurer.

My neice did that - an over-reaction to a decorator, who, when challenged about a minor crack on the bay which he'd not filled, said "subsidence"... and the Insurer's over-cautious contactor did an 4rse covering over-cauatious survey and chased her for a couple of thou excess on the work for years... She did nothing; just filled the crack, and many years later, it hasn't moved at all.

So if it was me, I'd try to get an opinion from someone I trust (whether builder or surveyor- although I prefer the former) on diagnosis., solution and cost; then run for the insurer only if it was lots more than my excess... An ad hoc and pragmatic approach, but that's the way I am.

Good luck

davidmcn · 15 September 2018 at 5:59PM

If you sign to up another deal with the same lender, are they going to ask any awkward questions?

Dcaswell · 16 September 2018 at 2:08PM

Unfortunately it’s through the centre of the house, we have discovered the floor is lower on the internal wall, we are attached to another house (semi),

I’m not worried about contacting the insurers as we were honest as we didn’t know there was any issues, I’m more concerned about the remortgaging side of it, worried we’ll be stuck with e very expensive mortgage, we’re being stung for fixed 2 yrs and looking forward to getting a lower rate,

Thanks for your advice

Dcaswell · 16 September 2018 at 2:10PM

Not sure what you mean by awkward questions? We weren’t aware the property had subsidence

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Subsidence & remortgaging

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