Subsidence and selling a property

[newtothearea1]

Hi All

Quick question...

Has anyone had experience in selling a property in the area that has had a subsidence claim in the past? We are looking to sell our one bedroom flat and the subsidence claim has recently been closed. The tree which caused the subsidence was removed and the Schedule of Repairs completed.

My concern is that it may put a large amount of buyers off. Anyone come across this? Any advice really gratefully received!

[LondonMix]

It depends. It will put some people off irrespective of the details however, it will depend on a few factors:

1. What subsided? If its just the bay window it won't put too many people off as that is actually fairly common around here as bay windows were built with no foundations.

2. What was done to fix it-- just removing the cause of the subsidence might not be reassuring enough for some buyers, particularly if the house itself was subsiding due to trees. As the roots decay, more problems can occur over time

3. What are the current insurance terms: can the next buyer get coverage and at what cost and with what deductible.

Good luck and glad to hear the subsidence issues are all sorted for you now. I haven't owned a house that subsided but looked at buying one that had in the past (we pulled out for different reasons) but a lot of the legal advice you get as a buyer surrounds these issues.

[newtothearea1]

Thanks London Mix.

Nothing seemed to actually subside but movement caused cracks in the wall etc. The tree was cut down to a stump and root cavities filled (from what i recall!). Our insurance is for the whole property (we own one of the flats) and under the right to manage company so that would stay in place i believe.

I guess the next thing to do is to approach some estate agents.....

[Jeremy]

I was in a similar situation... tree roots had caused cracking in the walls, although in my case the surveyor didn't classify it as subsidence. Tree cut down, cracks were monitored, case was closed. No problem selling.

[joom]

You should have a certificate of structural adequacy if you made a claim and works were done to fix the problems. We're selling at the moment and had work done for subsidence about 6yrs ago. We supplied the certificate to our solicitors and there has been no problem getting through the sale. Hope that helps!

[Nuneloneon]

Hi,

I also have concerns about the future value of our home, and also the next best steps, and would welcome any advice or experiences from anyone.

We recently observed cracks form in our walls and hired a structural engineer to provide a report. He confirmed it was subsidence, but not too major, and nothing that could not be rectified. He focused on two trees being the main issue, and has recommended a ground investigation (trench and bore holes dug) to take ground samples and confirm whether the tree roots are indeed to blame. We have since been contacting various ground investigation companies for (expensive) quotes.

We now realise that we will also need to inform our insurance company. I'm not sure if anyone has any experience with this, but I wonder whether I should have gone to the insurers first as they will want to undertake a survey? Should I inform them of the existing structural survey, particularly as it has been a couple of months since I had it done, or should I simply call them about the observed cracks and wait for them to recommend the next steps?

I am paranoid that not only are we about to cause our insurance premiums to shoot up, we will be unable to find many alternative insurers, and will have trouble when coming to sell the home (as questioned above).

Thanks for any advice you might have,

Alex

[Sue]

Even if you didn't inform your insurance company, if you wanted to change insurers you would be asked if there had been subsidence I think, particularly given the postcode.

If you said no and then they found out you had lied, the outcome would probably not be great :(

ETA: I went through my insurance company and tbh wished I hadn't, until the above occurred to me ....

[Nuneloneon]

Thank you Sue for your feedback. It sounds like you didn't have a great time going through your insurance company. By the way, what was process for reporting and investigating the subsidence with your insurance company? Did you find that straight forward? And in terms of changing insurance company, were you able to find alternatives, considering you had to state your property had experienced subsidence?

Thanks again for sharing any experience!

Alex

[Sue]

The actual experience with the insurance company was fine.

I had cracks in the back half of the house. I reported them to the insurance company, they sent out a surveyor and monitored the cracks for some time, I can't remember how long.

There was some issue with drains, which was sorted, and the whole thing was signed off. They didn't call it subsidence, they called it something else, I can't remember what off hand.

However now if I want to get a quote from another insurance company I can't because as soon as this is mentioned they go no further (on or offline) despite the fact that there have been no further problems for something like fifteen years now. Can't remember exactly.

I am now on a different policy but it's with a company associated with the original one, can't remember exactly and all the paperwork is in the loft, sorry!

But I have thought at various times I would have been better off in the long run not involving the insurance company at all and paying for the work myself.

But then as I said above that would involve not being truthful when getting quotes from elsewhere, and apart from the moral aspect I suspect that it would be easy to find out if work had been done.

Plus I try not to lie so I'm not sure I could do it :(

[Nuneloneon]

Thanks again Sue,

I know what you mean. It is almost like an inevitable trap! :)