Selling a house with history of subsidence

[evilharpy]

Posting here for traffic, sorry! Although I'm wondering if IABU to think we might have problems selling this house/AIBU to worry about it.

Our house has suffered from subsidence and is in the last stage of repairs (delays have been due to difficulties in getting labour and materials). There was no major structural damage - mainly fairly minor cosmetic cracks, bit of repointing etc, a window to be replaced etc. No huge cracks you could see daylight through. No underpinning needed. The cause was tree roots and offending tree was felled and the house levels monitored for about two years before repair work started - again delayed due to Covid. There are no concerns with the level readings and everyone seems pretty confident the problem won't come back.

We're hoping to sell the house as soon as the last bit of work is done. I haven't been in touch with any agents yet because the thought of dealing with estate agents makes me want to weep.

So two things:

1. Has anyone sold a house with previous subsidence - if so what did you need to provide in terms of evidence that it had been resolved, any extra paperwork etc, and how much of a hit on market value did it suffer?

1. If you were house hunting and a house was in good condition, well priced and in good decorative order but had the issue above (resolved at the time of sale) would it put you off buying? It's a first time buyer type price bracket, possibly investor, and there isn't exactly an abundance of affordable property for sale in the area.

We bought a house with a history of subsidence (about 8 years previously).People worry about getting insurance but that was all fine. We did have to prove to the mortgage company that we could insure the house, before we bought it, which wasn't easy getting a quote for a house you don't own! Finally found a specialist insurer who gave us the quote. That was the only issue really. Tbh I feel better that someone fixed the issue (hopefully) than we had to do it, there's no guarantee that any house won't subside even if it has no history. I imagine it will put some buyers off though so probably worth being honest up front to weed them out quickly, and a cash buyer wouldn't have the above mortgage issues.

Thanks @Dragonfly909 that's helpful. I believe that the insurer who covered the property at the time the subsidence occurred has to continue to provide cover to a new owner (could be wrong about this). Presumably there haven't been any signs of the problem coming back in the house you bought?

Any other replies especially from the seller's perspective very gratefully received!

My parents' house had subsidence in a two storey extension. The tree causing it had been removed but the cracks hadn't even been filled in. The buyer didn't seem very bothered, maybe because it was just the extension, not the main house. The sale went through fairly quickly although it was priced to sell with those problems in mind. I don't think there were any issues with the insurance.

@evilharpy yes I think that is the case with the insurer but our vendor advised us not to go with them as they had been a nightmare! We ended up going with the specialist one just cos it was easier. We have I think £2.5k excess to pay if it subsides again rather than £500 or whatever the normal amount is. However I don't think all insurers even do the extra excess. We've just been too lazy to shop around yet! No problems yet, however ours was due to loose soil which is much worse than a tree! Once the tree is gone should be fine. Not much you can do about soil. We may be a bit mad

We are in the same boat, I’m wondering if you can post and outcome and also any details of how much your premium went up by? Thank you

We finally got the issue resolved and signed off, got an agent round to value it, he knew people who were looking for that type of house in that area, got them in for a one off viewing before it went on the market, they offered £5k less than we'd have listed it for and we accepted. Could have got a bit more on the open market but we'd have had to go through all the hassle of viewings, keeping it viewing-ready, the whole stress of it all, plus agent offered a greatly reduced fee if we sold as a result of the one off viewing (around 50% of normal fee). They were buying from proceeds of sale so no mortgage needed and no picky lender issues. No idea if their premiums were high but in the house we've now bought, our premium was loaded because we'd made a previous subsidence claim - as if that makes us more likely to claim elsewhere, it's hilarious! We were very happy with the outcome.

We were quite lucky in that we were in a very in demand area where properties are snapped up quickly, but the same agent sold another property round the corner with the same issue a few months before and other than the buyer's original lender being picky there weren't any issues and it sold for market value.