survey back - subsidence

[poocatcherchampion]

we've had a call from our mortgage provider saying that they can't lend against the property as there are issues coming up in the survey.

the report says

-we need a structural engineer to investigate a crack in the property and possible subsidence possibly from a tree

• have it rewired
• have the chimney stack reset.

the report reckons that's a cost of £10k and once all done it should be worth what we propose to pay.

typically we got the report at 1715 so can't talk to mortgage people or solicitor until Monday.

does anyone have anything to offer to either put our minds at rest or to help us start to come to terms with the fact this house might not be the one for us

thanks in advance!

You need the vendor to drop the price by that amount. Ring mtge people on Monday saying you need to borrow less-all done. If the vendor won't drop the money then you have to walk away, unless they agree to do the work. I would ask the vendor to sort it to be honest or ask for £15 drop for the hassle. This will keep coming up so they will have to do it at some point.

Don't assume the report has the costs correct. Get quotes from trades for the work. Warn the vendor next week that the survey is unfavourable and let them know that you'll need to drop your offer by at least 10k. If they say that they aren't prepared to negotiate then walk away.

You also need to make sure the current owners have buildings insurance and if you do buy it you'll need to approach the existing insurers to continue cover as you'll find it hard to get cover.

They always ask to have cracks investigated, it's probably nothing but, if it is subsidence, 10k sounds a very conservative estimate to have any underpinning done (and it means that, although the problem is solved, there is every chance if you want to sell in the future, it will be very hard to for a buyer to find a mortgage and/or insurance). Rewiring a family house would be at least 4k, I would have thought, I'm sure resetting a chimney stack would be a grand or two so that 10k isn't going to go very far. If you do decide to proceed, knock substantially more than that off the price.

hi I've been in almost the same situation - our surveyor was concerned about a large crack running up the side of the house. I got a structural engineer to come and check it. Although nothing is ever 100% he thought it was historical but he also noted that there was movement - maybe not subsidence yet but could be in the future.
I would first off get a structural engineer to check it out because it could be innocuous.
Weird that the lender would flag up electrics as surely most old houses not modernised have dreadful out of date electrics?
I agree with above posters - get the vendors to knock the money off if possible - ours didn't though. And I also think 10k for all that is probably not really what it will cost when the electrics alone are likely to half.
Find out about the crack first - that's the main thing.

thanks all for your comments - 10k seemed a little conservative so me too as I was expecting £5ish for wiring.

it sounds like the immediate problem might be resolvable but there is a longer term risk of buying a property with subsidence. I'm coming round to thinking that although we love the house we don't really want that sort out hassle

I think you will find that the majority if people would not buy a house with subsidence. It will need a lot of careful consideration about whether it is worth taking in that risk and worry. We nearly bought a house with similar problems but decided to pull out of the sale in the end. It was more important for us to live somewhere where we wouldn't always be worrying about cracks. It's definitely worth getting a structural engineer to take a look before you rule it out.

We are buying a house with subsidence. Slightly different in that the mortgage company surveyor said he thought it was likely historic and no further follow up needed. Mortgage company happy to lend. Basically the extension wasn't tied in properly.

We were advised by builder mate underpinning would be 5-10k, all done from outside so not intrusive. Insurance has been slightly more difficult and about 50% more expensive but doable. And we used it to negotiate the price down a bit, this was before survey as we spotted it ourselves.

Our longer term plan is to get a more detailed survey to reassure insurance companies that it isn't an issue but we don't have time at moment.

So it doesn't necessarily have to be a huge problem.

its a traditional 1950 detached brick 3 bed.

we feel so down heartened this morning because it was so great for us .positive stories are good!

I think Polter is right, you need to get the current owners to claim (pay the excess) and get it fixed. Unfortunately this could take months so it depends if your chain will wait it out.

We had this exact same issue after a survey and after a lot of heartbreak pulled out.

It will hugely effect the resale value as it comes up on the searches (and you're not allowed to withhold this info anyway) and as other posters have most people run scared at the mention of subsidence.

Also check how much the ongoing insurance will be, we decided it was so much more than a house without subsidence, we'd rather put that cash into a mortgage on another house.