Subsidence

[Stumbleine]

Would you buy a house with a history of minor subsidence? The issue was over 10 years ago and was dealt with by removal of trees (no underpinning).

Would this put you off? Also how do you think value of the property is affected?

Yes I would. If it was sorted over ten years ago and no further issues show up on a survey, there should be no loss in value.
We bought our hse years ago and it had everything, as the surveyor said' everything that you don't want! We intended to stay in it years, which we did and we put everything right.

I guess my main concern is about insurance and mostly re-sale. This would potentially be a 10 year house.

Wouldn't put me off

It is quite possible the removal of the trees did the trick with regard to ensuring more moisture was in the soil to stop the subsidence. You would want to assure yourselves though that, 10 years on, there is no further evidence of movement in the walls of the house. I assume the cracks were repaired and no new cracks are evident? On clay soil, the removal of trees can also be a problem as the clay can then retain too much water leading to "heave" and more cracks. If it is all ok, and there are not more trees near the house, you should not have a problem.

Our house had a historic subsidence issue. It got fixed and monitored for two years. Now I inform the insurance company and agree to a £1000 excess for any claim for subsidence, there haven't been any. So, yes, I would still buy the house.

We just used the same insurers as the previous owners, didn't seem to be any more expensive than others, just that any online or phone quote immediately declines when you mention subsidence.

It did nearly put us off the purchase until we spoke to the vendors' insurers who were very calm about it. Surveyor was also not worried unduly.

Was a huge relief as we had fallen seriously in love with the house and couldn't find anything else.

Thanks for replies.
A structural engineer's report was done last year stating that there is no evidence of further movement or suggestion that any more is likely . I believe the original (hairline) cracking is still visible.

I did exactly this. Insurance is quite expensive (but decreases with each year of no claims) and subsidence-related excess is high. But otherwise all is ok. The tree was the cause of the problem, was removed, and there has been no more movement for 15 yrs and counting

run some insurance quotes; you don't have to have bought the place to do this. You may need to speak to some of the companies.

that will tell you what they think; hopefully it is ok.

I'm really conflicted now! The house is perfect for us in every other way. But I am worried about the prospect of being unable to sell in future! There seems to be a stigma where a lot of people say 'run a mile'.

A lot of the stuff I've read seems to pertain to underpinned properties too.

Honestly, it's fine, we've just bought a house with historical subsidence, just got specialist insurance. No biggy. Loads of streets have full rows of houses with these issues.

The peope that say run a mile are the ones that don't really know what they are doing anyway to be honest. Rather than run a mile they should read up on it and get the facts first.