Subsidence survey advice

[locornwall]

I am looking to buy a house and have posted questions on a different forum asking for advice. I would appreciate any advice here also.

I have had an offer accepted on a bungalow that requires renovation. It had been at auction, however withdrawn on each occasion. In brief, I have heard it needs underpinning, however nothing concrete. The house was built 1954 and I have walked round with a local builder with no obvious signs of subsidence. Next door told me their house was underpinned 30 years ago. The price has been reduced significantly, not necessary because of this however, as it didn’t sell and had been taken to auction.

I have read horror stories about people just getting valuation reports, moving in, finding out they have a subsidence problem, however they aren’t insured, as the insurer says the subsidence happened before they insured them.

Do I get a full building survey or structural engineer’s survey? Any advice welcome.

I love your (probably unintentional) pun about underpinning and concrete.
In the circumstances you describe you get as many reports as you can, especially one from a structural engineer. The fact that the neighbours house has needed underpinning should be a warning to you, and I would also want to know why it was withdrawn from auction.
Houses are often offered at auction because they are not mortgageable. Are you sure this one is?

Thanks and yes the concrete pun was intentional.

On one occasion it was withdrawn from auction because a viewing took place and a builder two doors down mentioned the house might have subsidence problems. A supposed structural survey was then conducted, which showed no signs of subsidence. However the company who carried this out I could not get in touch with, they had very limited information on the internet and the person who carried out the report isn’t a structural engineer or chartered surveyor. Just to add the builder doing work at the house two doors down said there was a large crack on that house and it had recently been underpinned. I did however make some investigations with the local authority building control and these houses and the surveyor, who is very knowledgable about the area said he was never given a reason why this house was underpinned.

Hence all this contrary information, I need confirmation for myself. Any thoughts?

Well, rather than going round the houses trying to find information, commission a full report for yourself. If the cost of a survey is putting you off, it will be nothing compared to the cost of underpinning if you buy the property and then find that it needs it.
That is also a strange reason to withdraw a house from an auction, as really that is the best marketplace for difficult to shift propertes, and people usually buy them 'warts and all' (knowingly or unknowingly!). Of course, the vendor could also have unrealistic expectations of the value of the property.

Sorry I meant to add, I really think they didn’t have significant interest.

I’m not sure if I should get a building survey or just get a structural engineer’s report? We are planning on renovating nearly all of the property including electrics, plumbing, extension, loft conversion, doors, windows so is it worth getting a building survey and structural engineers report?

I was told that only a structural engineer can confirm whether a property has subsidence or not. If the subsidence is what you have issues over, I'd commission a SE report

It might be that the property that was underpinned was built at a different time, and by a different builder and may not reflect on the one you are looking at.

If it is on a hill or clay soil or anything suspicious like a mine shaft or shale, then it would be something to worry about, but agree you do need to check thoroughly.

It was on clay soil. Probably pulling out unless the seller lowers their price significantly, and therefore the next question to ask would be by how much.