Buying a house with a vertical crack, had collapsed drains....

[Bigpaintinglittlepainting]

Has anyone done this ? Got the survey back and there are issues in the survey with the crack running vertically down the stair and back store room. Advised to explore the drains, so discovered that there are four drain routes in the garden, two working well, two collapsed and redundant.

I am assuming that the collapse of the drains has caused movement to the house.

I wouldn’t normally even go there but the plot and garden is massive and it’s the only house we found with 3 double bedrooms.

Are we mad to even consider it ?

Assess that is !!

It all repairable at a cost and most of the work underground is unknown and can be very expensive depending on the amount of ground that's been washed away by broken drainage .some will involve underpinning and rebuilding of entire walls some mortgage companies won't lend on such properties . its why the only way to purchase these type of property is cash and no reports . it a chance if your prepared to do the work it can pay off . if it been recorded by previous mortgage applications it can still be difficult to sell even after all the repairs have been done depending on the size of the problem .

Its pretty incredible what they can do for subsidence these days. They can pump under the foundations and fill the entire cavity with this material that expands and sets hard (Uretek).
The main treatments for subsidence are:

Pruning or removal of trees and bushes.
Repair work to damaged drains and pipes.
Underpinning the foundations.

Usually the first two fix the job but if they dont then you'd need to underpin or do something like uretek. The last option is obviously more costly but the point is, many treatments dont have to cost loads.

I would see the main problem being not the actual fixing of the subsidence (in a way, a house that has been cured of subsidence is actually likely to be more firm and secure than a house that has never been investigated for it). But rather, the implications for later on. So, you might be stuck with one insurance company because noone else will take it on which means they can put premiums up whenever and you cant do anything about it. Secondly, if you resold you'd have to declare the subsidence and that might put people off buying it. Thirdly, I have no idea what mortgages say about it and that might be harder to get one.

All in all, it does come with quite a lot of risk which is why i said dont do it. I suppose all i'm saying is, unless you absolutely LOVE this house and cannot find anything comparable you would be making life quite a bit harder for yourself. Wait and see what the structural engineer says anyway.

Houses that have been underpinned do sell readily these days. They have been repaired and are less of a punt than houses like the op is considering. Mortgages are not an issue on a repaired property.

Removing trees and bushes is possibly dangerous and can lead to “heave”. Too much water in a (clay) soil which pushes the foundations upwards. Trees drink water, and by removing them, the water stays in the soil and swells it. Be wary of cutting down trees.

The foundations might not be deep enough for the land conditions or they might be failing, for some reason. This is what the engineer needs to establish if concerned about the cracks.

A minority of subsiding property is underpinned. However the structural engineer should have a clearer idea of the problem and whether it’s historic or movement is still occurring. That will help in making a decision about repairs and purchasing.

Getting a mortgage in its current state might be difficult but hopefully you don’t need one.

Thank you so much for all of this information everyone! It is so helpful I can’t tell you, I feel armed with knowledge so I can actually make an informed decision @BubblesBuddy @MimiLaRue @raindropsfallingonglass @ X2Kevintheteenagers

@Bigpaintinglittlepainting What was the decision? Did you buy the house or pulled out? I’m in exactly the same position right now. Survey came back with possible subsidence associated with possible faulty drainage. Done the drains survey and came back with collapsed pipes and leaking gully.