Subsidence - to mention or not

[MrsHogwallop]

We have accepted an offer on our house, and the buyer has commissioned a structural survey. A couple of years ago we had cracks appear when our neighbour did some building work, and clay soil subsidence was diagnosed by insurer, causing damage to front elevation. They decided primary cause was a tree on the street, monitored cracks for a year, tree was removed, crack repairs done, floors and windows replaced during the process. We now have all relevant certification that the issue has been addressed by tree removal. Property has now been reinsured twice with no issue. Not mentioned this at all yet to our buyer but assume this will certainly be discovered in a structural survey? Should we be upfront and mention it before everyone in our chain starts spending money on lawyers and surveys? Our buyer is savvy and I think possibly works in / has expertise in this area. I have met the buyer and feel it would be worse to be dishonest by NOT mentioning it at this point. Any expertise/advice on this situation much appreciated.

You will need to declare it in the sellers form anyway. So i would be honest. Many would not sadly.

As PP mentioned you will be obliged to gate it on the sellers form so this could be an opportunity to garner good Will?

Yeah, you should have mentioned this before you accepted the offer. Best do so as soon as possible. The obligation is a legal one.

Wow! Of COURSE you should mention it.
All so recent too; I was expecting to read the thread and find you were talking about a historic subsidence claim from a decade or more ago.
To be honest, that you have withheld this critical info until even this point in the sale would be a big red flag for me as a purchaser, and make me wonder what else you were hiding from me. Unless the house was one of a kind, I would walk away now, not because of the subsidence but because of your lack of transparency. You should have been completely upfront and honest from the moment the purchasers first crossed your doorstep.

We didn’t find out about historic (30 years ago) subsidence with underpinning until the solicitor did a search. This was 15 years ago. I believe now you have to declare it on a sellers form. We went ahead with the purchase as was the best old house for the money and DH (builder) was happy it was fixed and no signs of movement since. It didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy towards the seller and it wouldn’t have put us off knowing about it upfront. Ours is about to hit the market and I’ve asked the estate agent to mention it to people on the first viewing.

You have to disclose insurance claims on the PIF don't you?