Natural Ground Stability Hazard - House searches

[arti999]

Hi All,

We are planning to buy a house in Beaconsfield. The house is a 1930 build, and we liked the house. However, during searches, there is a red flag on ground stability that describes very significant soluble rocks in the area, due to which there is a high possibility of localised subsidence occurring naturally.

We are a bit confused about going ahead with the sale as we are paying the premium by stacking all our savings into the purchase.

Kindly share your thoughts.

Thanks

Beaconsfield is on chalk geology (like much of southeast England). Natural sinkholes do occur in chalk but they are quite rare (maybe a dozen a year across the country). I'm surprised it's scored as a high possibility for subsidence. unless there is something else about the site such as known caves or mineworkings, you would have to be quite unlucky to be affected.

Thank you

I used to live on chalk and it was considered very stable. Yes it can be erroded but only if there's something going on. Have a look at old historic maps for the area going back as far as you can. They might show old ponds or streams which could give an idea of groundwater. I 2nd looking for old mineworks too.

Are you getting a structural survey done? That should highlight any existing issues. You can also ring whoever wrote the report and ask them about it.

Thanks all for all your replies, it really helps.
We have gone for a ground hazard report which highlighted more red flags about soluble rocks beneath the property and ground cavities in the neighbourhood.