Would you buy in an area of high risk of landslide?

[airforsharon]

I've just received searches, location info etc from my solicitor, for a property i offered on a few weeks ago. All fine save the ground stability, which using info from British Geological Survey national landslide database & various engineering/scientific reports is considered a high risk landslide area. It IS very hilly but i'm not aware of any problems there. The property sits within quite a small high risk area, general surrounding area is moderate risk.

House is only 5 years old. The hazard rating details state "significant constraint on land use" is necessary. I've seen the planning application approval but there's no mention of any additional requirements placed on construction company to take this into account.

So, should i drop like a hot potato or assume all will be fine?

have you tried to get insurance on it, or have you been steered to specialist house insurance?

That would guide me. If I couldn’t insure under a general insurance it wouldn’t be the house for me, but I am risk adverse when it comes to bricks and motar!

Are they other houses around this house?

I haven't looked into insurance yet, that's a good point. I might speak to the estate agent and ask if she can find out from the vendors if they've had difficulties getting insurance.

Yes, i'd estimate there's around 20 in the high risk area that are part of the same development, and maybe two dozen others that are older

Will you be worrying about this every time it rains?

Honestly, i don't know. It's a rum 'un, not something i've come across before

Don't ask them, they will just lie.

Just try to insure it yourself and see what comes up.

And no, I wouldn't. I'd be worried sick every time there's a downpour.

Fuck no.

Why would you put yourself in this position?
Buy somewhere else.

Nope. Just nope.

You’ll constantly worry and if something actually happens - no matter now small - you’re fucked for moving on.

You have 2 issues. 1. Is there a risk to you and your property, 2. Does the risk devalue the house/make it hard to insure.

1. It would be worth establishing if any drainage has been installed to reduce the risk of water logging. Has any slope stabilisation work been undertaken as part of the development? The risk map may have been made without consideration of mitigating factors, in which case the risk may have been reduced.

1. You can get an insurance quote before you buy a house, so I'd do that myself rather than asking the agent. If you are having doubts about the safety of the property then you can assume potentially future buyers will too, so unless it can be proven that the house is at no more risk than any other then yes, it has been devalued and should be priced accordingly.

Don't assume that because the house was allowed to be built that it's safe. People bought houses that were built cheaply on flood plains and found out to their cost that planning regs in the UK aren't as strong as home owners would like.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I've done a quote thing via Confused.com, the quote from my current insurer is higher than i'm paying now but not massively so, and it is a slightly bigger property to my current one. I can't get hold of the estate agent, or solicitor today, so i'll see if i can find out more re any work done to mitigate the risk by the developers on Monday