Outstanding NHBC investigation while selling house

[WhatchaSayyyyy]

We are currently in the beginning stages with our solicitor of selling our property to our buyers. 2 weeks ago we noticed 2 stepped external brickwork cracks on the property and raised this to NHBC (as our house was a new build and still has a few years warranty left) who sent round a senior structural engineer to investigate. He carried out a very through investigation (was here for 5 hours) and still couldn't really pin point the cause. He said it could just be settlement which is expected in new builds but next step would be to monitor the cracks for the next year by attaching gadgets that monitor if the cracks get bigger or the would dig a small 40ft hole to put a measuring tool down there to record any foundation movement.

Our buyers haven't done a survey yet but I'm thinking we should explain the situation to see if they are still happy to proceed. As the issue will still be covered and fixed by NHBC if needed but they might not find the cause, if any, until a year later.

The inspection was only yesterday but we did flag that we had raised concerns about external brickwork cracks to NHBC on the solicitors documents called the TA6 form and so far the buyers or there solicitors haven't questioned it.

We are thinking shall we communicate this to our solicitors to communicate to the buyers ones to keep transparency with hope they don't pull out the sale 😣 as obviously we don't want anyone to be messed around and obviously want to start pursuing purchasing our new home but this is holding us back 😣

I would ask your solicitor, but you have been transparent on the TA6 form about raising questions. There's something called ", buyer beware" which means buyers need to do their own research & question things, you have raised it as a potential issue & I would run it in writing past your conveyancing solicitor to make sure you are covered then see what they say

what a good seller you are. i wish more were like you.

i went to view a house a few months ago. i really liked it but there was a deep crack in the garage running down the whole wall. i was a bit concerned about it and asked about structural issues/subsidence. the EA got back and said the vendor said had no structural issues in the past and he wasn't worried about the crack. i thought let me view again and see it... so i went and guess what? it was all plastered over and painted. the vendor literally hid it. i left and never bothered to return the EAs calls. if it isn't structural or subsidence, why cover it up?

anyways, i think honesty and transparency is key. you might find some buyers are ok with subsidence, eg. Londonders who are a bit more used to it.

personally, i do believe this knocks the value off, so i would expect this coming and to be realistic about whether you'd get a better buyer. in addition, the reason why they probably haven't brought it up yet is because their solicitor might still be going through things and will summarise their findings in a final report for the buyer to look over. you may well find this will come up later, when the buyer actually gets informed about it.