Advice needed - Bay structure subsidence

[KeanuLeaves]

Hi! I am new here so please excuse the lack of abbreviations and such :)

My partner and I found our perfect house - an Edwardian semi-detached property with loads of potential in West London. We were sure this is the right house even after speaking to the surveyor (level 3) who highlighted a few issues but he did not make them out to be serious enough for us to pull out from the purchase. However, now that we have done our own research we are getting seriously anxious.

The surveyor highlighted that there are cracks around the bay window which is most likely caused by subsidence. There is a large tree on the public footpath just outside the house, that combined with the clay soil the house is built on leads to subsidence. One of the structural engineers we have spoken to suggested that remedial works can only be determined after monitoring the movement for at least 10-12 months. So whether underpinning is needed is not clear yet. Of course waiting 12 months before exchange is not feasible for us (and the vendors as well). Meanwhile, we have instructed our solicitor to ask for the current home insurance, whether it covers subsidence, if it can be trasnferred to us and if any subsidence claims were made in the past

Sorry for the length intro, what we really need advice on:

1. Should we disclose the survey findings to the insurer ? Or just pay for the fixes ourselves (even if it requires underpinning) just to keep the insurance premium low and have the subsidence cover. If we disclose the findings, does it mean that no insurer will be provide subsidence cover ?
2. Assuming worst case scenario that we buy the house and have to do the underpinning, would that mean we will struggle to sell the house in the future. We plan to stay there for at least 10-15 years, but I am also aware that there is a stigma around properties which needed underpinning, even if it is for something as common as bay structure movement

Thank you!

We had a similar situation except ours happened a long time after we bought the house. It took eight years to get the council to chop down the tree which was causing the problem. We had endless hassles with insurance company and their

engineers, assessors, tree experts etc. we are only now free from having to declare having had subsidence when getting insurance quotes. I honestly wouldn’t want to go through it all again, it takes over your life. Sorry to be so gloomy.

@NellieJean sorry to hear that and appreciate you sharing your experience!

> It took eight years to get the council to chop down the tree which was causing the problem

Why would it take them 8 years ? It must be so frustrating having to wait this long. I'd expect as soon as the root cause was identified they would act promptly...

> we are only now free from having to declare having had subsidence when getting insurance quotes.

Do you mind clarifying this bit ? Is it because you had no structural movement detected over the last X years or is it because the tree was chopped down ? Sorry I have no idea what has to be disclosed and under what circumstance

Eight years! You are right to be surprised. Local Authority tree officers are obsessive about preserving trees. They only felled it when our insurance company threatened legal action. Check what sort of tree it is as this may tell you how much damage it’s likely to be doing depending on its root structure and how willing the council will be to fell it. Re insurance. When you apply for a quote you have to declare if you have had subsidence in the last ten years. At this point some simply decline and those who will quote charge significantly more. Once the tree had gone and the remedial works carried out we had no further problems but the memory lingers on.Hope this helps.

Removing a tree from clay soil can also cause ground heave and may exacerbate the problem. Can you get advice from an arborist too?

Thanks! This is something for us to explore as well. We will first wait and see what our solicitor advises us to do, before investing any more money.

My ideal scenario would be pruning the tree and the roots, reinstating the integrity of the walls, avoiding underpinning and praying that none of these will be reflected in a homebuyers report when we are selling the house in the future. But this is far from guaranteed and that makes us very anxious

We have friends in a similar situation. 5 yrs on the tree is still in place and the council are refusing to cut it down. It's a massive stress for them as they are also yet to have the remedial work done and there are cracks now everywhere in their house. None there when they moved in 10 yrs ago.