Buyer Pulled Out Due To Structural Issues on Survey - Gutted

[DreamHousehelp]

Our buyer pulled out today because the survey on our house wasn't great.

It indicated some structural movement, including cracking, evidence the corner of our house has sunk. Other bits and bobs on the survey that have been a bit inflated, but that's the main one that spooked him (understandably).

We're involving our insurance to look at this (thankfully we're covered), but I'm terrified what it will mean for us when we come to relist our property.

Anyone experienced anything like this? I'm scared we won't be able to sell in future or would need to make a massive price reduction to do so.

We've been here around 10 years, the house belonged to now passed relatives. It wasn't surveyed at the time due to it being in the family (and no issues with it).

So it seems the previous underpinning hasn’t been sufficient enough to solve the problem
If it was the wall ties then only the outer layer would fail. If you’re not seeing cracking inside then this is a possibility

Get a survey done but push for them to establish the cause as it seems last time they underpinned but did not remedy the cause. It could be something as simple as water leakage. Equally it could be down to an increase in traffic causing reverberations.

We've been here around 10 years, the house belonged to now passed relatives. It wasn't surveyed at the time due to it being in the family (and no issues with it).

Ah no! Sympathise with you.

Yeah, maybe the previous underpinning has failed. It was done such a long time ago with no further effects, that our insurance company has never been concerned about it. We always mention the underpinning when we renew our insurance, but since it was so long ago, we've never had a problem insuring and haven't experienced high insurance costs.

Obviously now with these items coming up on the survey we'll need to have it fully investigated and hope it doesn't affect the value of our home too much.

There were no issues to our knowledge. No internal cracks, no obvious external ones, but clearly some have been found on the survey that we weren't aware of.

We have always declared the underpinning on our insurance, and it's never been an issue, as it was done a long time ago.

‘No obvious cracks’

Have you checked that the surveyor isn’t just referring to previous repair work OP.

What’s with all the questions , it’s like you’ve got a bone to pick with this thread . It seems to have hit a nerve or something . The OP has answered that they don’t know yet til the insurance have a look …

This is such a sorry state of affairs. Really feel for you. Life is never plain sailing. Wish you’d have known before the survey. Horrendous that there’s been underpinning before. So agonising. The wait.

@Rogerthat14

Yes our buyers were told and they weren't worried about it.

I didn't mention about the underpinning in my OP because it was done a long time ago and I didn't think it was relevant - happy to be proven wrong but I'd appreciate you providing advice rather than seeming to want to catch me out.

Genuinely just looking for support and other people's experiences with structural issues.

Thank you.

I did wonder this, worth checking. We're hoping to get access to the full survey to check some of this stuff but obviously it's up to the buyer if they're happy for us to have it.

Do you know what type of survey they commissioned? Was it a full structural survey or just a basic Homebuyer's Report?

When we sold our last house, the buyer's basic survey reported signs of subsidence. They then commissioned a more detailed survey which said the subsidence was historic and had been remedied, so the sale went ahead without a price reduction. Hopefully similar might happen to you 🤞

Edit to add: appreciate your sale has unfortunately fallen through already though

Hopefully they will allow it because it’s not uncommon for 1930s properties to have this problem. Foundations were shallower than they should have been for various reasons.

It would be unusual, however, for underpinning to fail but I suppose as always that depends on the workmanship
You might phone building control ( at the council). as see what they hold in their archives on the 1980s work. They will have to have approved it

Thank you, it was a Level 3 Homebuyers Report. We'll be issuing a full structural survey as part of our insurance claim, so that will make things a bit clearer for us.

Yes our current sale has fallen through unfortunately, just hoping we can get back on the market without needing to reduce too much 😫 (pending fixes of course)

That's good to know, thankyou. Yes we have never been concerned about the previous underpinning as we hadn't been aware of any movement in the property since. Our insurance company were never worried either.

That's a good tip about building control - thank you!

Hi Op,

Just to say my 1930s house had subsidence issues, both before I bought it, and whilst I owned it. Both times (spanning 20 years) it was dealt with via insurers and had no discernible impact on price. It did however take 18 months to sort as a they did a lot of monitoring surveys first which took time. Once completed, it was a matter of paperwork being included in sale bumpf

However, you might find if you aren't willing to wait to sell till fully resolved, you will have to reduce price as the more risk adverse will be put off by it.

Best of luck and hope it is speedily resolved

Underpinned already. In this case, it could be that when the structural surveyor looks at it, they say it's movement from the underpinning and not subsidence.
Try not to worry too much.

We had a homebuyers survey last week that show cavity wall problems. Today we have had a structural survey and are waiting the results. We are borrowing heavily at we are nearly 60 and first time buyers and there is no wiggle room for costly repairs. If our seller doesn't agree to pay for the repairs if needed we too will be pulling out.

I think when you relist you need to be open and honest and state your house has had previous underpinning in 1980's. Personally I'd never buy a house that had had previous subsidence as so many others on market that have not.