Looking a 3-bed semi (1950’s bay front – RH-side) and the side non-joining external wall has subsidence. House is priced at 200K when it would normally be around 235K. Apparently the front bedroom floor is also sloping down towards the front.

First sale has fallen through (due to mortgage being refused) and a surveyors reports exists which I’m trying to obtain from the estate agents. I’ll also be looking to buy with a mortgage.

Advice, similar experiences, am I mad, walk-away etc etc?!

Find somewhere else.

Mortgage nightmare
Insurance near impossible
Reselling will be hard

Not worth the risk

Walk away.

Has the cause of the subsidence been identified and fixed?

That will need buying cash by a builder to fix it and then sell on for profit. Most mortgage companies wont touch it.

only if it were much much cheaper.

Has the cause of the subsidence been identified and fixed?

This would be the the main thing for me, especially the first part. A collapsed drain, or water leak, no big deal. Sliding down the hill or built on old mine shafts, walk away. Also how severe the subsidence is. Lots of older houses move and crack with the weather, especially the recent dry summer. If its more than that then it needs more investigation. I’d still look at it though. Best to look at ALL options, even non-viable ones when house hunting IMO

+franksinatra – if you can’t then sell in x years time ….

Don’t walk away……Run. Run as fast as you can.

That house could have many potential problems – oh and having renovated a ’50’s house last year I can confirm that they were poorly built and will cost more to fix than you expect 🙁

‘having renovated a ’50’s house last year I can confirm that they were poorly built’

any more sweeping generalisations to bring to the fore or is your sample size of 1 representitive of the whole british 1950s housing market ?

Aye, that’s a very naive statement.

Our old house had subsidence, which we never actually found out about til after we bought it. I have no idea how I missed it, walking into the upstairs loo was like walking down a bloody corbett, but I comfort myself that the surveyor when we bought and sold also never noticed!.

It had been underpinned, but was still on a bit of a slope, kitchen floor was over 100mm higher at one end, and the valley gutter at the front (was a semi, and both houses have a kinda front gable end that had a valley inbetween) never drained as designed due to the slope.

I fixed the kitchen floor, but tbh to fix the upstairs would’ve been many thousands, I’m glad we managed to sell.

Walk away- will be picked up by your lender who’ll refuse the mortgage. Then you’re in a world of discomfort trying to find another lender after being refused once already.

I’d also be wanting a damn sight more than 35k knocked off!

The problem is, until they excavate to start under pinning, they won’t know the extent of the work and how much it will cost, so even if you get a quite now, it’s just an estimate and could easily double.

I’ll also be looking to buy with a mortgage.

You’ll probably not be buying, then.

When you find out the scale of works involved in under-pinning – probably complete removal of ground floor, excavation, installation reinforced concrete raft and reinstallation of all services mean you won’t be living there for a while

Our survey came back with evidence of historic subsidence. The mortgage wasn’t an issue, but as most insurers ask “any history of subsidence?” we have to say yes, meaning they won’t touch us or charge an absolute fortune. Some insurers ask “…in the past x years” so with them we can say no and actually get insurance!!

But regardless if whether you get a mortgage, this will be a factor!

If you can’t get insurance you will not be able to take up your mortgage offer.

I think it depends when/if it was repaired. Mine was underpinned 18 years before I bought it and insurance was a little tricky meaning I had little choice for which company to go with. Most insurance companies I’ve spoken to just ask if its been underpinned in the last 20 years. So not a problem now. So far.

If it hasn’t been repaired I’d walk away unless it’s your dream house and you have the funding to repair it.

As above, I’d expect a much bigger price drop. Mortgage companies are very cautious and will just say no rather than understand the actual risk. I looked at one that had been underpinned and was being sold very cheap, enough to reduce the percentage of the price I’d need to borrow. The other half of the semi had not been underpinned and had recently sold for full price. Looking at old maps I could see a pond extending across both plots – the underpinned one was at minimal risk but I wouldn’t have touched the other.

Where in the country is it? if it’s coal mining area and can be shown to be mining subsidence, you can claim for the cost of repairs.

Run.

Run fast and run far.

Don’t look back.

Life is full of things we should avoid.

Never fighting a man with a perm is one of them.

And not buying a sinking house is another.

I used to work for a polyurethane chemical company in their tech service division. One of our customers was a company called Uretek that injected urethane foam under factory floor slabs/housing foundations that lifted and levelled them. IIRC it was a technique first developed in Scandinavia and Uretek had the UK agency. I visited them over the years and they were a good bunch of guys.

A quick Google shows a name change
https://www.geobear.co.uk/

Might be cheaper/less hassle than full underpinning