What do I need to know about a house being underpinned?

number9

number9

Well-Known Forumite
a house my son's buying was underpinned in one corner due to collapsed drains about 20 years ago.
what does he need to have, documentation or certificate wise? what else does this affect such as insurance? should he have a full structural survey, does that check and certify any underpinning?
thanks
 
Trumpet

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Presumably when the underpinning was carried out the work would have been inspected and a certificate will have been issued. I would certainly go for a structural survey and ask the vendors to supply said certificate.
Alternatively take the long term view as to how saleable the property will be a couple of years down the line.
 
number9

number9

Well-Known Forumite
from what i'm told there is no certificate, just a report.
the long term view of selling it would be having buyers asking questions about it, and maybe put off by it. certainly something to consider.

a friend has told me her buildings insurance state a large excess for any subsidence problem, and she has a certificate.
 
Trumpet

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Presumably when the underpinning was carried out the work would have been inspected and a certificate will have been issued. I would certainly go for a structural survey and ask the vendors to supply said certificate.
Alternatively take the long term view as to how saleable the property will be a couple of years down the line.
number9 said:
from what i'm told there is no certificate, just a report.
Click to expand...

I would have expected that someone would have had to 'sign off' the work to say that it's been carried out correctly and conforms to specs.
A report, if you break it down, will just say that someone has dug a hole around the affected area and filled it with concrete. I know that's simplifying it somewhat but I'm sure you get my drift.
 
Cue

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
A structural survey won't tell you much, they can eye it up but unless they start tearing up the floorboards and drilling into walls it won't tell you anything you didn't already know generally.

The house survey stuff is a bit of a con, most of the time you could do it yourself if you knew what you were looking for.
 
number9

number9

Well-Known Forumite
he's hoping to find out more this week. i can only go by what he tells us he has seen and been told himself.
@Trumpet and @Cue you are confirming what limited knowledge i have here. it's been 20 years since we were in the market.
@Lucy no idea on that, i'm not sure how it'd be used here or who with
@kyoto49 yes ours is a £1000 too, i did an insurance quote on theirs and it comes up as 'normal' rates
 
Cue

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Disclaimer: I'm mostly parroting what I've been told. I haven't had to sell a house yet, but I've heard plenty of people say there were loads of issues they knew about that a survey didn't flag up.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Cue said:
Disclaimer: I'm mostly parroting what I've been told. I haven't had to sell a house yet, but I've heard plenty of people say there were loads of issues they knew about that a survey didn't flag up.
Click to expand...
I have little faith in surveyors.

Someone I know bought a house that was riddled with woodworm, to the point of needing beams replacing, not just the floorboards - "Oh, we don't lift the carpets at all. We can only tell you what we see."

I had a condition on my mortgage in 1980 that I must replace the lead sheet over the bay window within six months, due to the survey. I never bothered, of course, as a cursory glance showed there was no genuine issue and, 37 years on, it is still managing to do its job.

Etc....
 
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