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[Shackeng]

I have owned and rented out old houses with similar issues, although only relating to poor extensions, but given what you have told us, I personally would walk away without some sort of guarantee - by insurers, mortgagers, WHY - that I could live in it without constantly worrying every time a new crack appeared.

[raywilb]

that bn regards underpinning that you've not been able to track. maybe when it was carried out the then owner never bothered to get it signed off.

[Rods2]

When I did my electronics apprenticeship with the MOD we were encouraged from day one during our two years of basic training, that if we had made a mess constructing something to cut your losses and start again. Once building prototype avionic equipment this made sound sense. Even today when I'm programming if the coding is not going well. I stop take stock and if the sensible thing is to scrap what I've done, start again and get it right I never hesitate to do so.

The lesson I've learned is that it is much better to take the short term loss and pain rather than trying to persevere with a long term dog that you know will never be right.

Most of that have found that out when buying a dog of a bike or car and the best thing is to be rid, let somebody else have the pain, hassle and expense.

Many house insurance policies exclude subsidence cover if there has been a previous claim for this, so that I would check before going any further whether you can get normal cover. You maybe able to get specialist cover, the insurance company will want to know the history, what was done and how much it cost because the risks will be much higher, so expect that to be reflected in the annual ££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££.

[aaronjb]

Thanks guys.

For reference the house is in Northampton - not actually sure what the ground up there is like, clay or otherwise! There are a number of trees around the house, though (off property, on the street) that could have caused heave I suppose.

Right now my gut is telling me to walk as a number of you have said; which is truly gutting as it was a beautiful house, easily twice the size of my current house (it had 5 beds, en suite, bathroom, massive kitchen with island, double garage etc), get away from my pikey neighbour etc.. but I guess there's always the chance of another - though if we don't move there then my other half will move down here and I don't think I can afford something that size in the south of England!

[Mr Skrunts]

Many years ago the top of the road where I was brought up suffered from mining subsidence, This caused one house to be underpinned, quite a few to get to have cracks repaired and one house had a cracked all the way up one side and had to ahve the bricks removed and stiched up with new bricks.

The house that was underpinned then ended up on the market, it stood for ages as (or at least the story was)  the house could not get insured, and if it's right then because it's being underpinned then no one would mortgage it. (No Insurance = No Mortgage)

This was quite a few years ago, maybe a lot of things have changed, but thought it was worth a mention.

[tigers_gonads]

Thanks guys.

For reference the house is in Northampton - not actually sure what the ground up there is like, clay or otherwise! There are a number of trees around the house, though (off property, on the street) that could have caused heave I suppose.

Right now my gut is telling me to walk as a number of you have said; which is truly gutting as it was a beautiful house, easily twice the size of my current house (it had 5 beds, en suite, bathroom, massive kitchen with island, double garage etc), get away from my pikey neighbour etc.. but I guess there's always the chance of another - though if we don't move there then my other half will move down here and I don't think I can afford something that size in the south of England!

Have you now got a young filly in tow Aaron 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Thanks guys.

For reference the house is in Northampton - not actually sure what the ground up there is like, clay or otherwise! There are a number of trees around the house, though (off property, on the street) that could have caused heave I suppose.

Right now my gut is telling me to walk as a number of you have said; which is truly gutting as it was a beautiful house, easily twice the size of my current house (it had 5 beds, en suite, bathroom, massive kitchen with island, double garage etc), get away from my pikey neighbour etc.. but I guess there's always the chance of another - though if we don't move there then my other half will move down here and I don't think I can afford something that size in the south of England!

Have you now got a young filly in tow Aaron 

It seems that Aaron is still a babe magnet.

[biggriffin]

Thanks guys.

For reference the house is in Northampton - not actually sure what the ground up there is like, clay or otherwise! There are a number of trees around the house, though (off property, on the street) that could have caused heave I suppose.

Right now my gut is telling me to walk as a number of you have said; which is truly gutting as it was a beautiful house, easily twice the size of my current house (it had 5 beds, en suite, bathroom, massive kitchen with island, double garage etc), get away from my pikey neighbour etc.. but I guess there's always the chance of another - though if we don't move there then my other half will move down here and I don't think I can afford something that size in the south of England!

Have you now got a young filly in tow Aaron 

It seems that Aaron is still a babe magnet.

Oi oi, the Lord is hunting, he can smell a fresh Philly,carefull Aaron.

[steve6367]

I know a few of you on here are worldly wise.. or wiser than me, anyway.

It turns out the house I'm in the process of buying has been underpinned at least once, possibly twice, and has had other remedial work carried out subsequent to the first underpinning.

Basically:

1930s built single skin brick & render house, pitched tile roof
Underpinned in 1989 (no details forthcoming so far)
Remedial work (cracks in walls, epoxy filled cracks in brick pointing, replastering etc) in 2002 carried out by insurer
Further Building Notice for underpinning in 2011 (no details so far)


Would you get the details or run a mile? My gut says run a mile even though we're now three months in to this tortuous process..

There are a lot of houses out there, unless it is spectacularly cheap then when have the hassle in your life?