u/WorriedWell82

I’ve written a couple of posts on this because it’s basically all I can think about.

We’ve received our structural engineer report and it doesn’t look good. Would you still buy a flat you loved if this was in the report?

Context: previous historic (22 yrs ago) subsidence, partially underpinned. No current movement. Has building insurance.

Official report:

“We saw no evidence of any recent or continued subsidence to this property, but there was some racking to the front door frame indicating the distinct possibility that past subsidence has affected
this flat - not just the front wall and bay window areas.
We must conclude that the street trees still pose a moderate risk of subsidence to the non-underpinned parts of this building (i.e. including the top flat), particularly if the local authority were to allow the trees to grow excessively during a hot summer period. If they were to be strictly and regularly controlled at very low canopy area, then the risk might well remain low, but this cannot be guaranteed - budgets get cut and councils cannot sometimes afford to carry out all the maintenance they want to..
The assessment of risk of clay shrinkage subsidence to this property is considered to be
MODERATELY HIGH, based on the above. If an effective root barrier were to be introduced between the trees and the building, severing all the roots and preventing them re-growing.”

Private email between us:

When I asked if he’d recommend this purchase to a family member, he said he would advise against it.

We are FTB and put in an offer on a lovely flat in North West London. It was initially advertised as “in excess of £600k”. We went in at £590, which got accepted.

We then found out through the sellers’ form and our solicitor that it had been underpinned due to historic subsidence. There were no documents, just a certificate proving it was done 20 yrs ago. No movement since and an engineer said there’s no major risk of subsidence happening again soon.

Do we have grounds to revise our offer slightly? We don’t want to take advantage of the fact that we are far down the line with this and due to complete. The sellers seem like decent people and they accepted a lower offer in the first place, but everywhere online says underpinning reduces value of properties. We are worried about resale risk, not structural risk.

If we do revise, do we let the estate agent or solicitor know? We prefer the solicitor as we have more trust that he will relay our message verbatim.

Thanks so much.