Sale Agreed & Confirmed Subsidence

At the moment, we are sale agreed on a home in Cork since just before Xmas.

Yesterday our solicitor rang to say she had received the contracts and also there was some documents relating to work performed to fix the subsidence on the property in early 2007.

Now, we were told by the estate agent when looking at this house that there was small water damage claim ("someone left a tap on") is apparently code from these thieves for "a massive subsidence claim to the tune EUR 90K".

The estate agent's behavior is typical but not the point here. Now that we know there was a subsidence problem and it has been fixed is this something we should still go ahead with?

I couldn't find any other posts where someone tried successfully insure a property that was fixed. I don't have it my hand yet but there was a cert of completion for the work done too although I won't know all the details until I see it myself. Does anyone have personal experience here?

Down the road if we go to sell this property how long would it have to be (generally) before we don't need to send these same subsidence documents with the contracts. I'm thinking that after 10 years without any further problems you could let this go?

Many thanks!

...JM

I suspect similar housing info packs will be introduced here along the lines of those in Europe ,which tell the whole history of the property and this information would have to be included in it.I remember on my insurance proposal there was a question about past subsidence and i think it would affect your premium. I would investigate the full reason for the subsidence and an in dept explanation of what and how the problem was fixed.Future buyers will have the same reservations as you have now.I would haggle alot more with this new info.

oblib, i would not buy a house with a history of subsidence. yes your insurance premiums will be very high if you can get insurance at all in fact. my sister law in the UK had subsidence on her house about 5 years ago, did an insurance claim, had the work done etc, house all ok but she tried to sell 2 years ago and as soon as subsidence was mentioned potential purchasers walked away. she has approached a few agents and they said they will struggle to get her the market value and she may have to take a massive reduction even though the house is perfect.
with all the houses for sale in Ireland, why buy one with subsidence. this ia a major investment on your part, so why risk losing money.
anyway, you should have been informed much earlier in the sale of this problem. why dont you phone a couple of insurance companies for a quote?

Lorna - thanks for sharing your experience. The house has already been under-pinned by the vendor last spring.

Although we are prepared to walk-away from this one, in one hand we think that if it has already been through the worst (subsidence occured & was fixed) it might be safer than the neighbours house who's home is only 'prone' to subsidence for example.

Gobstopper - we definately won't be paying the price we agreed with the estate agent if we do go any further. Also, I think youre right about those info packs...probably only a few years away.

Subsidence is fairly common in Cork it wouldnt have the same scare factor as in other areas
Why dont you have a ring around the insurance companies and check the difference in quotes then factor this in to the price -

Walk away its not worth the hassle, unless you fancy a yearly trudge round insurance brokers trying to insure the place, having to produce mountains of paperwork and guarantees certifying the repair and worst of all the complete pain in the neck you'll be facing if you ever need to sell the place.....

We organized a structural survey before we had any inclination of this subsidence factor. Initially we thought it was only a small water damage claim at issue her.

In fact though - the structural survey was done just before we got the contracts and subsidence claim documents and your man didn't find any evidence of this...although now he is certainly going to have a second look! I suspect he will refer us to other 3rd party service providers to have additional tests, etc.

My final fear is selling the place on at the end of this all...all these opinions will help us to make up our mind.