Would you buy a house which has had subsidence?

Cost of underpinning might be worth looking at.
Also, what does "the future" mean?

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. You don't know what will happen in the future. I'm surprised they can get building insurance.

We once found our dream flat, only to find there were mine workings underneath and a history of subsidence. We looked elsewhere.

Can they still get the required mortgage? Obviously insurance will be a problem. They need to speak to a structural/building engineer, as there are so many "what ifs?" Personally l couldn't live with the stress.

don't be silly.
why did they sell, arrange mortgage, before doing survey?
a lesson learned.

welbeck they couldn't get a new mortgage before they had an offer on their flat. They didn't want to shell out £2 k + for a survey before they had a mortgage organised.

historic and fixed is fine but `may need fixing in the future`, no definitely not and I would pull out

This is why you get a survey. I paid £2000 for a comprehensive survey 4 years ago and on the basis of that I pulled out. £2000 was very well spent

Maybe the plot alone is worth it?
Not as cut and dried as it sounds.

I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole either. Sometimes a house has suffered historic subsidence and a surveyor is willing to say that further subsidence is unlikely, if he says underpinning may be needed that’s a huge red flag. Underpinning is very expensive and messy and there will be many who won’t consider buying an underpinned house. Insurance can be difficult to obtain, ditto mortgages. Tell them to walk away. Their mortgage offer is likely to be withdrawn anyway. Do they not realise that this is why the house is on the market for ‘a good price’?

CoolCoco
Let’s suppose that your daughters negotiations go ahead and all is well.
There’s every possibility that if/when they want to move their prospective buyers can’t get a mortgage.
My dear friend bought a buy to let 6 years ago. No mention of subsidence. When she decided to sell it it showed up.
The situation turned into a 2 year nightmare.
I always said, when buying property, if a red flag goes up, stop.

historic and fixed is fine yes.
How do they know it's still moving?
Has it got a monitor thingy on it?

✋- don’t go ahead with the purchase.

Never in a month of Sundays would I consider it. If it's had subsidence in the past, the survey would seem to indicate that those problems could recur in the future. That could be because either it never had underpinning to resolve the problem or, it did have underpinning and it's now showing signs of failure. The costs for pile driven underpinning are huge, invasive and noisy. The cost for not doing it are recurring damp problems, structural instability, difficulty in getting insurance and almost impossible to resell. If your daughter is adamant that she wants this particular property, I'd advise her to get a full structural survey (which is in itself expensive) to determine just how much it will cost to protect the property for the future and then ask for that amount to be deducted from the sale price. I'm surprised that a mortgage would be given on the property knowing what significant costs are involved in rectifying subsidence.

My house was underpinned over 33 years ago before we moved in.
Got a mortgage, insured no problem.
All caused by the Trees, which were cut down.
If you have any building work /extensions the foundations will have to be deeper.

Definitely do not buy!!! Why would you ?

I would definitely not buy.

Only with a good contingency fund and a thorough engineers' survey.. and I'd get the work done before moving in..

I don't think I could cope with the hassle and stress.

welbeck

don't be silly.
why did they sell, arrange mortgage, before doing survey?
a lesson learned.

You have to have a mortgage set up in principle so that, if you find a property you wish to offer on, you would be in a position to proceed, including getting a survey.

Very many years ago we looked at a house which might have needed underpinning but decided not to buy. However, the house is still there, still fine, hasn't fallen down.

CoolCoco

The mortgage company may withdraw the offer for that particular property as they will do their own survey. Alternatively, the could value it at less than what has been offered to reflect the cost of underpinning.

It depends how bad it is and what lies beneath.

Depends on what caused the subsidence. My daughters house had subsidence but it was cause by drains that were blocked by rubble left behind by a cowboy builder.

A big fat NO!

The mortgage company did a valuation survey which consisted of a 5 minute wander around the property.

I might buy a house that ‘has had’ subsidence, as per the thread title, but not one that is still subsiding. If it is underpinned and has guarantees, and if a structural engineer signs it off as ok it may be a better bet than one that is not underpinned. It’s a bit like someone who has had an illness but had an operation to fix it being a better bet than someone blissfully unaware that something is about to go wrong - the former might struggle to get insurance, which always strikes me as contrary.

A valuation survey is not the same as a structural survey.
The former is done for the lender to establish whether it is basically worth the loan (which may be a lot less than the asking/final sale price.)
A structural survey will cost you but should highlight any problems or potential problems and the surveyor can be held liable if they miss something or fail to report on any structural issue.