subsidence

rosesky

hi there stroud greenfolk<br><br>this is my first post. <br><br>I am wondering if anyone knows how much subsidence there is in this area, and to what it extent it devalues a property ?<br><br>There is movement in my house as cracks have been appearing in the last year, and although we already have a subsidence label due to have some issues with the bay window 5 years ago , I am worried that once the main body of the house is labelled I will never be able to sell up and move away., without losing  a massive percentage of the market value. <br><br>The guy next door let a willow tree grow for years very close to the house, and I think this may have been a massive contributing factor. I got him to remove it last week, and am now hoping the cracks will close up....but I realise that this is extremely optimistic *~*<br><br>Can anyone recommend a good reliable structural engineer or/and  a builder that might be able to visit and advise. I am loathe to involve my insurers until i have more information. My insurance is now skyhigh and they are a nightmare to deal with. 5 years on they are still messing about with  the bay window area. How many contractors does it take to  fix a bay window. ...? the answer is 5 years down the line ........we have yet to find out !<br><br>Any advice appreciated<br><br>Rosesky Schmolesky<br>

kreuzkav

The block square bordered by Stroud Green road and Victoria road and Stapleton Hall road and Lorne road is riddled with subsidence.  Clay ground underneath.  Many houses have suffered badly especially if heavy trees are nearby. It's hit and miss.  Good luck! 

Brodiej

Hi Rosesky, thanks for your first post!<div><br></div><div>So, subsidence........it's a nightmare. I don't have experience of selling a property with subsidence but i own one. I was aware of that when i bought it, but i also happened to be buying it off a relative so i knew all the history of how things had come to be which makes it a bit different. It was repaired 4 years ago and so far so good. Londons on clay so when its wet everyones ok, whens its dry everyone gets cracks...especially if you're near a tree.</div><div><br></div><div>You will have to declare the history to someone when you sell it and a buyer may try and knock the price down or run for the hills. The crux is that you will need to have shown that you've dealt with the issue. 1. Found the cause 2. Removed the cause 3. Demonstrated that its not a problem anymore. The issue that a buyer will have is getting biuldings insurance (if thats applicable for your property, if its a leasehold you're in the clear). The insurers for my place wouldn't renew the policy when the house was bought, and after searching around 50-60 brokers i eventually found one that would take the property on....but with a big excess. This difficulty would be the spanner in the works in a sale process.</div><div><br></div><div>My advice would be do works with your existing insurer and resolve the issue. Thats why you pay for insurance, even if the premiums change. They will probably leg it when an opportunity arises to break the policy (a sale), and the issue transfers to your buyer. </div><div><br></div><div>Good luck, and you have my sympathies.</div><div><br></div>

dorothy

I bought a place with subsidence.    Around £200,000 had been spent on it to solve the problem.  The view I took was that quite a few houses have got in coming, and at least this house, had piles of concrete underneath it now.   The surveys I had done gave it the all clear, although some of the floors are quite uneven.   My living room by the bay window is 4 inches lower on one side.   The previous owners had a huge file on it, which my solicitor requested.  Correspondence showed that they had to threaten the insurance company with legal proceedings to get the work done.  They also got the insurance company to commit to carrying on the policy in the future and I continued the policy with the same insurer, and was able to quote their letter with their promise to do so.  It's no more expensive than the insurance on my old property, probably slightly cheaper in fact.<div><br></div><div>I agree with Brodiej, you need to pursue your insurance company, and be prepared for a battle.    When I was asking around about underpinning, the advice I got was that it was important that the whole length of the wall is underpinned rather than just a bit of it, which can just make it worse in the long run.   </div>

Billy Bookcase

This is the structural engineer we used and they were good:<div><br></div><div>http://www.mbhpractice.com/structural-engineering.html</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>;

NorthNineteen

Describe the cracks in terms of angle, width and what walls they are in.  We have had a number of cracks appear in our walls this autumn but they have been due to the timber frame of the non-supporting walls expanding and contracting due to the high diurnal temperature range we had in October (temp difference between the daily max and min) which caused the plaster to crack.<br>

rosesky

thank you so much everybody for your advice.I am new to this forum so didn't realise i had any replies till this evening when i logged on.  I am in the infamous square mentioned in first reply, so that doesn't bode well but  is useful to know. I am pretty sure that the recent movement has been caused by my neighbour allowing a willow tree to grow unchecked in his garden . The tree itself was about 4 metres from my house...fortunately it was removed a month ago, but too late to stop cracks appearing all over my house in the last year. He meanwhile has a leashold so I am the one who is really going to pay the price for his negligence.  I started bugging him a couple of years ago about it as it was cutting out my light. I didn't even think in terms of subsidence . Retrospection is a wonderful thing.<br><br> I will certainly check out the structual engineer that was mentiones..thank you for that.<br><br>Unfortunately my problem is further compounded by the fact that we have  a  small cellar that was dug out without planning permission 20 years ago (the builder never tols us we required this and we trusted him) . Although rock solid for 20 years...no cracks there, we are now terrified that the insurers will somehow find out and void our insurance. It is a nightmare to be honest. We never intentionally did anything wrong, and the cellar has remained stable (and unused *~*)  for 20 years  but w all know the lengths that insurers will go to avoid paying up.<br><br>We really need advice from someone who knows how everybody interlinks, and can advise us. Not sure wether that would be a surveyor , a laywer or  structural engineer. I am  a single parent creative....and this is just not my field of expertise.  Any more advice lovely peepz ?<br><a href="../../profile/1058/kreuzkav"><u></u></a>

Ali

Your insurnace company will try to get the neighbours lease holder insurance to pay if it can prove cause

Liz

I'm pretty sure I've got a subsidence problem at the back of my house caused by a tree. I'm waiting for my insurance company structural engineers to come out at the moment, and they have a long waiting time for inspections because of the high volume of subsidence claims they are investigating, probably due to the dry summer and extremely warm September. I have already had a subsidence problem in the front of the property previously (caused by a hedge) which my insurance company fixed after removing the hedge and monitoring the cracks. I agree with brodiej too that you are best off working with your insurance company - the likelihood is that a surveyor will spot the problem for a potential buyer anyway. Knowing what I now know about subsidence, I'd be happy to buy a property that had had it, as long as there was clear evidence that the cause had been identified and removed, and the property had been properly repaired (and I also now know this doesn't necessarily mean underpinning, which is the last resort, usually if the cause can't be properly identified or the movement can't be stopped). Good luck, and try not to let it get you down. 

miss annie

Is the subsidence not mainly because we live on quite steep hills made of clay? Randomly getting rid of trees without being absolutely 100% sure that they are the problem is bad.

Mirandola

<div>Cutting down the tree might make the subsidence worse. I've heard that keeping the tree watered can help stop cracks. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><a href="http://www.treestransformed.co.uk/2011/tree-guide/the-root-of-the-problem-subsidence-and-heaving">http://www.treestransformed.co.uk/2011/tree-guide/the-root-of-the-problem-subsidence-and-heaving</a>;

Liz

@ Miss Annie - my uncle, who is a chartered surveyor, says that subsidence is usually caused when something changes, such as broken drains leading to the ground getting waterlogged, or tree roots growing towards a property as the tree gets larger, then taking lots of water out of the ground during the summer, not just because of the soil conditions themselves. When I had subsidence at the front of my house, the structural engineers dug a hole down and took a soil sample to check for roots before they took the hedge out. There's no incentive for them to take a tree out without checking first, because they monitor to check that the movement has stopped after addressing whatever they think the cause is, so if the tree isn't the problem, taking it out would just cost them time and money.

rosesky

I had all my greenery taken out at the front of the house by the insurers, but i made them do a root survey first..which they did...very begrudgingly. Unfortunately they tend to adopt a scorched earth policy otherwise. They didn't even want to advise on any substitue planting. <br><br>What I really want to do is find out if the insurance people can find out about my cellar...the council once sent somone round (20 years ago)  to inspect it after my neighbour informed them after some small cracks appeared in his wall. They came and said it looked "rock solid",  didn't seem interested in advising me in how to make it legal...but i am now worried that visit  might be on some paper somewhere, and that the insurance will turn up, especially if next door gets involved. I feel i am paying for other people's mistakes here......ie  the original builder who didn't tell me about buidling regs etc and the neighbours who let a willow grow 3 storeys high a metre away from the house !<br><br>I just want to my cellar legalised so i can ditch the high anxiety and  move forward. I feel i am trapped at the moment.<br><br>My first step is to find a decent structural engineer......that i don't have to sell my kidneys to pay for a visi *~*.<br><br><br><br>