How To Sell a House with Subsidence

What is Subsidence and How Can it Affect Your Property?

When changes occur to the moisture level of a property’s supporting ground, subsidence can occur. Perhaps the ground wasn’t suitable for building on in the first place or it has occurred over time.

The exact definition, as provided by RICs in their consumer guides, is:

"Subsidence is the downward movement of the foundations of a building due to changes in the supporting strata. It is different from settlement."

Subsidence for property owners can be a scary word; it strikes fear into sellers and buyers alike. You might be concerned and wondering, who would buy a property that has a significant structural issue? It's understandable, and there's no hiding from it; it is a serious problem, but it's not a property death sentence. It doesn't need to be a deal breaker; in several cases, subsidence can be completely manageable, and there may be remedies such as underpinning.

If you're looking to sell the property, however, it can limit your buyer pool as mortgage lenders can be hesitant in releasing money on properties affected by subsidence.

In this article, we'll go into depth about everything you need to know about subsidence & how you can sell a property afflicted by it.

Table of Contents

• What is subsidence?

• What causes subsidence?

• What are the signs to look out for?

• How does subsidence affect property value?

• Selling with subsidence

• How to get a subsidence survey

• The cost of subsidence

• How can we help?

When the ground moves under the foundations of your house it can cause your property to essentially break, as part of the building might drop more than other parts. Subsidence is the downward movement of the site on which a building stands, not to be confused with heave which is where the foundations are pushed higher.

What Causes Subsidence?

Subsidence happens when the ground below a property shifts for a particular reason, which can be a variety of different things. There are a few typical common causes of subsidence which include:

• Tree Roots: You might not think it, but this can be a huge and very common issue. If you have a large tree near your house, the roots of the tree will continually branch out under the ground to find new areas of moisture and that can sometimes mean spanning underneath your property in which they can drain the clay it sits on & cause it to shrink.

• Clay: If you have clay soil under your property then it can be an issue, it can lock in moisture for decades but if and when it dries out, it can shrink can cause the property to succumb to subsidence.

• Uneven ground: The make up of the ground your house sits on can also cause issue, if it's a rockier area, under previous mine workings or just unstable then it might be a risk. A common issue that is often looked for in the conveyancing process is whether you are close to an old mining area, you can be quite far away from an old mine and it may still have an impact on your property.

People often stress if they find a crack, but most of the time this can simply be a crack in paint or old plaster, it's only when the crack is of a significant size (wider than 3mm) that you should be concerned. Another way you can keep an eye out for subsidence issues is if you have a wallpapered room, check regularly to see if there is any rippling.

How Does Subsidence Affect Property Value?

Well, very simply put, negatively.

The figure you often see banded around as a blanket is that subsidence can, "on average, devalue a property by 20%", as detailed by Property Market Intel.

But the real truth is that it's next to impossible to provide a figure without understanding its severity.

Subsidence can be a very expensive issue to fix, and it’s a risk for buyers to take if they purchase a property with subsidence, so there usually has to be a financial incentive to take the risk. It’s impossible to give you a figure or percentage that you can expect to achieve from your property's market value, as the cost of subsidence can vary significantly depending on the severity, and every case is different.

It can be quite hard to find examples of prices, but we have on Reddit users experience and quote to give you a good idea:

You will achieve more for your property if the subsidence issue is deemed as historic, which means that it has been identified and resolved with the problem not recurring, but this still could devalue it, albeit to a lesser extent.

Again, it really does depend on its severity and the cost of the repair, as well as the time taken to resolve the issue. This will all be highlighted during the survey stage of a sale, and being such a scary word when it comes to property, the potential buyer may not have the stomach for the work.

One serious thing to consider as well is if they are a mortgage buyer; it may mean that the mortgage company won't lend on the property if there is evidence of subsidence, although that is dependent and will involve extra steps and choosing particular lenders, which may complicate things.

According to Online Mortgage Advisors

"Subsidence doesn’t automatically mean you can’t get a mortgage, but it does limit your choice of lenders. They’ll want to look at the severity / distance of the movement, the current level of damage and history surrounding it, and whether proper repairs or treatment have been carried out. Lenders are usually much more comfortable with properties that have been fully repaired, often via underpinning.

The good news – from over 100 lenders, there’s at least 49 lenders that can consider subsidence, some much more flexible than others"

Selling With Subsidence

Should you do it, or try to resolve the issue before selling?

As we've touched on throughout this article, subsidence issues can be off-putting and will limit your pool of buyers.

But ultimately, the answer to the question really depends on you and your priorities. We've created a pros and cons checklist to selling with subsidence vs repairing.

How To Sell A House With Subsidence

If you are looking to sell, then there are a few tips we would recommend considering before going to your local estate agent.

1. Consider auction

People who attend auctions love a project. If there are subsidence issues, it won't be for the faint-hearted, but you'll likely have a lot more prospective buyers in the room, with several of them often being property developers meaning they may have experience in buying properties with similar issues. Properties with problems or issues are usually suited well to auctions and will likely be quicker than going down the standard Rightmove/Zoopla route.

2. Keep all of your research, documents and quotes

If you are aware of the subsidence issues, then it's likely you've had a structural engineer conduct a report, and you may have even investigated quotes for the work to be fixed.

Any information that you can provide not only helps them decide whether your property is worthwhile, it also allows them to budget for any remedial works and makes you come across as transparent and genuine.

3. Reduce your asking price

It's not what you want to hear, but if you aren't getting the interest, then you may be left with no option but to further reduce.

Although you might have quotes for the work, and have dropped your asking price accordingly, the inconvenience and problems it could cause the new buyer may be off-putting and need to be further accounted for in the price.

4. Allow prospective buyers to get a structural engineer's report

Even if you have one, the potential buyer may want to have their own structural report conducted, which is something that you should be open to.

Selling A House With Subsidence History - But Repaired

Historic subsidence is when your house has previously had subsidence issues, but it's since been repaired.

Unfortunately, despite undergoing all the remedial work, it still may have an impact on your overall sale price and may take longer to sell.

It's worth noting that you should be transparent about this from the start. You must disclose this to potential buyers on the Property Information Form (TA6).

Providing any supporting evidence of the work may help you achieve a higher price, as they will know it has been professionally rectified.

How To Get A Subsidence Survey

If you suspect subsidence, then one of the first things you should do is to contact your home insurer; they may have specific requirements for structural engineers or assessments and be able to help you with this.

Your next step is to book in a structural engineer to come and survey the property and provide you with an assessment of the damage, with cost estimates for remediation work. You can find these anywhere with a quick search online, sites like Checkatrade are great for finding local surveyors.

You should always ensure that you choose a surveyor who is RICS-accredited. You can find whether a surveyor has these accreditations on the RICs website.

How much does it cost?

The cost of a structural survey does vary depending upon the company that you go to, but according to Checkatrade, the average cost sits at approximately £1,000.

The Cost of Subsidence

In summary, the cost of subsidence can vary significantly; however, one thing is for sure, it will affect your house's value - even if you've dealt with it, which is something you need to consider if you plan to sell in the near future.

Your structural survey should give you a good idea of costs, and is the most reliable way to find out just how much the issue could cost to rectify, but with that being said, there are some averages that might help you get an initial idea.

The two main methods of repairing subsidence issue are underpinning and piling. The average cost of those are:

• Underpinning cost per m = £1,200

• Piling (per pile) = £1,000

These estimates come from Checkatrade's fantastic guide to subsidence repair costs, which also provides an average blanket cost of fixing subsidence issues at £12,500.

How Can We Help?

We understand that a property suffering from subsidence can be tricky to sell, and getting the damage rectified is expensive.

The traditional routes of sale for a problem property can be time-consuming, expensive, and lead to sales falling through, causing extra stress, hassle and most importantly, more time.

But what if we told you all is not lost? We may have the solution.

Our fast sale service means we will buy your property in as little as 7 days, for cash. We regularly deal with problem properties, including those with subsidence, but we want to make it clear that we are unable to offer you the full price, but it will be a fair price for the condition of the property and the service provided.

Finding out just how much we could offer for your property is completely free; we just need some of your time to discuss the property in more detail.

Interested? Get your offer today.