House with Underpinning.

[Nico1]

My Partner and I recently bought a bungalow and had 2 surveys done, one was a home buyers as part of the mortgage and another was an independant one, neither survey came up with any notice of underpinning being carried out with both stating there had been 'minor' movement but no evidence of anything over the last few years.

We assumed the bungalow had not had any problems as the seller (daughter of deceased owner), Solicitor and Surveys didnt tell us otherwise. Both the seller and ourselves were using the same solicitor.

Last weeks (3 weeks after purchasing and moving into the property) we received a package from our solicitor containing a large amount of paperwork which included receipts and guarantees for underpinning, we are obviously a bit upset about this as we were not told by any party that this work had been done and therefore have taken house insurance etc without this knowledge.

Is anyone liable for omitting this information and do we have a leg to stand on or is it just "one of those things"?

I look forward to some help.

Thanks.

[MustafaTickl]

It all boils down to whether or not you have suffered a factual loss. The dwelling without guaranteed underpinning would obviously be worth less so it is difficult to see what is troubling you. Underpinning is a perfectly dependable form of foundation.

[Nico1]

Many thanks for your reply.

I am not concerned that it has been underpinned, more so that we were not told prior to purchasing the property and were therefore not given an opportunity to review all the facts relating to the house to make a decision based on it.

I feel a bit upset that our solicitor who was also the sellers solicitor, was informed of this (as I have found out today) by the seller but did not inform us. I would have thought that our solicitor was obliged to inform us of this as he was acting in our interests.

Its the principle of it all, especially when spending hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Am I in a position to complain?

[themas]

It is not normally a good idea for the same solicitor to act for buyer and seller. It can easily lead to conflicts of interest - which it seems may be what has happened here.

You might have grounds for complaint that your solicitor did not keep you properly informed but, unless the market value of the house is less than a comparable one which has not suffered subsidence, it is not easy to see what you have lost. The only other possibility is that your insurance premium may increase once the insurer is aware of the underpinning - or you may have difficulty getting insurance.

Nonetheless, you are entitled to a proper explanation from the solicitor as to why he did not inform you.

If you want to follow the formal complaint route, go to the Law Society website to find out the procedure.

[Nico1]

Many thanks Themas....will request an explaination from the Solicitor. Just a bit miffed by it all.

[Curry King]

It is a fact that you never use the same solicitor or the one the estate agent recommends if you are buying a house off them. They knew about the underpinning and kept it away from you. I bought a house two years ago and I remember my solicitor pointing out to us things likes you cannot build an extension on the back because of the drain etc.