houses built on mining shafts

[gramoj]

we have just discovered we have a mining shaft under our house and are having difficulty in selling it, the coal board says there is not a problem

[CheekyChops]

How long have you lived in your house, wasn't this picked up when you bought it?

[bednobs]

are you sure its the mine shaft that is causing difficulty with sale? lots of people are haing trouble selling atm

[Sammy Snake]

As Bednobs says, are you sure it is the mine shaft?

Generally people won't even know that the house is over a mine shaft until they are part-way through the purchase process and have had the local searches done. Have you had many people getting this far or are you not even getting any offers?

[Twenty20]

Aren't the local searches part of the HIPS pack now, Sammy Snake?

[Sammy Snake]

Ooh I don't know, could be - HIPs weren't about last time I bought a house!

[karmgirl]

Are you in the bath/bristol area by any chance?

[jen78]

The search to show it up would be a coal mining search. These are usually done (though rarely found in HIPS - usually just a local search and water & drainage search) but only required in certain areas.

Where about are you and I will check if it's an area covered (you can also check yourself on the coal authority gazetteer.

http://www.coal.gov.uk/services/miningreports/ index.cfm

An environment search would have picked up if it was in a coal mining area but not the location of shafts.

Bear in mind that in certain areas, different searches may be recommended such as Brine in cheshire and Tin and such in Devon and Cornwall.

Who is telling you the mining shaft is the problem? Is it something known locally or due to publicity of some kind or something that has affected nearby properties?

Alternatively, has any problem been disclosed on the protocol forms (Seller's Property Information Form/Buyer's Information).

If a coal search was done it would have given certain information (they come back very quickly so I'd imagine done from computerised records as is the same with environment searches now).

The site also has some info on certain problems associated with mines and such.

It might be that there is a shaft which is not a problem from the coal authority's point of view but may be offputting to purchasers, possible revealed on, for example, an environment search (subsidence, ground instability etc...) or again by local knowledge or problems or similar.