Does anyone know about subsidence?

[LittleBrownFrog]

Our house is a semi-detached Victorian town house. Our town and the surrounding area was once the most heavily mined area in the whole of Europe and there are plenty of 'collapsing' homes and gardens around here to prove it.

Our non-attached neighbour noticed a suspect crack on the party wall between them and their attached neighbour just after a sale had fallen through because of the discovery of a 'mining feature' & the associated drilling etc. (the 'feature' is under the house two doors up from us).

Neighbours contacted their insurers who have confirmed subsidence but this seems to be unrelated to the mine feature etc and is actually something to do with the side of their house that is nearest us.

We have noticed a big deterioration in the state of the (original) wall separating the two gardens. I initially put it down to the cold weather (damaged wall, water freezing & expanding in cracks etc) but now it seems likely to be connected to the neighbour's subsidence problem.

The neighbours have been told that it could take up to two years to correctly 'diagnose' the problem (and information from the RCIS site suggests similar).

We were planning to put our house on the market in the spring.

So... I think what I'm really wanting to know is - how likely is it that OUR house will be affected by this subsidence? I'm pretty sure the garden wall will have to be replaced, but have no idea whether the insurance will cover this or not - if not, then it will take a substantial chunk of the hard-saved deposit on our potential new house

Would I be jumping the gun if I contacted our insurers to see what the situation is with the wall and/or the possibility of subsidence of our house?

At the moment I'm thinking that we need to delay putting the house on the market until we know what's happening. That might mean that we end up having to extend rather than move, because we need more upstairs room

Hope all of the above makes sense. I'll admit to being somewhat 'panicked' by the word 'subsidence' Any words of advice / wisdom will be most gratefully received

[Steve the Gas]

I have had a few dealings with firms who specialise in this when I worked for HILTI. I live in/near a heavily mined area and have visited a few properties where it was acceptable to all parties to install Remedial Wall Ties.
Firstly it needs to be established whether it is subsidence or not, then a solution - if there is one....... normally is.
What sort of cracking is it on the places you have seen? If it is 'Tramiline' cracking then wall ties will help. Tramline cracking is where any inner leaf of brickwork is moving away from the outer leaf- this can be down to subsidence or even original wall tie corrosion.
Somehow, I don't expect you have a cavity wall tho- do you?

[LittleBrownFrog]

No, no cavity walls.

Last time we had the house surveyed (we were going to move a few years ago) the surveyor went around tapping on walls & asking questions about cavity wall insulation & then refused to believe me when I said that there wasn't a cavity to insulate

[Mo]

The alternative would be don't ask too much then if the buyers ask you there is nothing AFAYK.
If you know and don't tell when the solicitor sends the questions you could be in trouble.

Buying and selling houses is a worry.

[Steve the Gas]

Be careful with that, I've heard of retrospective claims after purchase - check with a brief. Don't ask the estate agent................

[foghornleghorn2]

If you make a false statement you will get sued, sure as.

But there is nothing wrong with your house at the moment, surely if mining is common round your way this problem must happen all the time.

Next door has the problem, not you.

[LittleBrownFrog]

Thank you all Have calmed down about it a bit now. I'm not convinced that our garden wall issues are related to next door's subsidence, I'm going to give our builder a call & see if he can drop by & tell me what he thinks about that. Have been out with the man from next door this afternoon trying to puzzle out where their drains run, because there is a possibility that the movement of their house is due to a collapsed drain - but it looks as though the previous occupants might have paved over the inspection opening (I'd always assumed that a second manhole cover in our drive way was shared between the two houses, much water-running and toilet-flushing from next door suggests otherwise).
Anyway - we're not ready to go on the market yet - it was always a feb-march plan, so we will sit tight until initial investigations have been done next door & see what comes to light.
(was having a bit of an omg-my-house-is-going-to-fall-into-a-hole moment earlier on )

[Steve the Gas]

Take a chill pill and chillax eh

[foghornleghorn2]

Tree roots can cause subsidence, in fact there could be many reasons why a property can start having problems.

Don't fret about summat that may never happen

Go have a beer

[LittleBrownFrog]

Thanks whisky time methinks