On Sat, 18 Jul 2015 16:20:34 +0100 (BST) Dave Liquorice wrote :
If you can't get insurance that indicates a serious problem with the
propetry not a place "needing a bit of work". Amongst other things it
means it's in a flood zone, has serious structural problems, close to
a quickly erroding coastline, etc.

Not always that simple. Short story: houseowner gets mate to build
porch. Porch suffers subsidence. Insurance pays for professional
underpinning which gets BR approval, which later shows up on search
when nephew wants to buy said house and this makes it uninsurable. With
non underpinned wonky porch he'd have been ok.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia www.greentram.com