On Wed, 19 May 2004 10:21:11 +0000 (UTC), wrote:

( underpinning)

Because the area where I live in is clay soil, it is a known subsidence
area and many, if not most, of the houses on my road have been
underpinned. Given the history of the area, I would have thought that the
fact the house had been underpinned was an advantage over a nearby house
that hadn't and therefore the buyer would not know what problems lie ahead
or what had been hidden by decorating by the previous owner.

You might think this, I might think this, any reasonable person might think
this, but you will get a contrary view from surveyors and insurance
companies. They would far rather you bought a property which might still
fall down than one which had had serious amounts of remedial work and ought
to stand until doomsday.

This was the first time that I had had dealings with any contractors. The
insurance company gave the job to an overseer (don't know what his title
would be)

Loss adjuster.

You didn't have a very happy time with yours, by the sound of it. Ours, on
the other hand, was excellent. He showed a deal of flexibility about what
was and wasn't covered (in the end, we got much patchwork done after
historical movement completely re-done), and was quite happy to take their
preferred quote for redecoration and effectively contract it to me. This
was close to a grand, so we ended up paying very little other than the cost
of decorating materials.

--
Never itch for anything you aren't willing to scratch for.

Mail john rather than nospam...