property mypropertynightmare 3324440 ----- # My property nightmare: serious subsidence Mary Wilson 12:01AM BST 05 May 2004 [Comments][1] **How to deal with tricky situations. This week, a last-minute subsidence problem compounds issues with solicitors. Mary Wilson reports** Tom and Julia King were hoping to move into a three-bedroom flat in north-west London. As the exchange date drew near, however, a serious subsidence problem emerged, which the vendor had not disclosed, writes Mary Wilson. "We had decided to move from our two-bedroom flat in Kensal Rise because we wanted more space and a garden," says Tom. "We found the most beautiful, three-bedroom, garden flat, in a converted, detached, Victorian house in Mapesbury, between West Hampstead and Kilburn. We put in an offer last June, just below the asking price, which was accepted." Tom felt confident that the deal would go through, as he works in the business - in the marketing department of FPDSavills - and he knew the agent who was selling the property. The vendor was moving out of the country, so there were no complications caused by him having to find another property in Britain. "He did want us to exchange within 21 days, which might have been difficult. But we already had a mortgage offer and solicitors lined up, so we felt this was achievable. As it happened, it took six months before we could exchange and just before we did, we discovered there was a problem," he says. During those six months, Tom realised that he had made a big mistake in his choice of solicitor. "I had been recommended a firm of solicitors by my mortgage broker, but I discovered it was like a huge warehouse, with few trained solicitors and the rest were only solicitor's clerks. They were useless, but it seemed too late to change them." When the Initial Enquiries form was sent back to his solicitor, the last two questions - "Has there been past subsidence and is there anything that might affect a future sale" - were left unanswered. "By this time, the vendor had moved abroad. My solicitor was absolutely hopeless and the managing agency was obstructive. The only way it would agree to answer any more questions was for me to pay the agent £300. Then, in October, the agent's surveyor told me the property was going to be underpinned." It transpired that there had been subsidence some years back, which had been remedied and had now recurred . "As the vendor owned part of the freehold, there was no way he did not know about it," says Tom. The other mistake Tom made was not to go for a full structural survey, but only a "Home View" survey, which didn't pick up the problem, because it wasn't visually obvious. The mortgage company said it would not lend the Kings money on the property and they eventually withdrew from the sale in November, after paying about £3,000 in lawyer's and surveyor's fees. "We understand now why we were put under such enormous pressure to exchange in 21 days. When we told the vendor we wanted to take a wall down, he said he would exchange only if we did not go ahead with the work, because it would upset the other flat-owners. Of course, what he was really worried about were the structural problems," says Tom. * Russell Conway, of the solicitors Oliver Fisher (020 7937 4515; [www.oliverfisher.co.uk][2]), comments: "It is always prudent to instruct a local solicitor with knowledge of an area. As it happens, I live just by Mapesbury and a good many properties happen to suffer from subsidence, as a result of the local geology. A solicitor who is not from the area is unlikely to know this. Certainly, a good local solicitor would have advised a full structural survey at the beginning of the transaction and pushed for replies to preliminary enquiries, rather than have them delivered a few days before exchange. "Speed is everything in domestic conveyancing. You need a lawyer who is on top of their game and who makes things happen, rather than reacts to others. There is sometimes a cost to this and the cheapest quote is rarely the best. And beware vendors in a hurry. If you detect undue haste, be sure there is a probable reason. Don't be bullied or allow your solicitor to be bullied. The average house purchase takes three to four months and if someone insists on a much shorter time frame they might well be trying to hide something." * Names have been changed. 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