After Completion
Bought a house with subsidence: what now?
Almost everything written about subsidence assumes you can still walk away. This is for the position after completion, where the questions are different: what you are obliged to tell your insurer, whether anyone else is liable, and what actually needs doing to the building.
The short answer
Notify your buildings insurer first — almost every policy requires prompt notification of damage, and it is what triggers cover for the investigation. In parallel, pull the seller's completed TA6 form and your survey, because a false TA6 answer or a Level 3 survey that missed visible evidence are the two routes to recovering money. Then let the insurer's engineer establish whether the movement is progressive. Most cases end in monitoring and drain or tree work, not underpinning.
MyPropertyScan editorialNot a surveyor
Last updated: 10 August 2026. Editorially reviewed: 20 May 2026.
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- 1Tell your insurer. Buildings policies almost always require prompt notification of damage as a condition of cover, and notification is what opens the claim that pays for the investigation. Separately, the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 obliges you to take reasonable care not to misrepresent the risk when you renew or switch, so this has to be declared then too.
- 2Photograph and date everything. Every crack, with a ruler in frame, and note which doors and windows stick. This becomes the baseline the monitoring period is measured against.
- 3Retrieve the TA6 and the conveyancing file. Your conveyancer holds both. What matters is how the seller answered the questions on structural movement, subsidence and insurance claims.
- 4Re-read your survey. Find out whether it mentioned movement, cracking, or a limitation on what could be inspected. Whether it did changes which claim, if any, is available.
Is the seller liable?
England and Wales run on caveat emptor. A seller does not have to volunteer defects, so “they must have known” is not, on its own, a claim. The exception is the property information form. Answering it falsely is misrepresentation, and that is actionable.
The practical test is documentary. If the seller answered no to past structural movement or related insurance claims, and there is an insurer file, an engineer's report, a certificate of structural adequacy or building control records showing otherwise, the contradiction is the case. If the answers were vague or genuinely unknown to them, it is usually much weaker. This is a solicitor's judgement on the specific wording, not a general rule, and there are time limits.
Is the surveyor liable?
This turns entirely on what you paid for. A mortgage valuation is prepared for the lender and gives a buyer almost no protection — see mortgage valuation vs survey. A Level 2 Homebuyer report is a visual inspection with stated limits. A Level 3 building survey carries the highest duty of care, and is where negligence claims most often succeed.
The question a court asks is whether a reasonably competent surveyor doing that level of survey should have seen and reported it. Stepped diagonal cracking following the mortar joints, openings visibly out of square, or previous repairs that were painted over are the kind of visible evidence that supports a claim. Damage genuinely hidden behind finishes usually does not. Damages are normally the difference between what the property was worth and what you paid, rather than the repair bill.
What the fix actually looks like
Underpinning is what everyone fears and it is now the minority outcome. The insurer's engineer works from cheapest and least disruptive upward, and the first job is establishing whether the movement is still happening at all.
| Remedy | When it is used | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | Almost always first. Crack gauges or precise level surveys across at least one dry summer, to establish whether movement is progressive or dormant. | Low hundreds to low thousands |
| Tree management | Where clay shrinkage is driven by vegetation. Removal is not automatic — taking out a mature tree on clay can cause heave, so an arboriculturalist and engineer decide together. | Low thousands |
| Drain repair or relining | Where a leaking drain has washed out or softened the ground. One of the most common causes and one of the cheapest to fix. | Low thousands |
| Resin injection | Ground stabilisation without excavation, on suitable soils. Faster and less disruptive than underpinning, and not accepted everywhere. | £5,000 – £15,000 |
| Underpinning | Confirmed progressive movement where the cause cannot be removed. The last resort, not the default. | £15,000 – £40,000+ |
Where the claim is accepted, you generally pay the subsidence excess rather than the works — commonly around £1,000, and higher on properties with claim history. Monitoring across a full dry summer is why these claims take a year or more to close, and that delay is normal rather than a sign anything has gone wrong.
Insurance from here on
- Stay with the insurer that handled the claim while it is open. Switching mid-claim creates a gap nobody wants to own.
- Once closed, the claim history follows the property, not you. Expect a loaded premium and a higher subsidence excess.
- If mainstream insurers decline, specialist subsidence insurers exist and a broker is the efficient route to them. Continuous insurability is what protects your resale.
More detail in subsidence insurance when buying a house, which covers the same market from the other side of a transaction.
Selling it later
You will have to disclose it, on the same TA6 form that may be the basis of your own claim. What makes that sale straightforward is a complete file: the engineer's report, the schedule of works, the certificate of structural adequacy issued at the end of a claim, and a current insurance quote showing the property is insurable. Buyers and their lenders are far more concerned by an undocumented history than by a documented one. Price sensitivity of roughly 5% to 15% is commonly cited even after successful remediation, at the lower end where the cause has been removed and the paperwork is complete.
Frequently asked questions
I bought a house with subsidence the seller did not disclose. Can I sue?
Possibly, but it is narrower than people expect. England and Wales operate on caveat emptor, so a seller has no general duty to volunteer defects. What they cannot do is answer the TA6 property information form falsely. If the seller ticked 'no' to past subsidence, structural movement or related insurance claims and documents show otherwise, that is a misrepresentation claim. Get the completed TA6, the conveyancing file and any insurer correspondence in front of a solicitor before doing anything else.
Can I claim against the surveyor who missed subsidence?
It depends on which survey you bought. A mortgage valuation is for the lender and gives you almost nothing. A Level 2 Homebuyer report is a visual inspection with defined limits. A Level 3 building survey carries the highest duty, and a professional negligence claim is realistic where visible evidence — stepped cracking, distorted openings, previous repairs — was there to be seen and was not reported. The measure of loss is normally the difference in value, not the cost of the works.
Do I have to tell my insurer the house has subsidence?
In practice yes, for two separate reasons. Buildings policies almost always contain a condition requiring you to notify damage promptly, and notification is what opens the claim that pays for the investigation, so delaying can prejudice cover. Separately, the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 requires you to take reasonable care not to misrepresent the risk when you take out, vary or renew a policy — so known structural movement has to be declared at your next renewal or when you switch insurer, even if the mid-term notification question is a matter of policy terms rather than statute. Check your own policy wording for the notification clause.
Does subsidence always mean underpinning?
No, and underpinning is now the minority outcome. Insurers usually start with monitoring — crack gauges or level surveys over a period covering at least one dry summer — because the first question is whether the movement is progressive or has stopped. Where clay shrinkage driven by a tree is the cause, managing or removing the tree often resolves it. Underpinning is reserved for confirmed progressive movement where the cause cannot be removed.
How much does it cost to fix subsidence?
Monitoring is typically a few hundred pounds to low thousands. Tree management and drain repairs usually run in the low thousands. Full underpinning is the expensive end, commonly £15,000 to £40,000 and higher on larger or more difficult properties. If the property was insured when the damage occurred and the claim is accepted, you generally pay the subsidence excess, which is commonly around £1,000.
Will I be able to sell a house that has had subsidence?
Yes, with documentation. A completed claim with a certificate of structural adequacy, the engineer's report and evidence of continuing insurability is what buyers and their lenders want to see. Expect a longer sale and some price sensitivity — commonly cited at around 5% to 15% even after successful remediation — with the smaller reduction where the paperwork is complete and the cause has been removed.
Keep going
Related guides
- Survey found subsidence: what next , the same problem caught before exchange, where you still have leverage.
- Buying a house with subsidence , active versus historic movement, and when it is a renegotiation.
- UK subsidence map , which parts of the country sit on the clay belts behind most claims.
How MyPropertyScan produces this guide, and what it is not
Published by MyPropertyScan and written by Ziad Nasr, who is accountable for its accuracy. No page here is written or reviewed by a chartered surveyor, conveyancer or regulated adviser, and we do not claim otherwise.
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