Owning your own home

The current owners have had the house for 6 years and it wasn't done in their time. They don't have the documents to say the work has been done but know that it has been. Should I be suspicious of that?

Wary. Our seller had all the documents - except the Building Control sign off but that was in the property searches so that's OK.

As before, if you can find out exactly what was done and why that's a fair start. If the documentation that describes what was done is missing, then you are a bit stuck.

We were supplied with:

• Warranty for the work (expired 2013)
  
• Engineers initial report from monitoring works carried out 1988-1991 (how much movement, what will happen if ignored, and what is causing the movement)
  
• Design specification for remedial works
  
• Tender documentation for contractors
  
  

Because I do generally technical work, I could process this and understand it. And this allowed us to view the information from our survey through a new lens.

I can't believe the one I'm looking to buy would have been the only one in that block to receive the treatment.

Depends on the street and reason for subsidence. You can cause subsidence by have a big fuck off tree in your back garden, or by having a waste pipe that constantly leaks. It can be limited to a single building. But there are are streets where every place will have been affected in some way due to a dramatic change in the water table. The 'why' is really important as you can then see if the reason for subsidence has been dealt with (pipes), managed (trees) or still lurking (dry clay soil due to water table changes).

As you seem to be able to generate a fair BI quote for the postcode, that might indicate that the issue was specific to the property.