Subsidence, settlement and heave
A coal-subsidence claim form is in a drawer and the walls look straight. Has the survey decided the claim was justified?
No. The survey has not decided the claim was justified. A claim form in a drawer is an old paper, and walls that look straight are a visual note of today. Straight masonry does not prove a past coal-subsidence claim was well founded, and it does not prove the claim was wrong. The survey has not read the Coal Authority file, has not compared old damage with the present walls, and does not decide mining claims. GOV.UK's mining check remains a separate product. The form and the straight walls are not a verdict.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Claims are decided on investigation by the body that runs them, using records of mining and of damage, not on whether a later visitor finds the plaster tidy. Repairs may have been done. Damage may have been slight. The form may have been refused. None of that is visible as a straight wall. The survey records what the walls do now. It does not reconstruct the file in the drawer, and it does not open a fresh claim because the old form is still in the house.
Give the form to the solicitor and ask what, if anything, is known about the outcome. Order a mining search if one is not already in the legal work. That search is not this survey. Do not tell a lender the claim was justified, or that it was baseless, because the elevations look even. If cracks are also noted in the report, they are today's condition. They are not a ruling on the historic form.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Has the survey read the Coal Authority file behind the form?
- Do straight walls decide whether the old claim was justified?
- Is a mining check a separate product from this visit?
What are the typical next steps?
- Leave the historic claim undecided.
- Pass the form to the solicitor.
- Do not treat straight walls as a ruling on the claim.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If repairs were done after the claim, has the survey certified them?
No. The survey has not seen a completion record for those repairs and has not certified them. Straight walls are compatible with a good repair, a partial repair, or no movement in the first place. The form does not say which. Ask the solicitor for any closure letter. The visit has not supplied one.
Should a new claim be started because the form was found?
Not by the surveyor. Finding a form is not an instruction to the Coal Authority, and the survey does not open claims by default. Whether a new claim is even available is a question for that process and for the solicitor, not a condition rating. The report has looked at the walls. It has not lodged anything.