Subsidence, settlement and heave
The house is in a former coalfield and no Coal Authority search is in the survey PDF. Why is that search a separate product?
That search is a separate product. The house being in a former coalfield does not put a Coal Authority search inside the survey PDF, and the home survey is not that search. The inspection can record cracks, slopes and what the ground looked like on the day. It does not order mining reports, interpret mine plans, or replace the Coal Authority product a solicitor usually obtains. No search in the PDF means the mining search has not been done as part of this report. The survey has not decided the coal risk, because that decision is not its document.
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?
Coal mining legacy is checked by a search aimed at that subject: past workings, shafts, and the other matters the Coal Authority product covers. A surveyor walking the rooms does not see those records in the floorboards. If the PDF has no search attached, the absence is the point to notice, not a hidden all-clear. Subsidence evidence, if any was seen, stays a condition comment. It is not a substitute for the search that was never put in the file.
Ask the solicitor to confirm whether a Coal Authority search has been ordered, and to show it to you when it arrives. Read it as its own paper, next to the survey, not as a paragraph you have imagined inside the PDF. Do not ask the surveyor to add a mining conclusion they did not research. If the search later flags a shaft or a working, that flag is for the people who deal with mining risk. The home survey still only says what it saw in the building.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is any Coal Authority search actually inside the PDF you issued, or is it absent?
- Which ground comments are yours, as distinct from a mining search?
- Have you left the coalfield search as a solicitor's product?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the missing Coal Authority search as a separate product still to obtain.
- Ask the solicitor whether that search has been ordered.
- Do not read the home survey as a mining report.
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 the street is on a coalfield map in an atlas, has the search been done?
No. A general impression that the area was mined is not a Coal Authority search on this house. The survey PDF still does not contain that product, and the inspection has not replaced it for this house. An atlas is not enough.
Does a level floor mean the mining search can be skipped?
No. A floor that looked level is a comment on what was walked. It does not search mine plans and it does not clear a former coalfield. The search remains a separate document for the solicitor to obtain. Order it separately.