Subsidence, settlement and heave
The agent calls a concrete cap in a flowerbed a mine entry. Has this inspection identified it from a mining report?
No. This inspection has not identified the concrete cap from a mining report. The agent calls a cap in a flowerbed a mine entry, and the survey only recorded a concrete feature in the soil. A mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from the home survey, and neither was carried out on this visit. Concrete in a bed can be a cap, a base or something else. The report has not decided it is a mine entry, and it has not opened a coal-mining subsidence claim.
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?
An agent's name for a lump of concrete is not an official record. Identifying a mine entry means comparing the feature with mining information, plans and, where needed, a specialist look. This visit did not do that comparison and did not lift the cap. It can say what the eye saw: a concrete surface among the plants, described by the agent in a particular way. That description stays the agent's. The survey has not adopted it as a finding.
Ask your solicitor to obtain the official mining products if coal is a question for this ground, and keep them apart from the home survey. Do not pay the surveyor to invent a search the visit did not include, and do not treat the agent's words as that search. A claim for coal-mining subsidence is not something the surveyor opens by default. Tell a lender the cap was seen and was not identified.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was a coal mining report or mining check in this inspection?
- Did the survey lift the cap or only record it in the bed?
- Has the agent's name for the cap been adopted as a finding?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the cap as unidentified concrete, not as a proved mine entry.
- Ask your solicitor for the official mining products if coal is in question.
- Do not ask the survey to open a subsidence 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
Does a round concrete cover in soil have only one meaning?
No. It can be a cap, a former base, a tank cover or something the visit could not name. The agent prefers mine entry. The survey did not confirm that from a mining report and did not open the ground. Leave the identity open. An official mining product, kept separate, is the paper that would take the question further.
Will the home survey measure how far a pit sits from the house?
No. This inspection did not identify the cap and did not carry out a mining search, so it has no distance to report and must not invent one. Search products are separate from the home survey. Ask the solicitor to commission those if they are needed. The survey's limit is that the feature was seen and not identified.