The Student Room Group

'£1m house' in Kingston collapses into rubble

I hope no one was hurt, but it did make me laugh when I saw this story about the house in London they were digging a basement for collapsing. the before and after shots are a bit stark. Not really a lot left to save. Hope they have insurance, but have a feeling they wont be able to claim and someone messed up.


A large detached house in south-west London that was thought to be worth more than £1m has collapsed.
Witnesses said the two-storey house in Derwent Avenue, Kingston Vale crashed down shortly after 01:00 BST.
Emergency services were called and fire crews carried out an "extensive search" but nobody was in the property at the time.
Kingston Police said basement renovations had been taking place at the property.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39485548






After

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7912/production/_95449903_mediaitem95449902.jpg
There may be more to this than first appears. An application for building work was made only two days ago, the BBC report says, and the case had not yet been considered. In addition, there is no sign of furniture, curtains and so on among the rubble. Either the building work was incompetent (or unlucky?) or someone wanted the house to fall down.
Reply 2
Let me tell you something interesting

Mexico city is literally sinking into the ground, and many people have blamed the massive building of homes and upturning of land.

Will something similar happen to London ?
Original post by r3035
Let me tell you something interesting

Mexico city is literally sinking into the ground, and many people have blamed the massive building of homes and upturning of land.

Will something similar happen to London ?


There is a big difference between a building falling into the ground and a building falling down onto the ground.
Reply 4
Surprised a house like that in Kensington is only 1mill
Original post by Yaboi
Surprised a house like that in Kensington is only 1mill




Get back to the FF
Reply 6
okay

why did they need a basement ?

hopefully they are not materialistic and realise the only important things are family photos
Reply 7
let this be a lesson to everyone

be grateful for what you have now
Original post by r3035
okay

why did they need a basement ?

hopefully they are not materialistic and realise the only important things are family photos


I'd like to see you take that attitude if your houses and all belongings was essentially demolished.
Imagine how you'd feel if someone said to you, oh well you shouldn't be materialistic.
Reply 9
Original post by Good bloke
There may be more to this than first appears. An application for building work was made only two days ago, the BBC report says, and the case had not yet been considered. In addition, there is no sign of furniture, curtains and so on among the rubble. Either the building work was incompetent (or unlucky?) or someone wanted the house to fall down.


It wouldnt surprise me. If its deliberate and for the plot then I hope they get found out. It was odd the house looked emptyish or theres not a lot of debris.
Reply 10
Original post by Twinpeaks
I'd like to see you take that attitude if your houses and all belongings was essentially demolished.
Imagine how you'd feel if someone said to you, oh well you shouldn't be materialistic.


I said hopefully they are not

If they are, they will be depressed

Well, their house is demolished, they will probably be sad anyway

usually when people lose everything they have an epiphany.
Original post by Good bloke
There may be more to this than first appears. An application for building work was made only two days ago, the BBC report says, and the case had not yet been considered. In addition, there is no sign of furniture, curtains and so on among the rubble. Either the building work was incompetent (or unlucky?) or someone wanted the house to fall down.


This isn't quite the iceberg basement which has been portrayed.

The house was only bought in October. The designer of the alterations was a young recent graduate of Westminster's School of Architecture. He works for this building company incorporated in 2014

http://www.megapluslebanon.com

Unfortunately its first accounts due on 1/4/2016 are now a year late, as its 2016 Annual Return due in July last year. The Registrar of Companies started the procedure to strike it off the register last year but cause was shown by someone against doing this, which probably means that someone is suing it.

The basement is under the extension on the site of a former swimming pool and is modest in scale.

However, if you look at the ground floor, before and after plans, the proposal involves removing the ground floor structural wall between the existing house and the extension.

https://maps.kingston.gov.uk/propertyservices/planning/ImageMenu?system=DC&fCaseNo=16/15255&caseNo=1615255

Whilst the planning application seems to have been made properly, Building Regs approval application seems to have been made only two days before the collapse.

Moreover this seems to be a property that has been royally mucked about with in the past as the previous Building Regs history shows.

https://maps.kingston.gov.uk/propertyServices/Building/Summary?UPRN=000128005848

The guy who owns the house, a Saudi doctor, has an Islamic mortgage on it.

I don't think any of this will end happily.
Hearken unto the words of St Matthew:

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Reply 13
Original post by nulli tertius
This isn't quite the iceberg basement which has been portrayed.

The house was only bought in October. The designer of the alterations was a young recent graduate of Westminster's School of Architecture. He works for this building company incorporated in 2014

http://www.megapluslebanon.com

Unfortunately its first accounts due on 1/4/2016 are now a year late, as its 2016 Annual Return due in July last year. The Registrar of Companies started the procedure to strike it off the register last year but cause was shown by someone against doing this, which probably means that someone is suing it.

The basement is under the extension on the site of a former swimming pool and is modest in scale.

However, if you look at the ground floor, before and after plans, the proposal involves removing the ground floor structural wall between the existing house and the extension.

https://maps.kingston.gov.uk/propertyservices/planning/ImageMenu?system=DC&fCaseNo=16/15255&caseNo=1615255

Whilst the planning application seems to have been made properly, Building Regs approval application seems to have been made only two days before the collapse.

Moreover this seems to be a property that has been royally mucked about with in the past as the previous Building Regs history shows.

https://maps.kingston.gov.uk/propertyServices/Building/Summary?UPRN=000128005848

The guy who owns the house, a Saudi doctor, has an Islamic mortgage on it.

I don't think any of this will end happily.


Then he deserved it

Why is everyone in London suddenly getting a basement built that they will never use ?

This is an awful trend
Reply 14
Original post by 999tigger
I hope no one was hurt, but it did make me laugh when I saw this story about the house in London they were digging a basement for collapsing. the before and after shots are a bit stark. Not really a lot left to save. Hope they have insurance, but have a feeling they wont be able to claim and someone messed up.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39485548






After

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/7912/production/_95449903_mediaitem95449902.jpg


Couldn't help but die of laughter at "hope they have insurance"
Original post by r3035
Then he deserved it

Why is everyone in London suddenly getting a basement built that they will never use ?

This is an awful trend


There is no reason to believe they weren't intending to use this property.

This property doesn't have the character of a purchase as a "wealth store" by an overseas buyer.

He looks as if he has owned a pied-a-terre a couple of miles away for some years.

As for the basement, because of the price of land, you don't get the square footage in London that most people shelling out this sort of money expect.
Original post by zayn008
Couldn't help but die of laughter at "hope they have insurance"


House insurance does not usually cover you against contractors' risks, so this is a real issue. The builders look as though they might be wearing stetsons and shouting "ye-hah", and so I wouldn't have confidence they have insured the project as they should have done.
Original post by nulli tertius
House insurance does not usually cover you against contractors' risks, so this is a real issue. The builders look as though they might be wearing stetsons and shouting "ye-hah", and so I wouldn't have confidence they have insured the project as they should have done.


Or maybe, and I don't offer this as my opinion, far from it, the owner's desire to knock the house down and start afresh on the site, perhaps fuelled by the expense of digging out a basement under an existing house, has been frustrated by the planners and this is an easy way around that problem. Insurance is not an issue if that is the case, as the money saved overall more than pays for the loss.

As I say, though, I'm sure that could not possibly be the case as there is no evidence of wrongdoing or even any cause for suspicion whatever.

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