Was it a house with a basement or slab-on-grade? A foundation shouldn't be constructed on previously disturbed soil unless there's an engineer giving guidance for proper site prep.

As long as the entire structure was removed (including the foundations, undergound pipes and wires and tanks, etc.) and the soil bearing capacity is sufficient for the new structure, it should not be a problem.

Shouldn't be a problem, built quite a few new homes were old houses were demoed.

You are right to be concerned about building on a site where former structures were demolished.

Mark Bischak provided a good list of the considerations. I suggest you have a geotechnical engineer inspect the excavation before the footings are placed to ensure it satisfies the various requirements.

I'd also suggest your attorney ensure your construction contract includes specific language which protects you with regard to underground conditions that may be encountered. For example, how the costs of additional excavation, concrete, reinforcing, etc. will be charged if needed to address underground conditions.

Our builder and excavator strongly advised us to not have any part of our new house foundation within 10 ft of the old foundation that had just been torn down. However, our old house had a basement and new house will as well. I’m not sure if that made the difference or not. We have plenty of land, though, so it wasn’t a big deal for us to not use some of the existing “hole.”

I forgot to list "ancient burial ground".

get a soil compaction test. That way you can ensure that everything was removed and it's stable enough to build on. If there was septic or any tanks - your permitting municipality ought to be able to tell you that and if they were "retired" or removed.

But still test. (Not that I don't trust an excavation contractor not to cut corners and just bury a bunch of crap instead of hauling it to the waste site and paying the fees....)

@Mark Bischak, Architect

Reminds me a while back a customer purchased a house and there was an illegal structure that the previous homeowner put up... I did the demo on the structure after they moved in. About 6-8 years later they decided to subdivide the lot and started to put the paperwork together and when they went for a zoning approval it turned out there was an old Pet Cemetery there. Beats me how that issue never came up during the purchase phase.

This is what we did. Depending on where you live, like us, there is no other option. We live in a well established area with no random empty plots of land. All have homes on them. Every new build here replaced a house torn down.