Just bought house, found cracks in wall... NOT HAPPY

shar46y

A couple of months ago I posted a lot on here about my worries regarding the house we were buying. Brief recap was that it is a Victorian semi and had been underpinned almost 20 years ago. The building society freaked out and we nearly pulled out of the purchase but we were all reassured by a full structural survey (commissioned by us) and report from a structural engineer (commissioned by the vendor in order to transfer the certificate of structural adequacy).

We finally moved in last week and the first thing I noticed is that there are cracks in the walls especially in the main reception room. The most obvious are under the bay window (and I can see one cracked brick on the outside) but there are other scary ones including where the room was knocked through and is supported by an RSJ. :eek:There is also some suspicious spreading of the floorboards in a couple of places.

I do not remember seeing such cracks when we viewed several months ago (saw it a few times) and there was absolutely no mention of anything like this from the surveyor - or we would have run for the hills for sure!

What the heck do we do now? Call our solicitor? Complain to the surveyor? Couldn't he simply say that the cracks weren't there at the time? Complain to the vendors? Surely they can just deny all knowledge too? :mad:Or should we just call our insurer?

We have only been in a few days so we haven't even got all the transferred paperwork through from our solicitor yet!

I know it is caveat emptor but that was what I thought we paid the surveyor for!

poppysarah

The surveyor might have no legal duty to you if you didn't pay for the survey...

Did you see a copy of it?

edit:
Go and look through the paperwork and see if you have a copy. If you do then have a read and see what it says.

DannyboyMidlands

People can often over-react to a bit of cracking, it is a common occurrence in most buildings.

But yours does sound slightly more serious. Bay windows are notoriously dodgy and cracked bricks (rather than mortar joints) are a not a good sign.

What part of the house was previously underpinned?

When was the RSJ installed? Where are the cracks in relation to the RSJ?

What do you mean by "spreading" of the floorboards?

maninthestreet

From the description, they could be just pressure/stress cracks, and not an indication of futher subsidence.

ess0two

Need to determine the cracks???????plaster/bricks/mortar

theGrinch

is the crack evident on both inside and outside walls? how wide are they?

shar46y

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

People can often over-react to a bit of cracking, it is a common occurrence in most buildings.

But yours does sound slightly more serious. Bay windows are notoriously dodgy and cracked bricks (rather than mortar joints) are a not a good sign.

What part of the house was previously underpinned?

When was the RSJ installed? Where are the cracks in relation to the RSJ?

What do you mean by "spreading" of the floorboards?

I wouldn't be so worried if I wasn't aware of the history of the house

It was the back half of the house that was underpinned (this included the kitchen). The main room comprises the knocked-through sitting room and dining room, so should be partly included.

The RSJ was installed in 2003 and the cracks (so far less than 1mm) are in a square pattern around one end of it, IYSWIM.

I didn't describe the floor very helpfully. The room has solid wood flooring of the 'click' type and there are small gaps appearing between some of the planks.

kingstreet

Ask your surveyor to return and comment on the property again, before taking any further action.

shar46y

theGrinch wrote: »

is the crack evident on both inside and outside walls? how wide are they?

All cracks are internal and in the plaster apart from one in the bay, where I believe I can see it on the outside too - here it is in the mortar between bricks and through one brick:eek:

All cracks so far less than 1mm I estimate although the bay crack is the biggest. All look 'fresh' to me.

Also the door to this room is sticking slightly against the floor.

sgoode

Is the door catching against the floor in the room with the solid wood flooring in it? If so maybe the door hasn't be planed off correctly to accommodate the extra thickness of floor? Gaps can appear in solid or laminate floors from where they expand and contract. They shouldn't if properly clicked together but sometimes still can happen.

ruggedtoast

You probably shouldnt panic. If two surveys gave it a clean bill recently its unlikely that much has changed since then. You do notice a lot more wrong when you buy somewhere, because you have all the time in the world to look at things.

If that lot has happened in the last two months than by Autumn it will probably have fallen down altogether. In which case the insurance will give you a new one.

Sorted.