Worrying about cracks in a house looking to buy

robmiller667

I am looking at buying a detached house built in the 1970s. The place needs some modernisation, e.g. new kitchen, bathroom, some internal replastering which is acceptable. What I did notice is that there are some cracks in the wall on the first floor and whilst I know this sort of thing will be picked up on a survey I wanted to get some feedback from the forum as to whether this is something to worry about at this stage of the process.

There is a visible crack in each upstairs bedroom, they start just under the windowsill and run down to the skirting board, one goes vertically and the other is more jagged.

On the exterior of the same wall we can see fine cracks that radiate out from the window frame both under and above the frame. These were thin and didn't correspond directly to the ones that we saw on the interior.

We also saw similar fine cracks on the exterior of the rear of the property.

Does anyone have experience of this? Should I get a surveyor in to have a look before putting an offer in?

Any advice gratefully received.

Lord_Dante

We have something similar in the house we want to buy. We've made an offer subject to survey. Just waiting for the survey to be done but they'll tell us what needs doing or needs to be looked at by a professional. I'll then use this information with some quotes on repair work to negotiate a price reduction if needed.

You find that the bank/mortgage providor will want a survey doing themselves anyway so paying out now may result in you paying out twice. Plus you have the unknown of will they accept your offer anyway before you even get to the survey stage. Hope that helps

robmiller667

Thanks Dante, the last couple of lines of your reply is what I am trying to avoid I guess, paying out for two surveys.

I want to minimise the risk we are getting into something that will be expensive to fix but to establish this before I put an offer in.

I take it you considered the price of your own survey to be an acceptable cost to establish an accurate picture of what needs to be done?

Lord_Dante

Yes as my logic is that the survey will show up for every buyer who will no doubt want the price of the work taking off so if they decline lowering it and we walk away the next buyer will go through the same, offer, survey, work needs doing etc etc.

I hope anyway! Haha. All offers can be made subject to survey anyway and you can still walk away at least you'll only pay for one survey.

poppysarah

Are you a cash buyer? Do you have buckets of cash?

maninthestreet

Those cracks sound like pressure cracks. They aren't indicative of any movement caused by subsidence.

robmiller667

poppysarah wrote: »

Are you a cash buyer? Do you have buckets of cash?

I don't have buckets of cash sitting around, why do you ask?

robmiller667

maninthestreet wrote: »

Those cracks sound like pressure cracks. They aren't indicative of any movement caused by subsidence.

Thanks for the reply, do pressure cracks get worse over time, is it something that you can fill and paint over, knowing that you might need to do the same again in a couple of years?