subsidence -ceiling tilt

tali

my brother recently purchased a teracced house in the corner of the bedroom is a very small store room, inside it has 3 noticeable vertical cracks running like a squiggly graph from the unconverted loft , the cracks are wide ( about 3mm max) for me to run my fingernail thru them. 95% of the crack width from top is consistent in size with only the bottom 5% tapering off .Outside On the top edge of the door frame of store room is 1 thinner crack running halfway up It is very difficult to run a coin thru the cracks
In the upstairs hallway there is a celing tilt - which is noticed by visitors , however the tilt is not in the bedroom that runs level with the ceiling, in fact the ceiling tilt is no where else upstairs, (a friend of mine reckons it s simply bodged plasterwork) Now, if this is so noticeable , ive read in these forums that if there was a genunine problem the valuation surveyor would have authorised a structural survey - and has he didn't i assume everything is fine - or is it possible that surveyor was just trying to get the house sale thru ? is it known( sorry i know it sounds v daft) for a surveyor(given his authority) to get bribed by the vendor?
You may be wondering how my brother missed such a noticeable tilt , well, he only saw the house after he purchased it , as his wife and sister in law viewed it
Furthermore there is a very large tree in the garden and there is no sign of outside walls with cracks at all
any advice appreciated

Doozergirl

It's more than a surveyor's jobs worth to accept bribes or not suggest a follow up report.

Your brother could ask a structural surveyor to come and have a look at it. I can't draw anything at all from your descriptions! Houses do move though, it would be more unusual for a house of some age to still consist entirely of right angles.

Perhaps if you look up in the loft you will see whether it's the joists that are no longer straight or if anything looks odd. That's where a structural surveyor would look first, I'd expeect.

courtjester

The ceiling tilt could be a knackered ceiling, nothing to do with movement of the building. If the cracks are internal only, this again could be just old /bad plastering. Foundation movement would (generally) result in visible external cracks.

Has the old slate roof been renewed with tiles? If so, this would require additional timber supports to be installed to take the extra weight to prevent spreading of the roof, which could cause this type of cracking. Does the roof 'sag'?

Unlikely that this would be missed by a surveyor though, even a valuation only survey would point up any serious problems as they would affect the risk to the lender. Note - if this was a valuation only survey, this was done not for you but for the lender. It is not a structural survey so you would have no come back on the surveyor even if they did miss something. They might recommend a fuller survey, but they could not authorise one, that is your decision as purchaser.

weeg

Hmmmm.

I have to say that what you describe above doesn't sound that serious to me. But the information you give is far from comprehensive. How old is the house? Terrace position? Construction materials? Any renovations been done (or in the house adjacent to the affected room)? All of these factors have an impact.

I actually don't consider crackwidths less than 5mm wide or 1.5m long serious.

My advice would be to keep an eye on it. (draw 2 marks EXACTLY 10mm apart, one on each side the crack and another at the end of the crack. Measure the gap every month). Cracking is necessarily a problem. Expanding cracking usually is.

And if your brother considers it worth the peace of mind he should pay for a Structural Inspection, by a Structural Engineer (not a surveyor). The IStructE website has a find an engineer function.

(and whilst i do this for a living my advice is only worth the paper it's written on not having seen the property. Especially as i specialise in Tenements!)

tali

THANKS FOR INFO
further info - it is a mid terrace of brick construction built circa pre-1930 , the rear room which runs with the hallway ceiling tilt was converted from a toilet into a bedroom many years ago (however the tilt is also on the other side of the hallway where no alteration s took place)
one futher question a friend of mine claims that because my brother had a large deposit (25%) then the valuation survey is merely a formality- and im wondering perhaps this is why the valuation surveyor ignored the ceiling tilt and need for a structural survey?(although i assume the surveyor would actually have earned more by requesting a structural survey)

tali

THANKS FOR INFO
further info - it is a mid terrace of brick construction built circa pre-1930 , the rear room which runs with the hallway ceiling tilt was converted from a toilet into a bedroom many years ago (however the tilt is also on the other side of the hallway where no alteration s took place)
one futher question ,a friend of mine claims that because my brother had a large deposit (25%) then the valuation survey is merely a formality- and im wondering perhaps this is why the valuation surveyor ignored the ceiling tilt and need for a structural survey?(although i assume the surveyor would actually have earned more by requesting a structural survey)