Subsidence
Graham Newton - Chartered Surveyor
You’ve just spent six months finding the perfect home and the last thing you want to hear your mortgage valuer say is that it shows signs of movement and they’re recommending that further investigations should be made by a structural engineer.
Problems like this sound terrible but it’s a fact that an engineer may simply acknowledge that movement has taken place and will express an opinion that it isn’t likely to be ongoing. He may add the caveat that he would prefer the problem to be monitored for a given period of time.
Cracks can be attributed to a variety of minor causes such as thermal movement (heat from the sun) or from a chimney or differential movement (typically between a house and its extension - caused by foundations having been constructed at different levels, leading to slight cracking where the buildings meet.
Sometimes, in ’30’s constructed homes, a crack will appear between the elevation and the bay window. This type of crack may have resulted from poor design but should be relatively easy to remedy.
Another cause of cracking is "roof spread" at the upper level of the building. This type of cracking is usually caused by poor roof design leading to the weight of the roof pushing down and outwards on the brickwork. Where foundations move, because of adverse soil conditions, leaking drains or inadequate construction, more serious cracking may follow.
A specialist Structural Engineer should always be consulted. You should expect the worst but may be pleasantly surprised to learn that the remedy is often relatively painless.
Where a building is adequately insured it should be possible to claim for repairs necessitated by subsidence. However, having identified a problem caused by subsidence or made a claim, it is advisable never to move the building’s insurance to another company. As things stand, it is unlikely that another mainstream insurer will provide cover for a property that has been underpinned or has had a subsidence problem identified.
A service that is relatively new, and on first examination well worthwhile, is http://www.homesight.co.uk/ belonging to Equifax and Yellow Pages. HomeSight uses National Geological Survey data and is able to produce a comprehensive written report on the ground conditions for any UK property based upon postcode. HomeSight is so confident of the accuracy of its report that it says it will pay up to £2,000 of an insurer’s excess in the event of a claim - provided there has been no other claim, or detection of subsidence during the previous five years.
