building subsidence

[gotham]

Does this vertical external crack going from floor to house top on this victorian house pose a huge problem? Im thinking of putting an offer in for the house and will be getting a structural engineer to look at it first. However whilst I organise that I thought id just see if anyone else had seen this king of structural problem and could shed some light on what's going on.Thanks

Nope, but that looks more than a bit iffy for sure.

I’m not an expert but I think bay windows have different depth footings (foundations) from the rest of the house, it could be some historic movement due to that, or something more worrying

Most cracks don’t worry me but that one definitely would. Looks like the bay is coming away which is not cheap to fix.

There was a house near me with this happening (a double height victorian bay like this) and the bay was propped up with scaffolding type supports for ages. Now been fixed but no idea of cost, clearly not cheap or simple or they’d have done it sooner.

Thank you all for your thoughts, I appreciate them, I hadn't even considered the Bay windows may be coming away from the main wall!
Shame : )

I agree with @minipie that cracks don't bother me as most older (victorian era) have historic movement but this one would as it looks almost the whole height of the house and may be the bay windows pulling away.

I wouldn't even waste my time unless it was a steal of a buy.