Subsidence - help me stop panicking!

[Almahart]

We have a leaking water pipe under our property which Thames water are sorting out. But just yesterday I noticed quite large cracks in the render on the outside wall

Obviously it’s subsidence. I think the first thing to do is to get a surveyor, is that right?

And we are remortgaging at the moment - will subsidence make it harder to do that in the future? Am wondering if we should fix for longer than five years

Mostly gutted as I know it will make it harder to sell

call the home insurance for advice.
they will probably send a surveyor (or tell you who to call to arrange survey)

Cracks in the render might just be the render needing maintenance not subsidence.

Subsidence cracks tend to radiate from a window and have a wider gap at the top of the crack and you can imagine the ground below the corner of the house has dropped. If the crack is wider at the bottom then it is heave.
Either way get your insurance company to look but it might just be a cosmetic issue.

Why are you assuming it is subsidence. Render does crack, sometimes houses mive - particularly if you have had a water leak over a period of time. Does not mean it is subsidence, We were sure we had subsidence- what we thought were big cracks above a window and a door frame and door frame had shifted. Surveyor raised his eyebrows at me, had a look, said the house had shifted many years ago and just fill the cracks in. We did, they never re-appeared. Don't panic.

Thank you, you’ve all been really reassuring. I think you are right, the render has cracked but they are sort of horizontal cracks, I don’t think it is subsidence. The water leak is pretty bad and Thames couldn’t fix it first time, so we’ll wait til that’s sorted then get some advice