Lender insisting on structural engineer report- movement. Any happy stories?

[QueenOwl]

Urgh.

Currently selling an old (early 1920s I think) house.

I'm not surprised that the survey has flagged movement up as a concern as it's an old house and there is crack in one of the bedroom walls. Thankfully not a wide crack, more hairline territory, but a crack nonetheless. Could be that another problem has been spotted, I don't know, we haven't noticed anything else.

Buyers lender understandably won't proceed without a report from a structural engineer, which has been arranged.

Our EA was reassuring when she broke the news, 'surveyors covering their backs', 'lenders extra cautious due to Covid' blah blah blah, but I can feel panic rising.

Obviously no one here can tell me whether there is a serious issue or not, but if anyone has any calming happy stories about good outcomes in similar situations I'd love the reassurance while we wait!

Lenders are being ridiculous at the moment. Hairline crack in a 1920’s house is nothing, if all the windows and doors are opening/closing without problems and there are no zig zag cracks in the exterior, particularly around windows and doors then it’s unlikely there’s a problem.
Our buyers had to pay out for a red ash test to satisfy their lender, despite the fact that the floors are suspended timber ( only concrete floors are affected) and there is a minimum 1 metre void to bare earth, no hardcore in sight.
The bloke came to do the test and wrote a report stating there was nothing for him to take a sample of.

Thank you @GenderApostate19, just the sort of reassurance I was looking for.

Not noticed any external cracks, although we now live the opposite end of the country to this house (being sold due to relocation) so I can't go and look again to put my mind at rest! My imagination is now conjuring up all sorts of awfulness.

Buying / selling is so bloody stressful. All surveyors / conveyancers want to do is cover their arses.

It’s a 100 year old house , the one we’re selling is 60 years old, I’d like to see the state of some new builds in 60-100 years !

My gran’s house was sold last year with HUGE cracks - well, not actually big enough to put a finger into it, but larger than hairline. It was also a 1920s house.

Am I buying your house OP? We have literally just been through this as the buyers.

Crack in bedroom wall (a bit bigger than hairline, though) and solicitor wanted us to get structural report before he would advise our lender. £1k later, structural engineer has deemed the house fine, and the sale is proceeding. Definitely a case of solicitor being overly cautious at seeing the words “potential movement” on our buildings survey and assuming subsidence.

Surveyors have always run scared of cracks. It’s not new. They simply want a more qualified/specialist engineer to decide what the crack is. They won’t take responsibility so defer to someone with appropriate insurance who will. If no cracking externally I wouldn’t worry. Cracks that make you worry are obvious. The internal cracks would be more than hairline too.

I’d like to see the state of some new builds in 60-100 years !

Indeed @GenderApostate19! They don't make houses like they used to!!

Am I buying your house OP? We have literally just been through this as the buyers.

I wish you were my buyers @SheWouldNever, I'd know everything was ok then! Glad it worked out for you (well, apart from the expense!).

1k is a lot! Our buyers have asked us to go halves (which we happily agreed to) but the total price was less than half of that

Really appreciate all the replies, I am feeling so much better about it. What will be will be but you've saved me a month of fretting either way!

It was a lot more than my initial google search told me it would be too @QueenOwl Got 3 local quotes and all were between £800 - £1300 (SE London). Didn’t attempt to go 50/50 with the seller because we were already negotiating a substantial amount of money off for other things the survey brought up. I’d say you stand a very good chance of it all being OK, you’d probably already know if you had a severe movement issue, and in my recent experience I’ve definitely realised that both surveyors and solicitors are very cautious with this stuff at the mere mention of cracks and potential movement.

There are countless issues with post ww2 houses. Rusting wall ties. Insufficient foundations, cheap bricks which are too porous, pebble dash coving up cheap materials, non standard construction eg Airey houses, asbestos - yes they were all great 60-70 years ago! Not to mention prefabs. Modern houses will last longer.

Yes this happened to us recently on a remortgage as we have cracks in our Victorian house (we were looking to secure some extra borrowing for some renovation which will hopefully also fix the crack issues). The structural engineer was very reassuring and gave the house a clean bill of health and the new lender then lent the whole amount we’d asked for. It was very stressful at the time but it all turned out fine. The engineer’s report said to repair the cracks when we renovate and to keep an eye on the height of a couple of the trees.

Perhaps get the trees pruned? Take the tops out? The SE is worried they might get too big and drink water so make the soil around your house dry. This can lead to subsidence. Therefore do the tree work as part of your renovation.

@PresentingPercy

Perhaps get the trees pruned? Take the tops out? The SE is worried they might get too big and drink water so make the soil around your house dry. This can lead to subsidence. Therefore do the tree work as part of your renovation.

There aren't any trees close to the house so I don't think that's it.

Ah, just realised that was meant for @Extendmeupbuttercup not me, @PresentingPercy! As you were!

@PresentingPercy thanks, yes we already had a programme of regular works in place for the trees. The surveyor wasn’t telling us anything we didn’t know or weren’t already dealing with on that front.

Sorry for the confusion. I should have tagged!

However don’t cut trees down, trim judiciously

We had this once with a victorian house. The structural engineer said there was nothing wrong and nothing to do or even suggest to do. The couple pulled out because "they were sure the engineer must be wrong, they could just feel it". It was a beautiful house and I often regret moving.

I bought a house once where this happened. We got the structural engineer's report. He said it was fine. Lender was happy. All fine. It's most likely just the surveyor covering themselves. Can you see what might have caused the movement?