Subsidence

[roofa]

I am majorly panicking right now. We came back from holiday at the beginning of September to quite a lot of cracks in all the back rooms of our Victorian terrace. We’ve had cracks before I’m the back bedroom but they were much smaller and we just used polyfilla on them, but these were bigger (about 5mm wide) so I called the insurance company. Surveyor coming on Friday.

I went into the back bedroom earlier today and I can see the outside through one of the cracks that goes along the wall. It’s much wider now (around 1cm). I’ve been next door and the wall on that side is full of cracks. I’m extremely worried because there seems to be a measuring device over some of the cracks, and cement over some others, so it seems the problem was known. We’ve been here 5 years but have never been next door. Will our insurance company cover it?

Good luck. Hopefully it will be easily fixed, fingers crossed for you.
We've had a dry summer, and now ground is rehydrating, it could be that. Are you on clay?

There is a drain in the photo. It could be cracked. If water is leaking from it, it could be washing away the soil under your foundations. This can cause subsidence. I'd get the drains checked.

@BlueMongoose according to the UK would observatory I’m on CHALKY CLAY TO CHALKY LOAM. Not really sure what this means tbh

@notangelinajolie this is a really good point, the drain on the front of our house was leaking a few years ago and I presume these were put in at a similar time. Will the surveyor look at this do you think, or should I bring someone in?

@roofa, a couple of question:
In your second photo, is the wall on either side of the vertical crack an extension?
Inside or outside, do you have any cracks that go diagonally from door or window frames?

@roofa I'd speak to the surveyor. He might be helpful and give you an indication of what he thinks is going on but if the insurance is paying for the survey he may have to report back to them first. There is no point getting anyone else in until you know more.

@vipersnest1 yes, it’s a pretty old extension but not part of the original house.

we don’t have any diagonal cracks near doors or windows, most of the cracks in various rooms are along the edges of the wall joins, or parallel to them. We do have one diagonal crack in the extension but not near any walls

not near any doors*
obv the crack is on the wall 🫠

I'm afraid I don't exactly remember. It involved stripping back the plaster and putting in metal bands to hold the two walls together. I don't know whether it involved anything else (like actually tying it in with brickwork too).

@roofa, it might be possible that the extension is sinking.
To reassure you, in the case that your insurance company refuse cover, you then have recourse with your surveyor.
Wait and see what happens. Good luck.

@roofa do you know what the repair for this would be?

i do know that I might have recourse with my surveyor, but I expect that will mean paying for the work (not quite sure how we’d do this) and then suing his company for costs, which will be time consuming and difficult, and id be worried they’d find a way of weaselling out of it

I’ve just managed to tag myself 😑
my previous message was a reply to @vipersnest1

@roofa, it would be piling or underpinning or both, depending on the soil and the exact problem. (I'm not a structural engineer or a surveyor, just someone with experience of subsidence.)
As I said before, wait to see what your insurers say.

Thanks, I hope the surveyor can give me an indication on Friday, I’m really stressed about this.
the room with the crack open to the outside is our baby’s nursery. She’s meant to be going in there in a few weeks, I guess she’ll be in with us a bit longer than planned. A silver lining I guess

@roofa we're with Halifax but they have outsourced to another company - who initially sent a photographer rather than a surveyor who we are still waiting for. So far it's a long process and nothing has happened yet.

@Myleakycauldron fingers crossed for both of us

a@roofa
Sent you a PM OP, for fear of being recognised.

Claims are up 205% this summer after the heatwave: www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/10/uk-fire-subsidence-claims-extreme-heat-insurer-lv-gi
I'm definitely seeing a lot more threads about subsidence on here in the last year or two. You are not alone.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/10/uk-fire-subsidence-claims-extreme-heat-insurer-lv-gi

Do you think the insurance company will say that we should have known that we had external cracks on that wall?

No.

OP, I would sit back now and let the insurance co do their inspection. Do not be phoning the measuring device people or pointing it all out or take any pro active investigations of your own.

You wouldn’t be doing this with car insurance if a branch fell on your roof, would you? “Oooh, insurers, I have discovered that the previous owners once put a roof rack on it, could it be that…?”.

Give them your surveyors report if they ask for it. That’s all.

You’re right. We did take out the insurance in good faith and on the day we exchanged, we haven’t changed providers so hopefully that will help show that we didn’t know about the problem.

ill certainly give the engineer our survey when he comes tomorrow as well

Any update OP?

The surveyor wasn’t too concerned, said the trees in the garden was causing the issue and that he’d had several claims in our area just that day. They’re going to remove the trees and monitor the soil before repairing the cracks.
Whoever said above about watering the house was onto something. The surveyor half jokingly said that once the trees are gone we should water the garden, and all the rain in the last couple of weeks has made the cracks much narrower

Hi @roofa can I ask what the outcome of this was please? Thank you

It’s all been sorted. Took about two weeks, we decamped to my parents. They put some steel rods in some of the cracks and fixed the rest. To be honest the worst part was dealing with all the insurance companies but once here the builders were great. We’re about to list it for sale so I guess time will tell