Huge cracks in walls

[LucyPowell77]

I'm looking for some advice on how to proceed with the situation I find myself in. There are cracks appearing all the wall and ceiling in my house. A few months ago I reported the cracks to my insurance company as possible subsidence. Based on the photos have sent to my insurance company they have ruled out subsidence. They have said the cracks are just cosmetic and to hire someone to repair the cracks myself. I really wish I could believe them, but the existing cracks keep getting bigger and new crack keep appearing. Today I put a tape measure in the biggest crack to see deep in went and it was 24 cm deep.
I can understand why the insurance say its not subsidence. There are no external cracks and most of the cracks are upstairs along the wall that joins to next doors. While it probably isn’t subsidence, I still think it is structural. Worst crack is now so wide that I can see that the bricks behind the plaster are also cracked.

I suspect the cracks are something to do with the renovation work my neighbours did a couple of years ago. My old neighbour died. He had not done any modernising to his home for a long time, so it probably needed a lot of work to bring it up to a modern standard. The new owners did a back to brick renovation along with putting a whole new roof on. The roofing work caused me a lot of issues at the time and I did raise my concerns with the roofer. The roofer did not like being questioned and became quite threatening towards me. Unfortunately, the roofer was a relation of the women who owns the house and that relationship turned sour too. I remember thinking at the time it was the strangest renovation I have ever seen. Other than the roofer no proper trades people worked on the house. The owner’s ‘contractor’ moved into house for about a year and did the rest of the work himself. I received no notice any work was going to done and no party wall agreement was issued. I am not a 100% sure if I should have received one or not. I don’t know if they should have issued one for the roof replacement. I suspect they may have removed an internal wall upstairs. The house used to be 3 bedrooms, but when it was rented out it was listed as 2 bedrooms. The cracks on walls are inline with what you would expect from a house suffering from roof spread. My house is a Victorian terrace and from what I understand they were only built to hold the weight of a traditional slate roof. I know my neighbours changed their roof from slate to something else, but I don’t know enough about roofing to identify what tiles they are. If the new tiles are heavier, they could have caused roof spread. I know they did not get any form of approval from the council for any of the work they had done. Also, I’ve noticed I seem to be able to hear a lot of what the tenants living next door are doing. I never heard the guy make a sound when he lived there.

So now I found myself in a situation where I have some very big very concerning cracks on my walls and ceiling, but my home insurance company are not interested at all. I suspect that it has something to do with work my neighbours have had done, but I’m not an expect so I could be wrong. I haven’t done any renovation or building work myself that could have caused structural issues. The situation is very stressful. The cracks on the ceiling in the smaller bedroom are now so bad that I am really concerned about how safe it is for my family to sleep in there. I feel out of my depth with this. My house feels unsafe, but it might be overreacting. The relationship with my neighbour is broken to the point we can’t have a friendly chat about this. If the issue is coming from her side than I would probably have to go down the legal route to recover costs. While I can’t ignore the damage I am scared of taking legal action against my neighbour. I fear there would be a backlash against me and things could get nasty. I need to establish for certain what’s causing the cracks. I thought my insurance company would at least send an accessor out to look at my house and tell me what the cause is, but they have refused to do that. A local surveyor has quoted me £1300 to assess my house and write a report for me. I can’t afford to spend that much, but I desperately need answers. Maybe I’m being suborn but I don’t think I should have to pay for a surveyor.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did you get it resolved?

Admiral. I have attached a screem shot of one their emails regarding my cracks

I went up into my loft today to have a look. I thought there might be evidence of cracking up there, but I couldn't see much. My house is a traditional terrace house, the kitchen and bathroom stick out the back. I don't know if all terrace houses are the same but mine has a main roof covering the 2 up to 2 down bit of the house and then another slightly lower roof covering the bathroom and kitchen. The worst crack is almost directly under the point where my main roof and the lower roof meet. I wonder if that part of the building takes more of the weight of roofs. Anyway, because it is lower, I can't get into it easily to see what is going on.

I know my neighbour removed a chimney stack but I think it was purely on their side.

Total nonsense, any part of a building can subside, true it usually is foundation defects but upper level walls can subside if their support fails.
The cracks would not be diagonal along a door frame as the corner forces the shear in a straight line. I can see the cracked brickwork in your picture behind the plaster work, that is not normal settlement.
From the architraves and door latch keeper I'm going to suggest your house is far from new, so settlement should have more or less finished years ago.

Ah, ha, that's your answer, no it could easily have de-stabilised the wall - depends what they took out and what they left behind, could be a lot of brickwork, say in the loft sitting on nothing but pulling on your wall.

I know they are fobbing me off. I have really tired to argue my point with them. I've spent a lot of time reseaching on the internet for information regarding these cracks. During one phone with Admiral the guy I was talking to told me I shouldn't trust what I read on the internet and I didn't know what I was talking about.

Good god. I was reading your first pit thinking surely to god you’re overreacting but this is a shocker. You need to take decisive action immediately. Do you have a partner or family to support you? Must be very stressful for you.

Calling building control is a good call from the PP, as this is likely a result of your neighbours work they can get access to check in there on compliance grounds.

I'm 99% without seeing it, from what you describe that they have messed up a chimney removal, the chimney breast is structural in many terraces, and needs steels / gallows brackets installing when its removed to bear the load increased on the remaining wall. Bear in mind that when built, no one would have foreseen any circumstances where the fireplaces / chimneys would ever be removed.

My house is over a hundred years old. I bought the house over 10 years ago and i've only recently had issues.

If I'm reading between the lines on their responses correctly they are saying the cracks aren't due to subsidence. They are being weasels by focusing on that one word and not focusing on the actual problem ie you are having large and multiple cracks appearing which could be caused by multiple reasons.

Get a structural engineer in, contact the council to see if they can help based on the neighbours doing dubious renovations, contact either Admiral's complaints department and maybe escalate it up to the ombudsman (I think you have to complain to Admiral first). This is definitely one for Citizens Advice though if only to use one of their template letters. Good luck.

@LucyPowell77 I agree with pp who has said get a structural engineer to report on this. A surveyor will defer to them anyway as the SE is the fully qualified person here. Forget about a builder.

I think this could be heave. That’s where the cracks are vertical and these are. So this could be clay that’s got too much water in it and it’s expanding upwards. It’s slightly odd that there are no external cracks but you need to get this looked at because it’s certainly being caused by something! Your insurance company is obviously trying to avoid liability and you need a strongly worded report from a Structural Engineer to boot them up the backside.

I did look into the possibility of mine shafts, there is nothing near by.

I think my insurance company are trying to play me for stupid.

That’s very alarming. I would be asking for a structural engineers report, then send it to Admiral stating that it’s definitely not cosmetic and please can they arrange for repairs to be done asap

These cracks are on the party wall and its made out of brick.

Putting my construction hard hat on there is a lot of confusion as to the roles of professionals in our field, a Structural Surveyor is a cut above a normal house surveyor and the correct professional for this task, they are highly skilled at diagnosing flaws in existing structures. Structural Engineers generally deal with new structures or modifications to existing ones - BUT, as the likely cause is flawed building works next door you need the Building Inspector from the LABC as they can gain access to look at what's driving the issue.

Having worked with Building Inspectors for 20 years I can say for certain they will be able to not only diagnose the problem, but also enforce remediation - and if its caused by next door Admiral and next doors insurers can have a high old time playing loss adjustment games!

unsurprised that you're in a victorian era house @LucyPowell77

I wouldn't be concerned personally but as you are, have a builder come round for reassurance then submit his quote to Admiral?

Before my neighbours started work on the house there had been no modernising done for a long long time. I don't think there was a central heating system. Also, all the windows had wooden frames. I have not been inside the house since it changed ownership, so I don't know exactly what work was done. But it took them around a year to complete and was very loud a lot of the time.

I'm not a structural engineer but that's not a normal plaster crack. Did the insurance send anyone out? If it's getting bigger you need a structural engineer to take a look

I have a boyfriend. I love him to bits, but unfortunately, he has not been a great support with this. He thinks I should just accept what the insurance company have told me. He says they are the experts at this stuff, if they say it’s just cosmetic they must be right.

My mum has been amazing, but she has not been very well recently, and I worry what the stress of seeing me go through this is doing to her. My dad died a long time ago. I really wish he was still here, he would know what to do. He was a carpenter when he was young and he really knew how building worked. I know I was probably very naive when all this started. I was lucky enough to buy my house when I was fairly young.

@HonestOpalHelper DH is a structural engineer. Structural engineers deal with problems in existing structures all the time. Yes, it might be caused by next door but that’s not certain.

Also there’s no specific qualification for a person you call a Structural Surveyor. RICS is 2 years relevant work post grad. No Masters degree and no further challenging exams. They are just a surveyor who sees more damaged properties. As DH is FIStructE people seem to think he understands structures and has acted for many clients with damaged properties where insurance companies are arguing black is white.

A building inspector isn’t a qualified structural engineer either. Obviously building control can be asked about work next door but you might be waiting a long time for any action. Often a local authority has a contract with an external provider and poor service and lack of oversight is common.

@LucyPowell77 Do you have any pictures of the outside? Walls? Windows? Your roof? Their roof? Are you a gable end? Have any large trees been felled?

I did think of calling the council about this, but then I worried they would think I was just trying to cause trouble. Regarding the tenants, there was a lovely young family living there, but they suddenly moved out a couple of months ago. There is someone living there now, but I think it’s another one of the owner’s contractors. Also there seems to be different people living there on different days. I've seen roofer relative around doing the garden recently too. To be honest I really would not feel comfortable approaching the tenant about the cracks. I think the owner cut every corner possible when doing the renovation and now there are repairs that need to be made to get it ready for the next lot of proper tenants.

I do have legal cover with my insurance, but I was told there no history of anyone ever making a successful claim against a neighbour for something like this. My insurance is with Admiral.

The building inspector is the best first port of call, they have four points in their favour, 1/. many are time served builders who have forgotten more about building that many office wallers ever knew, 2/. they have the right to demand access to check next door, 3/. they have the authority to enforce, 4/. they are free.

OP call LABC, tell them that since works were carried out next door this has happened and that you are very concerned about the structural integrity of your house, chances are they will have an inspector out within a few days.

If they suspect next door is the cause, they have a whole army of professionals that they can call upon, and they can demand that your neighbour puts it right.

A house stands for 100+ years with no issues, then a major alteration is made to the other side of this wall and it opens up, as I say 99% that's the issue, but you will need LABC to enforce what needs sorting next door if that is the case.

Just looking at that, I thought "bet the neighbour removed a chimney stack", and sure enough, later you wrote you think they had. Definitely get a Structural Engineer around, call building control, and you'll likely need to go through the next door's building insurance to claim and rectify their shoddy works.

I never thought of that. They definitely removed a chimney.