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?

So has next door possibly taken out chimney breasts but left the chimney stack unsupported?

I’d definitely be onto the local council to speak to Building Control and get someone out to take a look (agree with PP that BC are often time served professionals anf know their onions).

Take photos with something to indicate scale on it - a ruler or tape measure - and go back to your insurance company with your concerns. Tell them that next door is doing structural work. Monitor the cracks to see if they are getting bigger.

Unless your soils are swelling clays and there’s been a significant water leak into them (possible with next door ducking around) or a lot of trees have been recently removed, I would think heave is unlikely.

@LucyPowell77 To be fair, it’s nothing to do with the tenants. Reroofing where there’s a party wall did need an agreement but unless it’s a conservation area or listed building, roofing materials used won’t be restricted to slate. However the roof could be too heavy for the roof timbers.

When you think of a structure, think of the load bearing walls as the vehicle that conveys the weight of the floors and roof down into the ground, usually via foundations. Therefore issues can arise in the ground (heave or subsidence) that affect the building above or it might be that the additional roof weight is forcing out the walls from above. The walls are incapable of transferring the weight into the ground. Pictures of the outside would help.

Our insurance people sent someone out who put a thingy in the crack to measure movement over time (a few months) it moved by only 2. Something mms and the insurance stumped up the cash and had the entire wall fixed as far up to the attic!

Exactly what @HonestOpalHelper says. Clearly cowboys 🤦‍♀️
Also OP, you’re minimising when you call them cracks! Crater is more appropriate.

I am sorry you’re having this trouble with Admiral. I have no advice, other than thank you for sharing this as I am about to buy house and car insurance and I will not be using Admiral at all. Shocking they can treat you so badly.

Another poster here saying Admiral are now blacklisted and I'd be worried to live in that house until it had been remedied.

Definitely get a survey done ASAP with a structural engineer! I actually ran your pics through Brickwise which looks at problems more for a house purchase and it said likely structural issues and you should engage a structural engineer. Sorry for the bad news and also so sorry the insurance company are being irresponsible in this regard too! But best to take action and do what you can to solve ASAP

Your cracks are vertical which are deemed to 'rarely' be structural which will be what the insurance has honed in on. They usually result from 'shrinkage' in plaster which is normal and safe.

Horizontal cracks is what insurance look for as a 'worrying' sign.

However your vertical cracks are more worrying than the standard, usually a series of vertical cracks next to each other in one area (especially if they are changing in in width, over 2.5cm is classified as 'severe') can be a sign of structural issues (usually foundation cracks that need pinning).

@housethatbuiltme Have you heard of heave? Probably not but vertical cracks are a sign. Also who on earth gets info from AI? It’s total rubbish. Vertical cracks can be an issue and if a fireplace was removed (on this party wall?) it’s certainly something to be looked at. Plus the roof. Yes, the foundations might well be not supporting the house but the walls take the load down to the foundations so they show signs of strain.

Get an independent structural engineer in and get a report. I had an issue with a porch add on and when they came out they said anything wider than a pound coin is a problem.

I would also ask the neighbours if they are having any issues too?

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

I knew you were going to say that. This is almost certainly the primary cause. Roofing and other works may also be causing problems, but this nails it. Removing a chimney breast is never structurally safe (even though everybody does it). Doing it without a party wall agreement is unlawful. They have not used a competent builder. If the chimney stack is still there above the roof the problem is even worse. The strain and loadings on both houses is dangerous, but worse on yours as your chimney breast - assuming it was never removed - is taking all the stress. Tell your insurers this today, phone call doubled up by written message. If they will not act immediately ring a local RICS surveyor and ask for an urgent visit. Small firms will often be able to send someone quickly.

[edit: you said ‘stack’, but I’m assuming you mean they removed the chimney breast on one or both floors, this being the bit that sticks out into the rooms. The stack is the part sticking above the roof on which the chimney pots sit]

Has Admiral any idea of the damage they are doing to their business with this terrifying issue? At the very least, they could have sent out an inspector instead of this long distance guessing.

Hooray for the power of the internet. Good luck, OP.

Not a RICS surveyor. They are not structural experts. You need an engineer with house structure experience because remedial works will be needed. The op needs to know what can be done.

Chimneys can be removed but an engineer needs to design the beam to hold up the remaining part of the chimney structure. That’s the difference between surveyors and engineers. It’s all about making sure the load of the chimney gets supported by the foundations via the load bearing walls.

No one will prosecute for no party wall agreement. The insurance company should seek to recover costs. A solicitor would be needed to pursue the no party wall agreement. Local authorities just shrug their shoulders and won’t do anything retrospectively. Party wall legislation doesn’t have teeth and householders are expected to take legal action. No one else will.

Yes, I have spoke about heave on here many times on these forum as well as other crack causes issues like roof spread and subsidence, this isn't remotely typical of heave lol.

Maybe you should actually learn stuff before correcting people. I'm not 'AI', I just grew up in a family of builders who did this issue for a living lol.

Fair point, but the immediate need is to determine whether OP is in immediate danger and to get the insurers to wake up. A RICS may have a quicker look than an engineer. No need for design and calcs at this stage. The insurer should take over once they realise what their job is.

@BrickBiscuit You have a lot of faith in the insured! DH now spends all his time advocating for people who cannot get insurance to pay up. If you get a structural engineer (they will be local too!) you get a one stop shop. You don’t want a newly qualified surveyor with limited experience of structures and how to fight insurance companies. The insurance companies appoint fairly useless people too to keep costs down. Either they really don’t know anything or they lie. DH thinks the latter to keep the contracts with the insurers. It’s best to engage a professional who knows what goes on and will advocate for the op.

Jesus! OP, I'm so sorry for you. Lots of good advice here but OMG I'd be tempted to get national press to look at this too and shame your insurers.

Bloody hellfire! That's not normal 'wear and tear'! I have a 200yr old house and have the odd hairline crack in plaster but nothing like that.

Phone Planning at the Council and keep on at your insurance.

@LucyPowell77 when you say they removed a chimney, do you mean they removed all the brick structure on top of the roof as well as the chimney pot? did they remove the chimney breasts down through the bedroom and the lounge?? if lounge chimney breast is removed then nothing is supporting the bricks above in the bedroom chimney breast. if they removed both chimney breasts then they would really need to remove the bricks through the attic and on the roof!!! if they have removed all the chimney breasts in the rooms and not the attic and roof bricks then that area would pull down. the rest of the stucture is weakened!! phone the council as a matter of urgency and get them out today if possible!! my city has had at least two building , mid terrace, which have collapsed overnight due to people doing this. luckily, they were both empty at the time due to being saturday night!!

I’m sure you are correct, and your DH's experience backs this up. However the immediate need is for OP to hear “This is significant and dangerous and caused by the neighbour”. Next steps depend on the response. The insurer might only approve their own engineers. If going in dispute with the insurer you do indeed need your own structural team, but you need to know how their costs will be covered.

@TizerorFizz, incidentally, our local RICS guy is a seasoned old hand and nothing gets past him. While the last structural engineer I used, I had to redo the dwgs myself to get past BC. Through my own contacts, my preference would be to get an experienced Clerk of Works from the ICWCI.

Update.

I have just spoke to the building control team at my local council and explained the situation. They were shocked Admiral had not sent anyone out to have a look. The council confirmed no building recs had been submitted by next door. I mentioned the chimney removal and they were interested but said it depends exactly what next have done as to if they should have submitted it for building recs approval. They said the person who normally cover my area is on annual leave, but they are going to talk to their colleague and give me a call back later today.

I’m going to find a professional to come and inspect the cracks. Any idea how much I should be paying? I’m based in the midlands. I had one quote before which for £1300, but I don’t know if that’s normal or not.

@LucyPowell77 the council will definitely send someone out. dont spend you money at the moment. even though the boss is on holiday there will be others, just as qualified who will come and check the building. good luck

You need someone quick to assess immediate safety of the building. If the council can’t come today/tomorrow, consider paying a couple of hundred for a local professional to visit, in the hope you can claim it back later. Look at CABE, for example, and search ‘structural engineer’ by area. Ring local firms. Someone might call in on their way home, for example. Stress the urgency as the cracks are increasing. It’s an hours work plus travel (lower end of £200 - £400?) for a decent initial assessment and email comment (not a full report at this stage), not £1300. I got shot down for suggesting RICS earlier, but if you get someone half decent they will absolutely tell what you need to know.

I'm about to renew my house insurance with Admiral, I won't now. So sorry to hear you're going through this, it sounds so stressful.

Have you thought about contacting You and Yours on Radio 4?