cracks in wall.

[dingaling]

when we took the wallpaper off the kitchen last summer we found some cracks near the ceiling on the window wall. Looking outside we found similar cracks but longer following the line of the bricks diagonally. The biggest one inside is about 18" long and outside about 3'. We have kept an eye on them and they don't seem to have gotten any worse, but needless to say we are very worried about them. It is a 1930's semi detached bungalow and there isn't any subsidence in the area.Do we contact our insurance company now and will we have a valid claim? Any advice would be most welcome. Thank you.

[pennyd334]

I have just bought a property where this was kind of an issue - the previous owners suspected subsidence 9 years ago, and their building insurance company (the Halifax) monitored the cracks for 2 years, and it turned out there was no movement, so no claim was made. The repairs they did at the time also remained OK, so I wasn't worried when I bought it. The surveyor said it might have been tree root problems from the road where the council had planted them, and subsequently pollarded them. Might be worth chatting to the district surveyor to see if there are any known problems. But it is worrying that the cracks are diagonal - why not call your insurance company and talk to them about getting it monitored?

[abranei]

Regardless of what the cause is you need to have the cracks repaired to stop water penetration that could cause more damage