What does Subsidence-what surveyors look for mean?

When looking for signs left by subsidence on your house, surveyors usually do have a set of important factors that might trigger the alarm signal. It is important to have a surveyors check your property, because you may not very well differentiate cracks that are present due to the natural aging process, and which are those provoked by subsidence.

Firstly, it is important that the so called “danger zones “ for subsidence are those in which there was major mining activity going on for example, or properties which are being built on clay soils, which is actually typical in the UK.

The surveyors’ list for determining whether damages in your home were cause by subsidence contains the following:

• If fissures found on the outside walls of your house exactly corresponds to the fissures he finds on the inside wall


• If he finds fissures which are too wide to be caused by natural ageing causes


• If there are visible fissures nearby windows and doors, especially on the diagonal, and if these fissures have an asymmetric aspect (meaning at one end these are narrow and visibly widening towards the end)


• You should tell the surveyor if you have observed that with the changing of seasons the cracks widen or get narrower