Survey possible subsidence and damp issues

Hi everyone,

I found a property which I really liked and following the offer being accepted I appointed a surveyor to complete a RICS level 3 survey on the property. I have a couple of issues which I wanted the community to help on:

  1. Possible subsidence: The surveyor said the following 'There is cracking and distortion to the brickwork above the rear side walls, possibly indicating inadequate or deteriorating lintel support and possibly caused by leaking underground drainage weakening the foundation. The cracked brickwork should be repaired with matching mortar and monitored for further movement or cracking. If movement or cracking is noted, the lintel will need to be exposed to confirm its condition. If the lintel has deteriorated or is defective, it will need to be replaced by a contractor. He uploaded a photo which was named 'Stepped cracks to the rear side wall' (see attached). I'm not sure if this is subsidence of if this if something related to the lintel which doesn't seem much serious.

There was not direct mention of subsidence in part of the report

  1. Damp issues: I asked chatGPT to summarise damp from the report and this was the output. Is this really extensive and expensive to fix. It seems like the issues are with the ground outside and the upstairs pipe. I'm planning on bringing the bathroom downstairs so that should fix the issue.

My main concern is the subsidence so if anyone could comment on that I would really appreciate it. See link attached for subsidence.: https://imgur.com/gallery/survey-photos-H7aHvuv

Posted Jul 6, 2025, 7:34 PM UTC

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