Cracks - Are these serious? Need advise please

Hello

During an inspection to purchase a new property, I noticed this crack on of the walls. Please can someone share your experience on - if this is something serious to be considered? Will Building and Pest inspector be able to assess the root cause or will i need to engage a structural engineer?

Thanks
PunS

 

Pretty hard to work out anything from a couple of low light pics and no real description !

At a guess its a 60's double brick residence with rendered internal wall, possible ground movement causing expansion cracking, doesn't look too bad but may require underpinning....($20-60k).

 

Thanks Stoffo. It is actually 90s standard brick home. Crack is majorly vertical and goes from bottom to ceiling. Apologies for the lighting of the picture. The agent mentioned that it is just a paint thing as the house has not been painted for many years but I was trying to find if the building and pest inspector will be able to find the root cause or will I need to engage a structural engineer? This is unfortunately in WA where it is not easy to pull back conditional offer.

 

Has the building report been done yet? Send a note to the company asking the inspector to pay particular attention to this issue and then arrange a call with the inspector to discuss. Many good inspectors can tell whether it’s structural or just paint issue.

 

Noted. I will do that. Thanks.

 

Good advice.
It's a bit early for the WA members, but I expect they may say not to enter into contract without first having the building report

 

Perthie here.

Have you made an offer on this property or just thinking about it? It is common in WA to make offers subject to a Building and Pest however if you use the standard REIWA Building inspection it only covers major structural items. It's a nice safety net and it clearly sets out everyone responsibilities however it is restricted in what it covers so it is not normal for you to ask for a discount for items that the inspector finds that is not major. A licensed building inspector will be able to determine if it's major but they might not always be able to determine the cause and there is some wording in the annexure in regards to when specialists need to be called in.

The cracks do look a bit like settlement cracks which can be quite common. I don't know why the owners didn't patch and paint before selling as they wouldn't be there to find if they did. But it would be unusual for them to go more than a foot or so - they don't often run to the ground as you described.

So my answer is 2 fold - make sure you are aware of your rights and how you want the contract worded - eg do you want other items in building inspection to be to your satisfaction (eg waterproofing is not covered by standard) and what the cracks might be.

 

Was there any cracking on the other side of the wall? Looks like it may be caused by a combo of minor settlement and poor detailing of articulation or movement detailing in the walls.

 

Many thanks for your response. Yes, I have not put an offer. Will be doing it tomorrow after taking to the solicitor on how exactly can it be covered in the contract.to safegaurd. I was wrong and noticed that it is not starting from bottom but it is definitely more than 2 / 3 feet long.

 

Good point..I actually didn't note that.

 

Settlement cracks can be more common in Perth as our internal walls are not gyprock and are wet plaster on brick walls. They usually occur from movement between the cornice and the plaster work and are generally less than 2mm wide and can be patched and often don't occur again. Generally you won't see anything on the other side if it's settlement cracks. However some may well be structural related.

 

I wouldn't buy this property. If the crack was easy to fix (non-structural), the seller would have fixed it (just patching and re-painting the wall and cornice) before putting it on the market. Building inspector may be able to tell you the possible causes of it.

 

Not always - some home owners wouldn't know how to replace a lightbulb on their own, let alone score out a crack, filled with plaster, sand and repaint

 

Plus they are super common here because our internal walls are brick and wet plaster. Cracks are far less common with gyprock walls.
As you say, some won't bother fixing when they should. It might be a cheapie that still has a tenant in it and with such a competitive market at the moment they might have felt they didn't need to.

 

It’s more risky to buy a Reno’d property where the problem areas are covered up!

 

Yes. That's the case. The property currently has a tenant.

 

Hi @Westminster ,

Re Standard REIWA Contract - Are we allowed to add anything else other than the standard Annexure a (major defect, pest etc. and annexure b)

Can we add special conditions like the line you have mentioned :-other items in building inspection to be to our satisfaction ? (feels bit open ended and RE agent may not accept it)?

 

You can add whatever you want in the Special Clauses section "subject to Seller painting the house pink" etc

Annexures are created for anything that takes up too much space to be written in the Special Clause section so you can then just say Subject to Annexure A .....

You can create your own annexures or use REIWA ones

At the end of the day it's all a negotiation. The more clauses you put in the less likely the Seller is going to like it so you need to weigh up what price you are willing to pay to be covered.

 

thank you for your reply @Westminster, I understand the importance of annexures and various clauses...I was hoping to get some insights overcome the only major defects clause. Totally agree, the more conditions the less attractive

 

I've seen contracts where people have edited/added to the REIWA major structural annexure to beef it up with some items they wanted. Ie they ammended it to include some roof items that were excluded and included waterproofing