Movement - out of the ordinary... help

Hi all,

I am about to buy a property and have just received the structural survey results. Everything is in order except for one puzzling matter that the surveyor says he has never seen in his career. He says that after taking various measurements he has noticed that the whole house has moved in an angle. There are no cracks or anything else related to subsidence but what is puzzling him is that the whole house has moved to the right at an angle without any damage, in a sort of perfect way.

I didn't notice it first time but now I think I can see his point. He has checked it with the vendor who said that they had the insurance company check it and they apparently said it was an old settlement and no claim or repair was needed. surveyor says that in his opinion the risk of future movement is low as he believes the house is stable and settled.

My dilemma is that, will this affect the future value? considering that there are no other defects and its in the right place, should I go ahead with the purchase? Has anyone come across a similar situation?

Sorry for the long post, but thats the only way to explain my confused situation. The house is a 3 bed detached.

Thanks in advance.

Depends on the construction. Older buildings can move without cracking, due to the soft materials used in those days. Or it could well have cracked, been repaired and not moved since.

When you say "moved to the right", do you mean downwards, or laterally like a parallelogram?

If the former, then continue with the existing buildings insurance; if the latter, you might want to get a structural engineer to have a look-see, before committing yourself solely on the word of a mere building surveyor .

The surveyor has - unusually these days, without pushing it onto a SE - nailed his colours to the mast and said it's not a problem, so you would potentially have a case for a negligence claim against him, if it all went rats and turned out to be progressive and not covered by insurance (on grounds of pre-inception damage).

Remember also that this kind of distortion could be off-putting to any future purchasers, should you come to sell, regardless of any paperwork saying it's not a problem.

or it could have been built like it in the "bad old days" 60`s 70`s