Crack in shared internal wall - terraced house

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Hi all!

I'm a first time buyer, and have found a little Victorian mid-terrace two-bed house. It needs a load of work, including central heating, but I'm happy to do that.

I'm mostly worried about a crack in the back bedroom. It's on the internal wall shared with the neighbouring house, and comes down from the ceiling. I couldn't find any other signs of cracking, subsidence etc in the rest of the house, just this one crack.

(Next door is basically an abandoned house, so who knows what's in there!)

Obviously I would get a full survey done if I put an offer in, but don't want to get involved in the house at all if it is likely to be structural work needed, as I just don't have the budget for it!

Any opinions appreciated, thank you!! :)
(ps hope I've done these pictures right, I can't find any info on adding photos to posts!)

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You surely can't be prepared to rely on a forum post as a deciding factor. That could be something or nothing.

Get a survey done.
 
Haha no, you're right, I'm not relying on this, but was interested in other people's opinions. Don't have my parents around to give me a second pair of eyes like most first time buyers, so it's nice just to have some backup opinions!

I will of course get a survey done if I decide I'm serious about the property - have already queried some quotes with local surveyors. Just trying to tally up possible issues to weigh everything in the balance! Thanks for the reply, anyway
 
It's a bit wide to be just general movement. A basic survey won't be too helpful, you'll need someone who knows about old houses to specifically look at it.
What's above? Is the roof pushing out on the top of that wall? Does the crack get narrower further down and not downstairs? If upstairs only it's more likely to be not tied in properly and/or the roof pushing it outwards.
Has the roof covering been changed? To tiles from slate?
 
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The two most likely casues are some roof spread or some shrinkage. But there is no context in just looking at a crack in a wall, and the main thing is whether its new, old, stopped or on-going. That textured coating may have a small asbestos content too.

It's needs looking at on site by a surveyor or structural engineer, else you could be put off buying something unecessarily.
 
the crack's at the inside corner of two walls is one of them an outside wall?is there any cracking on the other side of either wall?have you been in an looked inside the abandoned property?look up in the lofts of both properties if you are allowed an take pics of everything or you'll forget.
most of these crack issues can be fixed easy an cheaply enough or just left alone.but that call is for a SE on site.
 

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