Cracks in walls with pics attached

[Surfr101]

Im about to put an offer on a 1930s 3 bed semi, but have some concerns about some of the cracks in the ceiling. Each room has long hairline cracks, but the bedroom 3 at the rear right corner of the house has lots of obvious cracks around the room and especially what appears to be a column. See pics.

A shot of the rear seems to look like a crack running from the bottom left of the window in the same room. The room below has water leaking into a bucket below and im wondering if the water is leaking through the crack and down into the ceiling. View media item 15725 View media item 15726 View media item 15727

 

[Surfr101]

Here is a pic of the leak below View media item 15732

 

[stem]

I had similar cracks in the ceiling & walls of my upstairs rooms and posted some photos of one of the walls on here a couple of years ago. The replies suggested that the wall cracks were superficial so I chopped out a couple of inches either side of them and re-plastered. They've not reappeared to date.

Looking at your photo's though it appears to me that the cracks are in the ceiling plasterboard which is probably just fastened to joists and not part of anything structural anyway.

Regarding the crack beneath the window that may be because of the knocking through into extension below. Perhaps the wall is not properly supported by a steel or concrete beam, or that it was allowed to drop when said beam was installed. A solicitor can usually confirm the presence of building regulation inspection regarding extensions, which would indicate it was done correctly.

I'm not an expert, and it's difficult to tell from photographs. A survey before buying a property is a wise investment anyway.