The house stands near a cliff and the crack is described as historic. What has the survey not modelled about the cliff itself?

What is the fuller explanation?

Historic is a dangerous comfort word. It can mean the crack looks old, filled, or unchanged in the surveyor's view on that day. It cannot mean the cliff has been analysed. A home survey does not instrument a slope, calculate a slip, or say the edge will stay where it is. Rating 1 on a piece of plaster would mean no repair is currently needed to that plaster, beyond normal maintenance. It would not be a rating of the cliff. Rating 3 on the crack would mean that crack is serious and/or urgent. It would still not be a model of the geology.

Keep the sentences apart when you write to the solicitor. One sentence is what the survey says about the crack. A second sentence is that the survey has not modelled the cliff. Do not invent a distance at which cliffs become safe, and do not turn the word historic into monitoring results you do not have. No survey level guarantees concealed parts of the building, and none of them quietly guarantees the land outside it. If you need the cliff considered, instruct that work openly. Do not pretend the home survey already did it because the house is close to the edge.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• What did historic mean in the sentence about the crack?
• Did the report say anything at all about the cliff, or only about the building?
• Which worry is about the crack, and which worry is about the edge?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Quote the crack comment exactly. Do not add a cliff model.
2. Tell the solicitor the survey has not assessed the cliff's stability.
3. Commission a separate cliff question if that is the decision you need.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

Which pages should you read next?

• A large tree has been removed and the survey mentions possible heave. Why is that not the same mechanism as the clay shrinking while the tree was still there?
• A crack sits at the end of a lintel installed last year. Why might that be settlement of new work rather than foundation movement of the whole house?
• There is one old invoice for emptying the septic tank at this house. What does it not prove?
• Guide: What does subsidence mean when you are buying a house?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: RICS Home Surveys (Home Survey Standard)
• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey