Subsidence, settlement and heave
The report says to monitor a crack. Why is that sentence not a monitoring regime already under way?
That sentence is not a monitoring regime already under way because it is advice, not a diary. The report says to monitor a crack. It does not show studs being read, dates being kept, or figures being compared. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed, and this sentence is not that clearance. NI means not inspected, not a pass: a recommendation to look again is not an inspection of movement already completed. Nothing in the wording starts the measurements.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
A regime needs fixed points, a method, a person responsible and more than one visit. A surveyor who writes “monitor” is telling you that a single look was not enough to say the crack is finished. The sentence does not appoint you, does not set the interval, and does not record a first reading you can plot from. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. Writing the word monitor is not that investigation carried out. It is a prompt that the crack’s behaviour is still unknown.
If you want a regime, agree who will measure, how, and how often, and keep that log separate from this report. Ask the solicitor whether any monitoring has already been commissioned, because the survey sentence alone has not commissioned it. A lender may want readings rather than the recommendation. Do not tell the lender monitoring is in hand. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent, and the word monitor does not apply that label unless the report has done so in terms.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What exact words does the report use about the crack?
- Are any dates, studs or readings included beside that advice?
- Who, if anyone, is named as already carrying out the monitoring?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read monitor as advice, not as a live regime.
- Ask whether any log has already been started outside this report.
- Do not tell a lender that monitoring is under way.
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
Does photographing the crack each month start the regime the report means?
Only if you set it up as a real series and keep it. The report’s sentence has not already started that. Photographs with no fixed points and no dates are not a regime under way inside this survey. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed, and casual snapshots are not that finding either. The sentence remains advice until a method and readings exist.
Is the crack rated as urgent because monitoring was mentioned?
Not by the mention alone. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation, and the report has to give that rating itself. Saying monitor does not automatically apply it, and it does not mean the investigation is already under way. Read the rating the surveyor actually wrote, and read the monitor sentence as a recommendation beside it.