Subsidence, settlement and heave
Glass tape across a crack is dated in the seller's handwriting. Is that tape a monitoring record the surveyor owns?
No. Glass tape dated in the seller's handwriting is not a monitoring record the surveyor owns. It is a mark the seller, or someone for them, put across the crack. The survey did not set the tape, did not measure movement over time, and did not adopt that date as its own datum. A dated strip can show that someone looked on a day they wrote down. It does not show the width then, whether the crack has moved since, or that a proper monitoring regime was followed.
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?
Monitoring, when it is done properly, uses a method that can be repeated: fixed points, dates kept by the person doing the work, and readings that can be compared. A handwritten date on glass tape has none of that chain. The surveyor can record that the tape is there, that the writing appears to be the seller's, and that the crack is still visible. Those are observations. They do not transfer ownership of the record to the survey, and they do not turn one date into a history of movement.
Ask the solicitor whether any formal monitoring, engineer's report or insurance file exists, and keep the seller's tape as a photograph in the papers rather than as the survey's data. If you need a record of movement, that is a new instruction with its own dates. Do not tell a lender the crack has been stable because a date was written on the glass. The survey has not said that.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did the surveyor set the glass tape or only find it in place?
- Does the handwritten date include widths or later readings?
- Is any insurance monitoring file still outside this report?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the dated tape as the seller's mark, not the survey's record.
- Ask the solicitor for any formal monitoring or insurance file.
- Do not tell a lender the crack is stable because of the handwriting.
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 a single date prove the crack has stopped?
No. One date shows when someone wrote on the tape. It does not show a start width, an end width, or a period of no movement. The survey did not take those readings and does not own the tape as a monitor. Stability would need a proper series, which this visit does not contain. Leave that claim unmade.
Can the buyer adopt the tape and carry on the same record?
You can photograph it, but you cannot honestly continue a record that has no method behind it. A new monitor would start its own dates and its own measurements. The survey will not stitch the seller's handwriting into that new series. Tell anyone who asks that the tape was found, not commissioned, and that the surveyor does not own it.