Subsidence, settlement and heave
Monitoring pins are fixed across a crack and no dated readings are in the pack. What movement have the pins not recorded?
The pins have not recorded the movement of the crack, because no dated readings are in the pack. Monitoring pins are fixed across the crack, which shows that someone marked it for measurement. Marks without dates and measurements do not show whether the crack opened, closed, or stayed still. The survey has seen the pins. It has not inherited a monitoring history that the pack does not contain. The pins are hardware. The record of movement is what is missing.
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 works by measuring the same points on known dates and comparing them. Pins make the points repeatable. They do not store the readings. If the pack has no dated sheet, the surveyor cannot say the crack is live or dormant from the pins alone. A tight pin, or a pin that looks undisturbed, is not a series of numbers. The home survey records that the pins are there and that the dates are not.
Ask the solicitor for any dated monitoring readings, and do not treat the pins as that record. If none exist, and movement matters, a proper monitoring exercise would be a new instruction with dates, not a rereading of unmarked pins. Tell them the survey has not recorded movement from the pins. Keep photographs that lack dates separate from a monitoring log.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where are the monitoring pins fixed?
- What dated readings are missing from the pack?
- What movement can the pins not record without those readings?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the solicitor for any dated monitoring readings.
- Do not treat the pins themselves as a movement record.
- If movement matters and no dates exist, instruct monitoring that keeps dates.
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
If the pins are still tight, have they recorded how the crack moved?
No. Pins that are still tight have not recorded movement. Tightness on one day is not a series of dated readings, and none are in the pack. The pins show that monitoring was intended or begun. They do not show what the crack did. The survey has not invented that history.
Can undated photographs of the crack replace dated readings from the pins?
No. Undated photographs of the crack are pictures without a timescale. They do not replace dated readings, and the pins have not recorded movement in their absence. A photograph can show a crack existed. It cannot, without dates, show how the pins moved. The pack still lacks that record.