Most surveyors are especially wary when carrying out surveys on buildings in the Southbourne area of Bournemouth, so I was surprised to receive the reply to our standard questionnaire from the agent, in response to known structural defects to the property.

The casement window was closed yet distortion in the frame formed a 10mm gap between casement and frame!

"There is some superficial cracking" was the reply to our question and the level 3 RICS survey that followed revealed progressive movement to all internal and external walls, so severe that replacement upvc window frames had deformed to such an extent that the casements would not open and the ground floor literally bowed where the floor joists were being bent over a subfloor honeycombe wall due to downward movement of walls at either end!