ABSTRACT
Most surveyors and valuers get very nervous when they come across a building that has been damaged by building movement. This often results in recommendations for further specialist investigations especially by less experienced or less confident surveyors. This is despite the studies by the BRE (1990, p.2) which have shown that the majority of houses underpinned following the dry summer of 1976 were only exhibiting minimal signs of damage. This high level of underpinning activity still continues. According to the Association of British Insurers (1998) in 1998 there were nearly 40,000 individual claims costing in the region of £400 million.
