Hi,
We're house hunting. One place which we particularly like is a bay- fronted victorian terrace. We're a little bit suspicious that there may be subsidence problems with the bay, although the agent says there's not. Some similar houses nearby have had this. The solution usually is just to tie the bay back to the main structure with some kind of metal bars in the brickwork - no underpinning.
Before we spend any money on surveys/searches I'd like to do a bit of detective work. Is work like that notifiable to the council, either for planning purposes or building regs? I've a feeling that underpinning is, but I'm not so sure about the relatively minor "cosmetic" fixing-up of cracks.
Anita