"Jo" wrote in message
...
We have recently moved house and in the past couple of months have
experienced a large amount of cracking in the property. We feel that this
is largely due to the heavy snowfall/wet weather etc and the surounding
soil being very much clay-based.
However, a largish crack at the front of the house has worried us and a
structural surveyor has suggested that this is due to a climbing rose tree
which is planted outside the front of the house. We are dubious as we
weren't aware that such plants were deep rooted.
Is this likely to be the case? We do not know an awful lot (if anything)
about roses so any info would be helpful.

The short answer is no, a climbing rose will not cause your house to crack.
He's just trying to get away with it!
I know this as I've had to have my house underpinned which fortunately my
insurance company didn't try to blame on my conifers near the house, let
alone a rose.
They were really good about it.
I had four years of monitoring the cracks, but they bit the bullet in the
end. £23,000 worth of work to the side and back of my house in 2003, but
now the front is cracking and I hardly dare tell them.
Not least because it was a dreadful experience and I don't want to go
through it again. I'm trying to ignore the cracks breaking through the
wallpaper.
Tina