My poor Mrs (has had a real hard time personally and family wise recently) bought a property last year, after a builders report etc, single level bungalow, wood boarding (fake not sure) on pilings into concrete. About 20yo or so.

There are some cracks appearing all round the house, in particular is not hairline, more like 1mm and runs once diagonal and once vertical. Directly only the outside the cement sheeting (forget name) is cracked in near same place. Ive been up to have a look and I can clearly see where the prior owners have painted over prior in the hair line cracks in the house. 1 of the internal doors no longer shuts either, strangely the rear which sits on concrete slab is hard to close as well.

Could this be due to constant moisture changes surrounding in the pilings? It was VERY dry up north.

Do all piling movements due to such conditions mean big dollars?

Who should she ring first, solicitor, engineer, prior owners....

She has just lost someone special and is feeling miserable now she may have been sold a lemon last year. All building inspection mentions is 1 external crack repair, not 3 external doors hard to shut and 2 internal wont. At time of report there was no internal cracking (start q3 last year, I was away)

There is no law against deliberately hiding major signs of structural defect?

I did notice 2 inches of soil recession from the garden beds due to the drought, is it possible its due to constant changes in the clay?