Advice after buying from a DIY property developer.

t-1000

Hi

Not sure if this is the right section but here goes:

Approx 4 years ago a property three doors down from my father in law came onto the market after the owner passed away. The property was in need of alot of work and being a surveyor I was interested. Had a few viewings and seen the scope of works anyway it was sealed bids, I bid £101K but lost out to a local builder (cowboy) who bid £100K but had cash alledgely. Anyway after the cowboy had finished refurbing the propety I brought it off his company for £153K only because of the location. So now im uptodate anyway we had a survey all was well according to that so we brought. Now we have had a few problems with plaster cracking, generally poor workmanship and cheap materials being used but last week I found a major problem which has got my blood boiling. We have a large Ikea bookcase in the alcove of the kitchen downstairs, we noticed a couple of months ago that the bookcase was leaning to one side so I checked the skirting and a gap had appeared obviously the floor/joist had gone. So took up the laminate floor and exposed the floorboards which were all original to the house. The floorboard in that corner was completly rottern. So took up an area of boads to expose the joists. (sorry floor is a suspended timber floor with a drop of over 6ft) now this joist was 7" but had rotted away so much that approx 2" was bearing, to stop the joist from falling this cowboy had put a piece of 4x2 as a prop! Thus leaving a section of floor extreamly dangerous as the rot has already starting eating the bottom of the 4x2. He has also thrown all the rubbish he has created into the void thus causing even more damp problems, there is rot everywhere and now needs treating correctly. There are also a couple of other joists which look suspect and he has also propped another section of the floor. The main cause of this rot is that the cowboy has built lovely decking outside and covered the air holes in the brickwork up! So now I have to sort that out as well. Sorry for the long thread and I hope it comes across correctly anyway the main reason for the post is there anyway I can possibly recoup the outlay or have I just gotta give this bloke a bad name.

GDB2222

You may have a case against the guy who did your survey. Apart from that, it's probably a case of caveat emptor, although I don't know what the position is if there is a deliberate attempt to cover up problems.

You might also check the answers to questions that your solicitor put.

carefullycautious

Cripes your a surveyor and you paid 53000 over what the cowboy builder brought for and have now found these problems.

Is there any hope for the rest of us

Sorry not much of an answer Im sure others will be along soon

GDB2222

I'll just add that it ought to have been obvious to your surveyor that the air holes were blocked up. The rot is more difficult to say...

t-1000

carefullycautious wrote: »

Cripes your a surveyor and you paid 53000 over what the cowboy builder brought for and have now found these problems.

Is there any hope for the rest of us

Sorry not much of an answer Im sure others will be along soon

Lets just say he has done a good job of covering up bad problems. I only found out recently that he paid £100K for it after I had brought it. Im gonna dig out the survey and maybe speak to my solicitor. What realy peas me off is the danger he could have put me and my family in.

lincroft1710

Are you sure you're a surveyor????

You don't know the difference between the words "bought" and "brought". You employ somebody else to do the survey and not only does it not appear to have been very thorough, your post suggests you are not aware of a surveyor's duty to his client and the fact he could be sued (which is why surveyors have to have expensive liability insurance).

As GDB has said caveat emptor. You would only have a chance of suing the vendor if he had made a provable false statement about materials and methods used in the refurb or original construction.

olias

I'm sorry but I don't understand.

You are a surveyor, but needed to employ a surveyor?

You are a surveyor, but didn't spot blatantly obvious defects like the fact that the floor was obviously suspended, and yet the air holes had been blocked up and this didn't set alarm bells ringing?

You are a surveyor and yet you do not know about a surveyors liabilities and want to somehow blame the previous owner despite the fact that it is your responsibility on the basis of your survey and your (presumably proffesional?) experience to make a decision on the state of the house and whether you were willing to invest £153000 in it!

As others have said, is there any hope for the rest of us!

Olias

Running_Horse

t-1000 wrote: »

I bid £101K but lost out to a local builder (cowboy) who bid £100K but had cash alledgely. Anyway after the cowboy had finished refurbing the propety I brought it off his company for £153K only because of the location.

Are you suggesting something improper? Don't think I would ever buy a property just for location. No doubt as an experienced surveyor you know exactly what action to take. Wish I could take action against the cowboy surveyor who made my sale fall through a few years back.

Blacksheep1979

Can we get the name of the company you work for so that we can avoid them in future?

PasturesNew

Employ a surveyor by all means, as it'd give you somebody to sue, but I don't understand why you didn't:
a] Survey the place yourself prior to buying
b] Accompany your surveyor while he was surveying, or speak with him afterwards

What sort of survey did you have done?

GDB2222

There are different specialisations within surveying.