Help - big problems found with new home

daniel0408

Moved into a property two months ago. Having some deocarating done and the builder has found a huge area of wet rot in the upstairs bedroom which may be right across the whole back of the house. It sounds like a huge job to remedy. Basically something isn't in place on the drain pipe and so water has run down and into the walls rotting all the timber.

The builder says someone has covered it up with damp proof paint at some stage and its been there for years.

Apparently any form or rot is not covered under my buildings insurance.

It's too late to speak to my solicitor today. Naturally the (basic) valuation said nothing and in response to the question about damp on the solicitor docs the response from sellers was

'not aware of any but rely on your own survey'

Can anyone please give me some idea as to what's what? Needless to say I'm gutted.

david29dpo

What type of survey did you have?

GoToGal

daniel0408 wrote: »

Naturally the (basic) valuation said nothing and in response to the question about damp on the solicitor docs the response from sellers was

'not aware of any but rely on your own survey'

david29dpo wrote: »

What type of survey did you have?

Looks like the OP didn't have a survey other than the valuation report for mortgage purposes. Sadly, looks like an expensive mistake

Fire_Fox

If you didn't have a proper survey carried out then you have nobody to claim against. I can't see how you can prove the previous owners were aware of the damp issue, it may well be they weren't if your builder says it's been there for years.

affordmylife

i cant believe anyone would buy a house without having a survey done. im genuinely shocked.

daniel0408

It was a free valuation with the lender. The builder says that the problem is visible from the ground outside and should have been picked up in the survey.

Surveyors normally do check for damp and the report says that random checks are done.

As above - the builder also said that the wall has been covered in damp proof paint to hide it.

david29dpo

The free lenders survey is only really to check the house is standing.

daniel0408

Found this:

If problems emerge which the basic survey didn’t warn you about then you have a case to claim for damages to cover the necessary repair work. A lot of people believe otherwise, but you can make claims if the problems are blatant and unnoticed.

What about the sellers - they lived at the property for 25 years and it's been coverd with damp proof paint. They've specifically stated they weren't aware of any damp in the property.

Fire_Fox

daniel0408 wrote: »

It was a free valuation with the lender. The builder says that the problem is visible from the ground outside and should have been picked up in the survey.

Surveyors normally do check for damp and the report says that random checks are done. As above - the builder also said that the wall has been covered in damp proof paint to hide it.

A valuation is NOT a proper survey, it's there to protect the lender from gross defects such as major subsidence or no roof! The damp you are talking about sounds relatively minor, it doesn't make the property unmortgageable and won't massively decrease the value. Why do you think Homebuyers Reports and full structural surveys exist if everything is going to be picked up by a valuation?

daniel0408 wrote: »

What about the sellers - they lived at the property for 25 years and it's been coverd with damp proof paint. They've specifically stated they weren't aware of any damp in the property.

Can you prove the vendors were aware of the damp? If the property is more than 25 years old you absolutely needed to spend some money finding out what you were buying, you obviously have no idea about property otherwise you would have seen what the builder spotted. Since you haven't referenced your quote we can't really comment on it's validity!

daniel0408

The issue has been covered up though the cause is visible from the oustide I'm told. I'm going by what the builder has said to me - I would expect the surveyor to look at the roof to check for anything untoward which apparently this is.

I'm not allowed to post links but it was from a site called propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk


Can I prove they were aware - as I said there's damp proof paint in that area - nowhere else in the room. Seems a little odd does it not.

I understand damp in general but this isn't a little bit of rising damp it's a longstanding problem that's been covered over.

daniel0408

As an aside - surely if something is going to require substantial work to fix it then it affects the mortgageability of the property - that's why mortgage conditions and retention is used.