New house with a leaking roof! Challenging our surveyors but advice needed please...

jamesperrett

I would have thought that your solicitor would have been a little more pro-active as it seems fairly clear that you have a valid claim.

I had a similar situation with Countrywide although I haven't taken it any further. When I viewed our current house there were obvious damp stains in the ceiling and the roof had obviously been leaking. Our survey just said that the paint job on the ceiling was of a poor standard. I actually queried the survey and the surveyor said that he had been around again to look at it but he still missed the problem. Things were actually fine for 18 months until it happened to rain heavily from an unusual direction and water started to drip through the light fitting.

I must admit that I'm beginning to feel that a homebuyer's report is a waste of money.

James.

archess200

If there are major holes in the roof then surely they would have been there when your vendor lived there, and even if he had just had the roof work done, the chances are it would have rained before he sold it. Was he a roofer himself by any chance?

He has made a statement in a legal document that there has been no major building works. As an architect, I would say that roofing was major building works and he has therefore made a false statement.
Get back on to your solicitor and claim false representation.

However, just to chastise, if you know nothing about building matters, it would have made sense to have a proper survey. Many such matters are easily seen by a careful check over everything and repeated visits for a new view.

If the house is only 17 years old, it should still be in good sound condition, so why was any roofing work undertaken? Think you should call in a qualified surveyor for a proper professional report: his view on work required would at least be unbiased.

Tunstallstoven

An update......!

This is still not resolved. DCS and Countrywide have made several more offers and we are now currently at £900. In the meantime, we had the valley of our roof repaired because so much water was leaking. All was good for a couple of weeks, but then water started coming in from a different spot. SO it looks as though we are going to need more work done.

Call me cynical, but seeing as they keep offering more as a "goodwill gesture", my feelings are that they must be accepting some blame or they'd tell us to pee off (or at least not up the offer). Any thoughts?

Our next step would be to go to the Ombudsman....