serious problem found with new house days after purchse - what do do?

Richard_Webster

I am not sure what indemnity insurance would have been available in respect of works the sellers claimed to have done. If such work required to have complied with the Building Regulations a Building Regulation Indemnity Policy only pays out if the Council take action for non-compliance, not if there is a problem such as yours.

For the benefit of others reading this - because you have obviously learnt all the lessons going - it is sensible to talk to neighbours and ask about the property. They may tell you things - and in this case may well have mentioned the cellar in passing. Cellars do flood - my daughter has one in Sheffield that has suffered in this way. They may have also told you things that would have led to you being more suspicious about the sellers.

Wickedkitten

withabix wrote: »

Was the 'survey' you had done before you bought the house a 'full structural survey' or a 'valuation report'/'homebuyer's report'?

Yeah, what kind of survey was done?

spiderkin

thank you for all your replies.... and no worries about being crass white noise, i already joked with my husband that that was the birthing pool sorted!

it was a homebuyers report we had done. we called several local surveyors and asked whether they'd recommended full structural or homebuyers only in the road we were buying in and all of the local surveyors said that knowing the area a homebuyers survey would be sufficient. we had been planning on having a full structural up til then.

we did see a similar house on the next road, Richard, which had a basement, and my husband did wonder if the one we bought had a basement but we decided it mustn't as we hadn't been able to find the stairs down.....

i haven't been down in the basement poppysarah as it's a small hatch in the floor and a drop down and my bump wont fit! but my husband says it's about 5'6" head height and it has separate "rooms" as the walls for the rooms in the house extend down into the basement.

i was going to sort the problem out and have the basement blocked back up again and put in a downstairs toilet under the stairs where the original access was to the basement before it was boarded over leaving just the present hatch for access. do you think i should try to make the basement a habitable space and forget about the downstairs toilet?

my home insurance has legal cover as an optional extra which i wasn't offered when i set it up over the phone so it's not on there. i thought it must be included as standard. i always take out legal cover with my car insurance to be on the safe side so would have paid for this too.

i've looked at the channel 4 website for advice trollfever, but i can't face going on tv.... i've already turned down offers this year to be in a channel 4 documentary with my wedding and a bbc documentary about pregnant women! tv programmes, just like buses - none your entire life and then three at once! :rotfl:

becoming more resigned to everything. my aunt says chalk it up to experience as i can pay to have this fixed and pay to do the house up and still make money in the long run (it's just finding the money in the first place to deal with the problem) which is what i was going to do but my mum is slightly more militant and always barges in all guns blazing and she is pushing me to find someone to pay for this other than me. i might tell her i just can't face the stress and deal with her calling me pathetic and telling me she's never going to help me again if i'm so rich i can afford to let this happen to me and not go after someone else to pay for it.... :mad:

my mortgage bank wont give me a loan to sort the problem out so i've applied for one elsewhere. just hoping it'll get approved so that i can at least make the house habitable again and actually get to live there!

thank you all for your replies - i'm definitely seeing i was right to remain property and hassle free into my 30s... if it weren't for the sprog i'd still be happily renting!

DVardysShadow

spiderkin wrote: »

but my mum is slightly more militant and always barges in all guns blazing and she is pushing me to find someone to pay for this other than me. i might tell her i just can't face the stress and deal with her calling me pathetic and telling me she's never going to help me again if i'm so rich i can afford to let this happen to me and not go after someone else to pay for it

You have plenty of time to follow through on this - if you are 7 months pregnant, don't bother about it till after.

SillyMilly

Spiderkin, Best wishes with the baby.

I found this forum as I have unexpectedly found that my house seems to be falling apart, and I am out of work. I have seen the Sarah Beeny programme and it was helpful (particularly the one about the couple in Staines).

The advice on here has been useful, and I am going to look at my insurance policy.

The problems I have are - end wall of end of terrace house is bowed. The roof is sticking up at quite a sharp angle above that wall. There are a few cracks in a couple of external walls - which may be due to structural/subsidence problems. Piece of pointing on external wall has fallen off and made a hole in the porch roof.

Inside, there are lots of cracks at stress points, signs of damp (around windows and on kithen ceiling), and the downstairs laminate flooring is not very flat (don't know if it is badly laid or getting worse).
Also a recently flooded bathroom has left a big hole in the living room ceiling.

I am planning to contact a structural engineer asap

Does anyone have any advice on:
1. What to do?
2. Where I could borrow money to get it fixed.
3. Roughly how much is this going to cost
4. Anything else I can do or need to do.

G_M

This could potentially be expensive I'm afraid. Get in touch with your insurers. Get some builders round for quotes. Get a surveyor round.

But in the long term a habitable cellar that size is going to add a significant value to the proerty.

spiderkin

thank you for all your replies - an update:

i had the remedial surveyor round. he's found considerable evidence above the laminate floor level of the damp problem - including rising damp in 3 downstairs rooms - and said he was very "surprised" it hadn't been picked up.

i called my home insurance legal team (which it turns out i did have but that's another story) and they have suggested that i try to resolve this amicably first and contact the original surveyor inviting a response within 14 days. if the response isn't favourable then they will take the case over for me as necessary.

i've been advised only to use a damp company which is PCA approved, and trying to get them out to my area is a real pain! had one last week (but it'll take a fortnight to get a quote to me as they're so snowed under) another coming on the 8th and a third on the 18th. so i will have 3 PCA quotes. the remedial surveyor said he would help me to choose a company if i wanted him to, and he has provided a detailed plan and list of what needs doing so that i can check that i am having the correct work done. the original surveyor has the right to reinspect the property so i can't touch anything until he's had his 14 days to reply incase he does want to come back round so i suppose the delay in getting quotes isn't a problem.

not very happy to have this all going on, and really upset about having to leave my ante-natal care team to move in with my mum whilst all this is sorted but it could be worse. another bank has approved a loan for me so at least i can get the work done and move in at some point even if i don't win the case against the original surveyor! that was a load off for me knowing that no matter what, i can pay to fix the floor.

thank you for all your replies!

patman99

I wonder what it would cost to apply a chemical spray-on tanking coat to the cellar walls/floor?.
On a recent 'Grand Designs' they used such a product to waterproof an underground building. They just sprayed it on from one of those 'pump & spray' bottles you can use for weed killer etc.

To prove how good it was, Kevin McCloud even applied it to the inside of a cardboard box, then filled the box with water just to prove how well it works.

If you intend to turn the cellar into usable space, it would be worth your while lowering the floor to give a ceiling height of 7ft. You would also need to provide fresh air ventilation to comply with buildings regs., but if done right, you could be adding a few thousand to the property value.

ninky_2

i know there is another series of help! my house is falling down coming out. it might be worth contacting the production team with details of your situation and finding if you were eligible to take part.

you can contact them on [EMAIL="property@redhousetv.co.uk"]property@redhousetv.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Mrs_Z

Hi, what an awful surprise! I think you need to get the basement dry before tackling any remedial work such as replacing floorboards, etc. It may be possible to fit a some sort of pump to the basement - we've also just purchased a property and in the details there it was mentioned that the cellar used to flood from time to time until a pump was fitted 8 years ago which solved the problem. Good luck!!!