Roof torching & building survey

bec54

Hello

I'm wondering if anyone can offer some advice please?

We moved to our house in November 2007 & had a full building survey done beforehand. The house was built in the 1930s.

A roofing specialist has come out to us this morning as we've had a slight leak in the flashing around one of the chimneys (a neighbour of my parents who I trust). We've the original tiled roof with no underfelt. The roofer has mentioned that as there was no underfelt, torching has been applied under the tiles to form some defence against the elements. However, this has been done with cement so the roof is not able to breathe and it's impossible to remove without breaking the tiles. This is going to cause problems as he won't be able to mend the leak the "textbook" way & could cause further problems in the future if any tiles need mending. I can't remember the name of the mortar that should have been applied but it should let the roof breathe & be easily removed for repair jobs as we now need.

I've dug out the survey & there is no mention of this whatsoever, but I'm concerned now this could need us to require a whole new roof in the next few years (£10,000+).

Does anyone know whether we'd be able to get any recourse against the surveyors & if so, how we'd go about it? Would we need a written statement from the roofer etc etc?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Rebecca

System

good luck trying to prove a surveyor is at fault, I think if you read all the clauses and get outs written into the survey you'll find you have little or no come back with them about anything!

iamcornholio

What recourse are you hoping for against the original survey?

Are you saying that the leak/defect was not spotted by the surveyor? Otherwise be aware that roof mortar torching is not a defect in itself but was common practice, and may not be reported on unless defective

Also, it is possible to repair tiles despite the torching being present. If some tiles break then they are just replaced. But if the leak has been diagnosed as defective flashing, then what has this got to do with the tiles?

If the house was built in the 30's, and the tiles are original, then they are at or nearing the end of their life in any case, so the fact that you may require a new roof in a few years is nothing to do with the survey other than it should probably have been mentioned

phill99

Bec54, you are talking rubbish.

Many years ago, before tiled roofs were underfelted, torching was the common method by which roofs were made water tight. There are many such houses up and down the country. As there was evidently nothijmng wrong with your torching, your building surveyor had no need to mention it.

It seems that it's probably your roofer that has the problem in not being able fix any broken tiles. Certainly not the surveyor.