Help! Unsafe loft conversion

phill99

Home insurance is for perils such as floods, fires etc, not to rectify shoddy workmanship. And sueing the builder? You have 2 hopes and one of them is Bob!

Your boyfriend inherited a house that needs a bit of work doing to it. 99% of home owners would love to be in a position where they inherited a house, mortgage free and then the only problem is shelling out a few quid on rectifying a dodgy roof.

27col

panther82 wrote: »

no we don't want to change the use of it. we want to sell the property (with loft storage not an extra bedroom) and one of the people viewing it said there was a problem with the roof. we had some builders look at it on friday and they said it was unsafe. They said it wouldn't collapse but the roof has sagged and the weight of the roof is pushing down on the rest of the house.

whether it followed building regulations or not they shouldn't have done work that was unsafe!

there is damage to the building so i would have thought that is what buildings cover is for

The weight of the roof always presses down on the rest of the house. So a rather meaningless statement. Building insurance is not intended as a substitute for bad maintenance or bad construction work.

keystone

OP is the builder who declared it "unsafe" thus sending you into a wildly gyrating impression of the famous Oozlum Bird fully booked up at the moment?

Cheers

panther82

thanks all for your pointless and unhelpful comments.
the support timbers have been removed from the roof so there is nothing to support the purlings
his parents paid for the loft conversion, but i very much doubt they paid for the roof to be unsafe.
i expect most people would inherit a house from their parents at some point

southcoastrgi

well that told us, what was the point of asking for advice in the first place, just because we all came back with things you didn't wanna hear, tough i suggest you get on with it yourself then

keystone

panther82 wrote: »

thanks all for your pointless and unhelpful comments.

No need to be churlish. What would you prefer to hear? Sue the hell out of the bas....d and find yourself out of pocket substantially when the DJ kicks it massively into touch or perhaps wonder what you are going to do when the insurance company have stopped laughing at you? There have been no unhelpful comments here for you - some a tad flippant possibly buts thats life I am afraid.

the support timbers have been removed from the roof so there is nothing to support the purlings

My roof was never fitted with any such like supports for the purlins because the design of the roof doesn't require them and it's remained rock steady since 1936. How do you know that this one isn't the same and the one single opinion that you have got that a roof is unsafe after 16 years in this condition is actually correct? The word purlin doesn't have a "g" in it by the way.

his parents paid for the loft conversion, but i very much doubt they paid for the roof to be unsafe.

Apart from one single, possibly unscrupulous, opinion that might be clouded by a perceived opportunity to make some money out of someone who doesn't know better you have no idea that the roof is currently unsafe. In the name of balance I would say that I find it discomforting that you are seemingly prepared to besmirch the reputation of the builder concerned without any form of proper evidence whatsoever.

i expect most people would inherit a house from their parents at some point

Yes but what's that got to do with whether the roof is unsafe or not?

Cheers

27col

panther82 wrote: »

thanks all for your pointless and unhelpful comments.
the support timbers have been removed from the roof so there is nothing to support the purlings
his parents paid for the loft conversion, but i very much doubt they paid for the roof to be unsafe.
i expect most people would inherit a house from their parents at some point

If that's the way that you feel, may I suggest that you sort it out yourself.
Still, anyone who inherits my house will at least get a house with a properly constructed roof. Although, what the inheriting of houses has to do with your problem escapes me.

Gwizz1982

Not everyone has the luxury of inheriting a house from parents or such like.

I think you should at least find out if there is such paperwork from the initial renovations and what it states, and get a few other second opinions on if it is actually unsafe....

keystone

Gwizz1982 wrote: »

and get a few other second opinions on if it is actually unsafe....

+1.

and get a few other second opinions on it to find out if it is actually unsafe

Fixed to for you.

Cheers