should a home buyers report report this water pipe?

JustAnotherSaver

anselld wrote: »

How do you have a claim against plasterers? You ask plasterers to plaster walls, they plaster walls. It is not their job to resolve damp issues. They assume that is all sorted before they start.

Sorry i call them plasterers because they plastered. They're builders/plasterers/roofers/all sorts. They advertise as dealing with damp as well.

I was warned about their method of approach by workmates so i finished work early to confront them & tell them my concerns. They assured me i had nothing to worry about.

Basically dotting & dabbing on a damp wall, i was warned about the damp circles & they assured me this wouldn't happen as our wall wasn't damp enough & they were tanking anyway so certainly wouldn't happen.

Turns out they were wrong. There's damp circles all over the place & now mould is growing on it.

Not to mention the damage they caused which we only noticed after they'd left & we'd paid up.

But as everything was verbal & paid for, i don't hold out much hope for this either.

ging84

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I've always been stumped as to why some on MSE are quick to jump to conclusions & put the OP down.

Please go on to tell me why it seems that? I would really be interested. Genuinely.

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I was in touch with our solicitors who said......

I'm no expert but i disagree. Surely ......

Seems fairly clear to me, you are disagreeing with your paid expert, based not on something you know but on something you want / expect to be the case

Big_Tree

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

If that's the case then fair enough. I suppose our solicitor will tell us.
Then my understanding of damp was severely lacking. We have damp at my mums house & it doesn't cause this much damage. I was wrong in thinking this would be the same. The quote for £500 to put it right didn't seem so bad. If they'd have said £1000s then i'd have been put off.


This is what i keep getting told but everyone fails to elaborate on that.

How? How would it go into more detail?

My understanding is they can't remove furniture. They can't remove carpets. They can't remove wallpaper.

For example:

* There was a small black speck on the bedroom wall. A small bit of mould. The wallpaper was horrid so we stripped it. Only then did we see a whopping wet patch all over the wall where it'd been leaking in & hadn't been allowed to dry out. Without the wallpaper off, this wasn't noticeable.

* The survey reported a small area of damp in the living room. Once their furniture was gone we saw a bit of bubbling across a larger area. Once the wallpaper was off we saw the effects of the damp right across the length of the room.

I've seen a heat-vision camera used on a Channel 4 programme by a surveyor.....you don't have to take off the wallpaper when you can see through it;

silvercar

I've seen a heat-vision camera used on a Channel 4 programme by a surveyor.....you don't have to take off the wallpaper when you can see through it;

What does that show you, other than heat rises?

Big_Tree

silvercar wrote: »

What does that show you, other than heat rises?

The cold part is the damp part.....if you look closely, the floor is warmer than the bottom of the wall and the top of the wall in the corner is also colder than the bottom of the wall at the left side of the picture.

JustAnotherSaver

ging84 wrote: »

Seems fairly clear to me, you are disagreeing with your paid expert, based not on something you know but on something you want / expect to be the case

Are you a lawyer by any chance?

They like to take words spoken/written & put their own twist on it & tell people what someone else meant as well.

Like i said, i'm looking to find out where we stand & that's it. I'm not looking to have pointless disagreements on an internet forum. The person i was in contact with is not the person who is going to be handling it & said she's not the one for that sort of case which is why we've been put in touch with someone who can handle it & as yet i have no idea of their opinion.

And you're telling me what my disagreement is based on? Get out of it! It is >I< who will tell YOU. It was based on my clear lack of knowledge in the field. To my mind it would make more sense the view i gave. It is for them to explain to me and make me understand why that isn't so, if the one who is dealing with the case agrees with the original person.

Thank you.

BigJockKnew wrote: »

I've seen a heat-vision camera used on a Channel 4 programme by a surveyor.....you don't have to take off the wallpaper when you can see through it;

Interesting.

At the end of the day i am curious as to what a structural would pick up, but then it'd be an unfair comparison because the house has changed dramatically since we bought it.

The neighbours house sold but took a good while & is now back on the market. Again, with them having damp issues worse than ours & also a pump underneath, i do wonder what their survey came back as.



Still, whether we agree or disagree with solicitors, agree or disagree with fellow MSE members who may or may not be out to just look for a disagreement, this doesn't get away from the face that there is only going to be 1 winner in this...
...the solicitor.

I am cautious because they have an interest in me taking the case on so in my mind they will encourage me to at least 'have a go'. If i win - they get paid. If i don't win - they get paid. Either way they're making money.

No matter that the original solicitor said we should have a case vs the previous owners ... i am not interested in winning. That doesn't bother me one bit. I can't stick a win in the bank. I am interested in getting money back. Ok i'm not expecting our deposit but anything out of this is a positive but i can't see them, from what i've been told by others who've gone down similar routes, is that you may win, but don't expect a penny.

Big_Tree

To the OP, the show I saw was 'Help My House Is Falling Down', it's on 4oD and there is an episode with a problem similar to your own, were the home owners have a pump that is used to extract water from underneath the house.

I can't remember what episode it was though....

CTFC

Do you have legal protection on your household insurance, you may be able to get them to pick up the tab for legal proceedings

JustAnotherSaver

I'd have to look.

Someone at work mentioned my union. I thought the union only dealt with work related issues? I wasn't aware they may offer legal help depending on my membership. Or is this co-worker talking nonsense? Union is T&G (or unite now).

camptownraces

Union legal cover may very well apply here- check directly with your documentation.

What about the searches carried out before purchase? Did your solicitor not do a search with the water company? (I believe this now covers rivers and streams in the vicinity of the property.). What was revealed by the searches?