Damp proofing guarantee

Cheese_toastie

Hi

I moved into our current house with my wife about 18 months ago and we were informed at the time about a damp issue which had been resolved by a damp proof course being applied by Timberwise. The previous occupiers provided us with details of a guarantee.

When we moved in, we found out that we had to pay £150 to transfer this guarantee to our name. Although we thought this was a bit steep, we paid it so we had the guarantee.

Anyway, we are now seeing mould coming back in the areas that were treated and it definitely seems to be getting worse. My wife rang Timberwise up and we have been told that we need to send them a cheque for £180 for them to come out and inspect it (within 4 weeks). They said they will refund the £180 if they agree that this is covered by the guarantee but warned us that if it was something else that they would pay in the cheque and that would be the end of it.

This doesn't seem normal business practice to me - we could be £330 down after this inspection and without any help to our situation. We are not damp proof experts so although it seems to be the same problem, I don't see how we can be 100% sure. £180 for them just to turn up and check our wall is damp in the right way seems a huge sum to me anyway.

Can anyone provide any advice on this please?

Our current plan is just to send the forms and the cheque off and go with it as we need it sorting out, but I wanted to check if this is normal in this industry and if there's anything we can do to at least make sure they don't just say it isn't their problem and leave us out of pocket and with a damp issue still to fix.

Thanks

maas

I remember when I was looking into getting a DPC done and I was reading both Timberwise and Peter Cox about their warantee's and what you describe sounds very familiar.

If I recall correctly they both charge a call out (even though its under warrantee) and if they agree its their fault (i.e. the DPC has failed) then they will do the work.

But of course if its somethign else, unrelated to the work they carried out then I imagine they wont fix it.

I suppose from the other point of view, they would have countless people ringing them up claiming the DPC has failed when its other problems (ventilation etc) so its just a standard cost they charge for the call out (although £180 is day light robbery).

stebiz

I can see it from both sides. A large percentage of damp related issues are not rising damp. In fact if the correct procedure what followed it is highly unlikely that the chemicals have failed.

You could get a couple of DPC companies to come out and give you their view. They'll try the meter on the wall etc. Then you'll have a good idea without spending out the money.