Already completed – discovering problems

j3nl3a

My partner and I bought our first home in Northern Ireland, completed on 9th Jan 2015. The house was advertised as "recently renovated" and it was, bought from a housing association who had pretty much gutted the house.

We had a valuation survey done, since we were buying from a housing association who have to sell houses at a certain standard and my partner's father is relatively knowledgeable about things to look out for. Since moving in we've come across a few issues, while not major, have left us with costs we weren't expecting.

1) The thermostat wasn't coming on. Airtricity (gas provider, boiler maintenance) came out and told us that wires in the boiler were the wrong way around and that the thermostat had been wired to the extractor fan switch.
2) The extractor fan is powered by a three pin plug. However, where the plug should be there is a fuse switch (similar to oven power, fridge power) and so we can't power the extractor fan until an outlet is put in.
3) The blue recycling bin (for cardboard, plastics etc) was FULL to the lid with all the wiring that had been taken out of the house when they rewired it, as well as the packaging and bits of the oven that had been removed from the house. We've since emptied this.
4) The drains (from kitchen sink, washing machine) were overflowing and running down in to the garden. Dynorod came out, cleared them and said the drains were full of plaster that the builders had poured down the drains.

We've been in the house for a week and last night the toilet started draining slowly and water was coming up from the soil stack outside. Dynorod have again been called (because the council/NI Water stated that because it's within the grounds of our property we are liable).

So, my question is, do we have any comeback on these additional costs? For example, is there a time period after completion where it can be expected that works like this are still the responsibility of the vendor? It kind of feels like it's one thing after another right now, and I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things these are relatively minor issues (a few hundred £s worth of costs), but it would be good to know what our rights are.

Many thanks.

davidmcn

I don't know what's normal for contracts in Northern Ireland - didn't you receive a copy of the contract from your solicitors or advice about what, if anything, it says about any warranties re. electrics etc? If not then I would go back to your solicitors and ask them. You may have tight deadlines e.g. in Scotland it's usually 5 working days you have to intimate any problems with appliances/utilities.

G_M

Why don't you write to the HA and ask them o fix or compensate you the costs? who knows, they might agree?

But in the scale of things most of these are very minor. Drains sound the worst, but for £18 you can buy yourself a rod.....

teddysmum

I would contact the vendors to express my concern over the competence of the electricians whom they employ, as it's clearly lacking.


Anyone leaving a house would be likely to have left rubbish in the bin, if they left before collection day.