Dry Rot Please Help

will69

We bought our house(Scotland) in Feb 06 and before purchase we got a full structural survey carried out by D.M.Hall, within the survey there was an Insurance called "Hidden Defect Indemity" which was insured by a company called Secure Move. The survey came back as we expected an old house needing re-wired, re-plumed, damp-course treatment, but nothing to mention Dry-Rot, we also before purchase had to get another Timber Preservation company in so we got Peter Cox(with still no mention of Dry-Rot).
Once we moved in we noticed that there was Dry-Rot on the lower floor kitchen which spread to an upstairs bedroom, & the wall plate between the rafters and heading towards the roof, we have beeen quoted so far 25k.
Secure Move's Hidden Defect Indemity quotes that "if you find a hidden defect,which affects the fabrication of the building when you move in its a simple procedure of contacting us and we sort the problem out without having to involve lawyers.....:mad: WRONG, we are now 18months into a legal wrangle with my Lawyer (who I think is too passive) we are wanting to take Secure Move to court, they say the problem is with the Surveyor(who has not responded to this ), but Secure Move are willing to settle out of court as they dont want to bring their English professionals through a Scottish court system, but first we must get more competitive quotes for the work needing done, we so far have had 3 but this it seems is not enough.
I am at the end of my rope we are in a living hell, no heating, only running cold water temporary re-wired so there are wires visable everywhere with (3 children) we have no kitchen, just a cooker, fridge, and table in one room, one bedroom is out of use as it has a 20ft drop (we had to remove the floor because of the mushrooms)and the old kitchen ceiling is being held up with acro props there is more but I wont go on..I get too angry:mad:
Is there anybody out there who can shine a little light on this awful darkness we are in????

eco-friendly_2

Sorry to hear about your dilemma ! I once had a full structural survey carried out in a house in Bridge of weir, the surveyor, I think had two glass eyes ! he missed all sorts, the place was rotten through and through .

D.M. Hall are unlikely to respond, given that you have ' THAT ' insurance, that's their ' get out of jail free card ' D.M. Hall are probably paying peanuts for that policy to save a claim against their own Indemity, maybe your solicitor should have pursued D.M.Hall & Secure Move at the very beginning. You say Secure Move are willing to settle ! I think all you can do is hope things move forward quickly, don't be in a hurry to go to court, IT COULD be expensive, even If you win you can't claim back all your outlays.

I think 3 quotes is sufficient, no one can reasonably expect more than that.


Peter Cox!!! :eek:

will69

will69 wrote: »

We bought our house(Scotland) in Feb 06 and before purchase we got a full structural survey carried out by D.M.Hall, within the survey there was an Insurance called "Hidden Defect Indemity" which was insured by a company called Secure Move. The survey came back as we expected an old house needing re-wired, re-plumed, damp-course treatment, but nothing to mention Dry-Rot, we also before purchase had to get another Timber Preservation company in so we got Peter Cox(with still no mention of Dry-Rot).
Once we moved in we noticed that there was Dry-Rot on the lower floor kitchen which spread to an upstairs bedroom, & the wall plate between the rafters and heading towards the roof, we have beeen quoted so far 25k.
Secure Move's Hidden Defect Indemity quotes that "if you find a hidden defect,which affects the fabrication of the building when you move in its a simple procedure of contacting us and we sort the problem out without having to involve lawyers.....:mad: WRONG, we are now 18months into a legal wrangle with my Lawyer (who I think is too passive) we are wanting to take Secure Move to court, they say the problem is with the Surveyor(who has not responded to this ), but Secure Move are willing to settle out of court as they dont want to bring their English professionals through a Scottish court system, but first we must get more competitive quotes for the work needing done, we so far have had 3 but this it seems is not enough.
I am at the end of my rope we are in a living hell, no heating, only running cold water temporary re-wired so there are wires visable everywhere with (3 children) we have no kitchen, just a cooker, fridge, and table in one room, one bedroom is out of use as it has a 20ft drop (we had to remove the floor because of the mushrooms)and the old kitchen ceiling is being held up with acro props there is more but I wont go on..I get too angry:mad:
Is there anybody out there who can shine a little light on this awful darkness we are in????

Ok so here is some more news on this issue secure move have offered a settlement but no where near the quotes:mad: but it is a chance for us to move forward, my lawyer all through-out this process insisted that we would take secure move to court but then in October said that if we did go to court it would be in England so we were stuffed I dont know why it took her so long to decide this but we are still not entirely satisfied and we are not sure if it is now worth persuing the surveyors