Help Dry Rot and rotten insurance

will69

:mad: 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????

clutton_2

kick your solicitor up the rear end or get another one - 3 quotes is absolutely ample !!!!

i wonder if your Lender's legal department might want to get involved - as they own the property ......

would it be possible to put in an insurance claim and get it paid for by your insurance company and get them to sort out the liability later ?

will69

Thanks clutton, Im new to this thread thing so I hope I have responded the right way,
my solicitor has said that we should say nothing to the Mortgage Company (I have no idea why, but she did say that they might withdraw the loan on us ???) also I had once thought to report our story to a tabloid paper but the solicitor has said wait until we have settled in court, I feel as if we are having to do all the chasing, phone calls etc and it feels as if we are hitting our heads off brick walls, I feel as if Im terrified I make the wrong move as our solicitor gives us no information and we dont want to jepordise our case
Oh and the solicitor also want us to pay our bill of £2000 is this normal when nothing has been settled??

clutton_2

if you have been doing this for for this length of time, i would expect to know exactly what is going on. Ask for an appointment with your solicitors customer complaints Senior Partner and get them review the file for you and maybe even ask for a different more proactive partner to continue the work - or if you do not like their response, then threaten to go to another solicitor.

eco-friendly_2

Im new to this thread thing so I hope I have responded the right way,

yeah! although, noticed you have 2 threads running, the other on the DIY forum, can get a bit confusing.

ixwood

Threaten to get another solicitor after you've settled up might be an idea.

will69

eco-friendly wrote: »

Im new to this thread thing so I hope I have responded the right way,

yeah! although, noticed you have 2 threads running, the other on the DIY forum, can get a bit confusing.

Sorry about having two threads wasnt sure when I first typed out the post if it went in, and then I thought Id put it in the wrong placeits not easy when its your first time

will69

will69 wrote: »

:mad: 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,:T 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, Im also looking for someone who posted a private message to me with great information (so I can say thanks)which I only received yesterday

clutton_2

if this offer will cost YOU money from your own pocket, = then do not accept it. "Offering to settle" is always a game - a whole load of bartering goes on - they try to weary you into accepting a lower figure than they know you will eventually settle for.

i would seriously complain to your solicitors senior partner and get someone else to work for you - she sounds like a complete waste of space to me

will69

clutton wrote: »

if this offer will cost YOU money from your own pocket, = then do not accept it. "Offering to settle" is always a game - a whole load of bartering goes on - they try to weary you into accepting a lower figure than they know you will eventually settle for.

i would seriously complain to your solicitors senior partner and get someone else to work for you - she sounds like a complete waste of space to me

We have gotten to the stage that we think our solicitor had given up with our case, so much so that she forgot to tell us of an offer that had come in with a 14 day time limit and by the time we found out the offer had expired, but because we are so desperate to get our house sorted its now been two years we were terrified to try another lawyer we feel as if we have been totaly shafted to say the least I contacted another law firm when the first offer had expired and he happened to know my lawyer and said "oh that doesnt sound like her" and I thought oh god I give up and do you know what is funny??? The settlement was paid out at least a week and half ago and my lawyer paid herself first :T :T :T and we still dont have a penny:mad:
What happens now if we complain to her senior partner (I think she knows we are not happy bunnys

clutton_2

please don't take this the wrong way - THIS WOMAN IS A WASTE OF SPACE - stop being a victim here, take some control over your own affairs and get into that solicitors office, without an appointment and kick some !!! !!!!!!!!!!

"""" so much so that she forgot to tell us of an offer that had come in with a 14 day time limit"" this is SERIOUS negligence - stop taking this lying down and start doing some shouting and standing up for your self.

she is meant to be on your side - she is clearly NOT on your side - make an OFFICIAL complaint about her - she is being paid good money to represent you and from what you have said she is not doing her job......

if a brickie had left half your garden wall built - you would be onto him like a shot - just because she is a lawyer does not make her immune from incompetence

go guy go !!!!!!!!!