Lied on Property information Form? -What can I do...

moneyistooshorttomention

Which may be the case....but many of us have no "experience with cellars" and would be expecting the same, ie they are (instantly) usable. Though I know my parents starter house had a cellar and I swear I recall them using it.

Am now wondering what the purpose of a non-usable cellar could be....

missbiggles1

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Which may be the case....but many of us have no "experience with cellars" and would be expecting the same, ie they are (instantly) usable. Though I know my parents starter house had a cellar and I swear I recall them using it.

Am now wondering what the purpose of a non-usable cellar could be....

Many non usable cellars were originally used for storing coal.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Which may be the case....but many of us have no "experience with cellars" and would be expecting the same, ie they are (instantly) usable. Though I know my parents starter house had a cellar and I swear I recall them using it.

Am now wondering what the purpose of a non-usable cellar could be....

The one at my place of work, built 1953 and tanked, but it still leaked through cracks in the floor, was used for the boilers and random storage.

The one in my daughter's Edwardian house is used to store wine and various bit & bobs. They have a spare fridge down there too.

The one in our Georgian property was so long ago I can't remember what was in there, but I know nothing made of leather survived long!

I seem to remember our old house in Wiltshire never had any water in the cellar, but we still wouldn't have kept papers and anything delicate down there.

The point is, none of these cellars is/was unusable, but they could only be used for the things cellars are used for. In the first three instances there are/were concrete upstands so the water wouldn't reach sensitive things like fridges or boilers.

I guess in the old days these meant that the coal stayed reasonably dry too.

I did once consider a house in the Wye Valley where the sales literature contained a note saying something like: "On high spring tides the house cellar has water in it to a depth of around 3' - 4', though the house itself has never flooded."

Now that was worth mentioning!

Thrugelmir

filbrit wrote: »

Apologies for the lengthy email but we are wits end what to do.

What's your actual issue?

Did you expect the cellar to be watertight?

filbrit

Hi Thrugelmir

Well the issue we have it why there was no mention of flooding down there on property information form where clearly water does come up 1-2 inches deep. (maybe that is not described as flooding, I honestly do not know if it constitutes as such)

We expected it to be damp but not not 1-2 inches of water coming up from the brick floor.


Thanks

poppasmurf_bewdley

filbrit wrote: »

Hi Thrugelmir

Well the issue we have it why there was no mention of flooding down there on property information form where clearly water does come up 1-2 inches deep. (maybe that is not described as flooding, I honestly do not know if it constitutes as such)

We expected it to be damp but not not 1-2 inches of water coming up from the brick floor.


Thanks

I'm sorry to labour the point, but I really don't think you can describe a puddle in the cellar with a depth of one or two inches as a flood.

I've just Googled 'flood' in Google images and these are what a flood is:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&authuser=0&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=681&q=flooding&oq=flooding&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.1193.2721.0.4678.8.6.0.2.2.0.109.601.4j2.6.0.msedr...0...1ac.1.64.img..0.8.606.eY72AGmdzA4

What you are describing is what you get when you Google 'puddle':

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&authuser=0&biw=1366&bih=681&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=puddle&oq=puddle&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.25512.26742.0.28302.6.5.0.1.1.0.112.516.0j5.5.0.msedr...0...1c.1.64.img..0.6.519.JEIkKGn2yOw

To say you are 'at your wits end what to do' is perhaps taking it a bit too far.

missbiggles1

filbrit wrote: »

Hi Thrugelmir

Well the issue we have it why there was no mention of flooding down there on property information form where clearly water does come up 1-2 inches deep. (maybe that is not described as flooding, I honestly do not know if it constitutes as such)

We expected it to be damp but not not 1-2 inches of water coming up from the brick floor.


Thanks

1-2 inches across the whole of the cellar might just about be described as a flood but what you have is a large puddle.

davidmcn

I don't think this is "flooding" either. It's a non-watertight cellar.

Thrugelmir

filbrit wrote: »

Hi Thrugelmir

Well the issue we have it why there was no mention of flooding down there on property information form where clearly water does come up 1-2 inches deep. (maybe that is not described as flooding, I honestly do not know if it constitutes as such)

We expected it to be damp but not not 1-2 inches of water coming up from the brick floor.


Thanks

This isn't flooding in my mind.

will drain a few hours after it stops raining.

Did you have the cellar surveyed prior to purchase. Drainage checked etc.

DaftyDuck

Rising damp?

Wouldn't count as flooding for me, either as buyer or seller. Damp, yes. I would have pointed it out on showing as a seller, to save hassles later, and would have asked as a buyer (especially as I doubt they were storing papers in it).

What did your surveyor state?

Worth clearing drain gullies as a possibility. Sump pump next. Tanking if you want dryth long term, but it'll cost.

Cellars in old properties are rarely dry.