House with worthless 10 year warranty-possible fraud?!

casparg44

We purchased our house in 2013, the solicitor acting for us from a well known firm has since retired.

The house was built in 2010 and therefore should carry a 10-year warranty (required by law, I believe). When we completed the house sale we received an architects professional consultants certificate specifically for our house.

The issue we have is that we have discovered (well a qualified gas engineer has) that the boiler in the house has been plumbed in backwards, causing the house to have no hot water from the boiler and the hot water to feed to the toilet instead. All the pipes under the utility room have been fitted wrongly so the whole utility room needs ripping up and the boiler taken out and refitted correctly. This is not a normal wear and tear issue, this is an issue that has been there since the boiler was incorrectly fitted.

I contacted the well know solicitors firm who stated that they have an Aviva policy document, Yippee I thought so I contacted Aviva, who told me that this document expired in 2011 and therefore my problem isn’t their problem.

Aviva and the solicitors firm both advised me to contact the architect who issued the certificate as he will have professional indemnity with other insurers (or so you would think!)

We tried to contact this architect by phone, post etc., but his number doesn’t exist and his letters got returned. He isn’t on the architects register and we have since learned that he doesn’t even exist and never did. The builder who built and sold the house to the previous occupiers (and currently lives next door to us and is a friend) admitted to us when he was extremely drunk one sat night that he produced a false certificate to get the insurance policy with Aviva and that "this is normal how its done wink wink".

As far as I am concerned, when we purchased this house we did not get what we were led to believe we were getting which was a house with 7 years left of a 10 year warranty.

Instead we have a worthless piece of paper that actually expired several years ago. This is therefore the fault of the retired solicitor from the well know firm who carried out all conveyancing and told us we had a 10 year guarantee (as required by law) for all new homes. Surely the firm are therefore responsible because there has been a big !!!! up here.

There are two issues that I need advice with:

1. The builder next door has committed fraud and is probably doing so on a regular basis as he builds homes all over the place- how do we report this and who to?

2. The firm H&CM that we used for the conveyancing of the our house have acted negligently as they did not ensure we had a valid policy in place and instead allowed us to complete with a useless expired policy. Can we sue them?

many thanks in advance

wealdroam

Doesn't NHBC cover this?

casparg44

wealdroam wrote: »

Doesn't NHBC cover this?

No builders dont have to use NHBC as their warranty provider they can get professional indemnity instead as long as they have a valid architects certificate! Obviously insurers dont check that the certificates produced are genuine.

God only knows how many other homes are being sold with fraudulent worthless warranty's.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Plumbing is not covered by the NHBC guarantee. As you are the second owner, the plumbing etc is a fixture, and unless this was part of your survey, you will have little redress. Sorry not what you want to hear.

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Warrantiesandcover/Homeowners/WhatdoesBuildmarkcover/

Alice_Walker

wealdroam wrote: »

Doesn't NHBC cover this?

They're one of several that provide new home warranties, others include Aviva and Zurich.

OP you will have a copy of the warranty, what does it cover? You would be expected to read this yourself. As an example, my policy only covers internal issues for two years, the remaining period only covers the bricks and structure itself.

What I can't work out is how the previous owners handled this? They must have been aware of it, what information did they give about the boiler, had they not had it serviced? You may have a claim if they have represented their position on the property information form. What have you done for hot water for the past three years?

shaun_from_Africa

As you purchased the house in 2013, why has it taken this long to realise that the boiler isn't producing any hot water for the house?
Surely this is something that would be discovered with a few days of taking possession of the property.

lincroft1710

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

As you purchased the house in 2013, why has it taken this long to realise that the boiler isn't producing any hot water for the house?
Surely this is something that would be discovered with a few days of taking possession of the property.

I also don't understand how this went unnoticed

casparg44

The hot water was being supplied form the immersion heater, although this is supposed to be a back up. we discovered the problem when the immersion went and we had no hot water. The previous owners must have known that the toilet as filling with boiling hot water rather than cold?
Are you saying that you can go around fitting dodgy boilers etc and get away with it?

casparg44

Alice_Walker wrote: »

They're one of several that provide new home warranties, others include Aviva and Zurich.

OP you will have a copy of the warranty, what does it cover? You would be expected to read this yourself. As an example, my policy only covers internal issues for two years, the remaining period only covers the bricks and structure itself.

What I can't work out is how the previous owners handled this? They must have been aware of it, what information did they give about the boiler, had they not had it serviced? You may have a claim if they have represented their position on the property information form. What have you done for hot water for the past three years?

The policy doesn't state what it covers

hollydays

Simples-tell the builder to
Pay up to put the problem
Right.

Alice_Walker

casparg44 wrote: »

The hot water was being supplied form the immersion heater, although this is supposed to be a back up. we discovered the problem when the immersion went and we had no hot water. The previous owners must have known that the toilet as filling with boiling hot water rather than cold?
Are you saying that you can go around fitting dodgy boilers etc and get away with it?

But you have not noticed for three years, or has this been going on since you moved in?

What information was given on the property information form?

If no one notices a fault for six years, then yes, they will get away with it. If you're aware of the original installer you should report them to Gas Safe, but this will not get any redress for you.