Burst pipe on moving day!

GlasweJen

As the title basically. The house has lain empty since January, other sides solicitor said house had been heated through winter. Husband went yesterday after collecting keys and decided to turn on the heating to see how it worked, continued to wander round the house and heard a drip and before he knew it there was floods of water coming through the ceiling of a bedroom and the dining room! Turns out they’d turned on the hot water but not the central heating and the pipes were frozen (it’s been -7 here).

Managed to shut off the water, other sides solicitor has grudgingly said they’ll repair the damage but what’s a reasonable claim? We were going to remove the woodchip from the ceiling anyway.

We need to contact our solicitor this morning with an update. So far we have an emergency plumbers bill, have had to get in electric heaters overnight to dry out the rooms, may need to hire dehumidifiers, ceilings - well we were going to strip the woodchip away anyway but I’m worried that the plaster underneath may be affected, loft underlay - again it’s thin and we were going to get round to replacing it anyway but now it’s saturated and we’re probably going to lift it sooner rather than later and get it replaced.

We didn’t expect to be in this situation, had builders at the ready to work on other bits of the house and that’s all going to need to go on hold until this is done. I’m in an absolute panic, now have no dry rooms to put our things as the other rooms were earmarked for massive works. This has turned into a nightmare and we only got the keys at 2’oclock yesterday

macman

A 'reasonable claim' will be your actual quantifiable losses, as you've itemised in your post. If you're expecting compo for mental trauma etc, forget it.
The vendors are under no obligation to pay anything, and your buildings insurance will have been in place since exchange, so this would pay out if you claimed on it. The actual leak occurred after completion, not before.

shortcrust

I agree with macman. This is what insurance is for. If I were the seller my solicitor wouldn’t have agreed to pay for anything.

Davesnave

Is this is in Scotland?

Different rules up there. I believe one has a period of time after moving in to discover defects, for which the vendor is still liable.

exiled_red

In Scotland you have a week after completion to report any existing faults. One would assume that the pipe cracked when it froze, presumably before completion, but you only noticed it when it thawed (when you turned the heat on). On this basis you would likely have a claim although I wouldn't have been surprised if the other solicitor had disputed it, luckily that doesn't seem to be the case. I would speak to your solicitor and keep receipts and cost details

shortcrust

Davesnave wrote: »

Is this is in Scotland?

Different rules up there. I believe one has a period of time after moving in to discover defects, for which the vendor is still liable.

Oh of course! Would have helped me when I moved into my house.

GlasweJen

Yes this is in Scotland. We got the keys at 2, leaked happened at 3:30! The house was bought from a trust who allowed their house insurance to lapse at midnight on the day of the sale (idiots!) so this money is coming out of the estate.

By reasonable I mean we were going to pay to have the woodchip stripped anyway but should we send the bill to the other side now as we were scheduling this for March now it’s happening today. We can’t do the work ourselves, well I can’t I’m a paraplegic and the work being done is to convert the house.

Davesnave

The Trust won't know your plans, and you've been inconvenienced by their actions, so while the latter isn't part of your claim, expect reimbursement for all your expenses, regardless of what the future holds for the property.

GlasweJen

So progressing on, overnight the ceiling didn’t improve and the woodchip and most of the plaster came away from the ceiling of the bedroom but thankfully not the plasterboard itself. Dining room has thankfully dried out with the help of the oil heater but will need reskimmed as it has a bulge.

The property has no running water and won’t have until the middle of the week as that’s when the parts come to repair the tank. There’s also frost damage to pipes in two of the rooms which will need fixed so we can’t heat the house properly and need to use oil filled heaters and a hot air blower provided by the plumber.

Husband and FIL have went up into the loft and removed the insulation as the plumber said the insulation is acting like a wet sponge and the plaster won’t dry until that was removed.

The other sides lawyer has got a bit prickley with us today but knowing the law here he really should been a bit more sensible. Who leaves a house unheated in -8 temperatures? Even if the house was insured no insurer would pay out in those circumstances, the T&Cs would surely state that the house would need heated if bad weather was forecast. The central heating was in good order in the home report and my husband was in the loft when we viewed the house and both tanks were in good working order so this is sheer negligence. The solicitor is also the executor for the estate so no doubt he has a rather annoyed family who were expecting a nice windfall before Christmas and this will be putting a halt on things.

I feel like pulling my hair out. I can’t find a plasterer to come out and give us a quote never mind 3 and we’re supposed to be vacating our flat next week to move in with the in laws! Where the hell will be put our stuff? Not in the rooms we’d planned to use anyway unless I want all my furniture to stink of mould and damp.

Other sides lawyer keeps pressing to get my husbands mobile number but I’m insisting on correspondence in writing through our solicitor and he can pay the additional solicitors fees while he’s at it. He’s lucky we’re not in a chain and hitting him with hotel fees as the house as it stands isn’t fit for human habitation at the moment.

missile

Employ a removal firm and have them store your belongings :-)