What can we do about this mess??

deb_buffy

hi

i didnt know if this was the correct forum to post in but you helped me so much when we bought our house 6 months ago.

6 months ago we bought our house. We made sure we got a homebuyers report before we decided to buy as the house is quite old. The report came back glowing nothing wrong with the property the only thing they said we could do was some more loft insulation. Great we thought we had bought our dream home.

This weekend we went up into the lofts for the first time since we moved in. We have a loft over half the house and a 2nd loft over the extension of the house.

We opened the loft hatch of the 2nd loft to be faced with a rather large hole in the roof and a large birds nest which had been covered over with builders plastic. so someone knew it was there. The hole is about 3 slates big and there is nothing there you can see straight outside.

Now i am rather upset and angry at finding this because our homebuyers report says that both lofts are fine no damage nothing of concern just that we need a bit more loft insulation. Well there is no way you could miss the things in the loft if you had been up there.

What i really am wanting to know is do we have a legal leg to stand on after 6 months? the report says nothing is wrong and the seller signed a document from the solicitors saying the house was in a good state of repair.

As i say someone had to have know it was there as this builders plastic was covering the birds nest.

Thanks for your help and if you need any more information i will try and help.

Deb_buffy

sooz

Not really sure what you are asking.

3 slates won't be expensive to buy or fit.

It obviously wasn't causing a problem as you didn't yourself notice it for the last 6 months.

deb_buffy

that is true that we haven't noticed it for the last 6 months. the house has been very cold but we thought it was because we have solid walls. Is it just the slates we would have to replace, because there is nothing there no felt no slates. We are planning on contacting some builders later to get a quote.

Debt_Free_Chick

Is it possible that the roof was damaged after the survey, but before you completed? (Or even before you exchanged)?

sooz

Check your homebuyer's report carefully.

Was there a reason stated as to why the surveyor didn't go into this second loft. Was it easily accessible?

There may well be a clauses stating that s/he couldn't get into the loft, so couldn't check it (and a get out clause suggesting in their opinion the roof looks ok, but you can't rely on this and should get a specialist in to check it etc...)

I guess if you didn't go there in 6 months it wasn't easy to get to (I know i filled my loft with boxes and suitcases and stuff within minutes of moving in and unpacking!)

deb_buffy

sooz wrote: »

Check your homebuyer's report carefully.

Was there a reason stated as to why the surveyor didn't go into this second loft. Was it easily accessible?

There may well be a clauses stating that s/he couldn't get into the loft, so couldn't check it (and a get out clause suggesting in their opinion the roof looks ok, but you can't rely on this and should get a specialist in to check it etc...)

I guess if you didn't go there in 6 months it wasn't easy to get to (I know i filled my loft with boxes and suitcases and stuff within minutes of moving in and unpacking!)

This is our first house so have had to buy some ladders which is why we havn't been up there before. It cleared states on the report that the main loft was accessible from the landing and the 2nd loft was acessable from the 2nd bedroom. No there wasnt a thing saying we should get a specialist to look. we had things like that said for the electric and the wiring. I haven't got the report with me right now so cannot quote but it definatly says about the 2nd loft and its condition.

It could have been damaged between the report and completion but shouldn't the seller have to fix it?

gemma.zhang

if it's the case that got damaged between the report and completion, sellers wouldn't be bothered to fix it, ,and your building insurance shall cover it from exchange date.. Sorry, cna't help much.. good luck on this...

IveSeenTheLight

Effectively these reports are only valid on the day that the inspection took place.
You will have no proof to show that the hole in the roof was there before the survey.

Its unfortunate but better to just move on, get the hole fixed and forget about it