Was my conveyancer negligent, and is my house unsaleable?

RainbowLaura

I bought my 2003-built house in 2014 and for some time have had a niggling feeling about the DPC, which is higher than the internal floor level along one wall where the ground is high outside. There are no signs of damp and it wasn't picked up in our homebuyers report, but it just doesn't seem right to me.

Tonight I thought I would reassure myself by looking through the local authority searches from when we bought the house. Only to find that "there are no building regulations records" with the council! The report says that this is highly likely to have been because that was dealt with by NHBC and should not be a concern due to the time that has elapsed. Google says rather differently and suggests that selling this house could be a challenge.

I am tempted to contact NHBC myself (which I believe the conveyancer should have done), but I've got a horrible feeling that it will be fruitless and only confirm that there never was a certificate for this house. I am gutted that we never picked up on this at the time, but bought the house at the age of 22 and was extremely naive.

Can anyone tell me how likely I am to run into problems when I do want to sell this house, and if I should get in touch with the solicitor? Though I'm not sure what I'd want them to do about it now. Oh dear what a worry...

ETA the house is mortgaged and there were no problems with that, but perhaps due to oversight rather than lack of problem

Also worth pointing out that the house is part of a large estate rather than a one off build, and I do have quite a bad anxiety problem so hopefully it's just my mind running overtime as it tends to do...

Doozergirl

Stop worrying. And stop googling!

Building regulations on new builds are often registered in bulk against the development rather than the address which wouldn't have existed at the time inspections started.

It's very common. More than one thread on this board historically about the same. The council will have it on file.

RainbowLaura

Doozergirl wrote: »

Stop worrying. And stop googling!

Building regulations on new builds are often registered in bulk against the development rather than the address which wouldn't have existed at the time inspections started.

It's very common. More than one thread on this board historically about the same. The council will have it on file.

Thank you Doozergirl, that is very reassuring and might help me get a little bit of sleep tonight! I wish something had come up in the local authority searches just to say that, rather than "nothing".

Do you have any thoughts on the DPC that's higher than the internal floor along just one wall? That's where all of this anxiety started (about three years ago now, when I was sitting in the garden one day and noticed it )

Doozergirl

What's important is that the ground level outside is lower than the DPC. You can't see your internal DPC. Cavity walls were invented to help stop damp. Any possible transference between the leafs is stopped by having a DPC per leaf. Internally, you have a membrane covering the whole floor area and the internal DPC overlaps it. In your 100mm cavity, building regulations dictates that there is 150mm of clear space beneath the DPCs. Below DPC is often an engineering brick or concrete blocks which have virtually no porosity.

It's possible that your floor is even beam and block and there's airflow running under the house.

You live in a well designed 21st century house. Nothing is getting into it.

middleclassbutpoor

In response to your post title- no and no

davidmcn

middleclassbutpoor wrote: »

In response to your post title- no and no

To be fair, it might be unsaleable for other reasons

Slinky

Your DPC could be 'tanked'. We have an extension where the external ground level on one side is higher than the internal floor. The builder asked us if we wanted him to dig out the ground outside to lower the external level to below the normal DPC height or to tank it. We would have had to shore up below the neighbouring fence if they'd lowered the ground, so opted for tanking instead. This means the DPC plastic is put in the external wall at one level, then drops across the cavity to a lower height on the internal wall (where it cannot be seen) to stop damp coming across. If you've not got any problems with damp inside this is probably how yours was done.

RainbowLaura

I can't thank you people enough - feeling much better now and will try to stop over-analysing (and over-googling!)
Really appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Slithery

RainbowLaura wrote: »

...and for some time have had a niggling feeling about the DPC, which is higher than the internal floor level...

Um, that's exactly where you want it to be.

RainbowLaura

Slithery wrote: »

Um, that's exactly where you want it to be.

What I mean is that the (semi-detached) house is on a slope, and it results in the side of the house being below the ground level outside (though the outer DPC is still above the ground, about 5 courses higher than the DPC at the front of the house and also the back, where the ground seems to have been excavated away). For a while I've been convincing myself that the DPC was done wrong when the house was built

I didn't realise that the inner leaf and outer leaf DPC could be different heights, I thought they had to be the same.