House builder is dodgy!!

user1977

Irishpearce26 said:

pinkshoes said:

The warranty is one route or if you could prove he previous owner  knew about this issue and didnt declare it then you might have a case against them.

Wrong, as a seller you have no legal obligation to disclose anything. Its up to the buyers to carry out due diligence. 

Ok, if there had been a relevant enquiry to which the seller had knowingly given a misleading answer...but "have the drains been installed correctly" or the like, is hardly a standard enquiry anyway.

FaceHead

Re-reading your survey on an off chance sounds sensible, but no surveyor could reasonably spot this so they wouldn't be saying what goes where in their report. 

This is home ownership. Getting out of it for only an £1100 excess sounds like a good result. As above, imagine if you'd bought an older home with this problem and had to folk out for the lot. 

Section62

brainz357 said:

This week we discovered the developer plumbed the kitchen sink into a rain water soak away!! That soak away is now totally clogged with grease and grime from the last 7 years. The kitchen sink no longer drains.

...

Or do I have any other options available to me? 

Who did the building regs checks?


If the developer is a large one, and still building, you have the option of using social media to highlight the shortcut they took which resulted in untreated wastewater being discharged into the ground.

To get some kind of financial contribution towards the rectification you'd need to get them to feel a moral responsibility rather than a legal one, so it will need a strategic approach, not just a SM whinge.


Is it possible other properties elsewhere on the development have the same issue? Speak to the neighbours, and the owners of other houses of the same design and see whether they are having problems too.  Having other people taking action alongside you can help get a better outcome.

Contacting the council's Environmental Health department, and possibly the Environment Agency, could be another option, but might make you unpopular if other residents have the same issue. Discharge of untreated wastewater poses a health risk, and could lead to contamination of groundwater (which could be someone else's drinking water supply). There's no justification whatsoever for a developer to have done this.

pinkteapot

Environment Agency is the relevant body if you did want to tell the authorities it's happened and could be happening at other properties, though you might want to be careful because as the landowner I believe it's your responsibility to ensure you're not polluting (I know you wouldn't have known!). Though I can't imagine they'd take action against you under the circumstances. 

Irishpearce26

user1977 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

pinkshoes said:

The warranty is one route or if you could prove he previous owner  knew about this issue and didnt declare it then you might have a case against them.

Wrong, as a seller you have no legal obligation to disclose anything. Its up to the buyers to carry out due diligence. 

Ok, if there had been a relevant enquiry to which the seller had knowingly given a misleading answer...but "have the drains been installed correctly" or the like, is hardly a standard enquiry anyway.

Again its a grey area, hard for the buyer to prove the sellers knew anything about it unless there is a record of some inspection but again I don't think legally they are inclined to share anything.

Its likely the sellers didn't know about the issue. Its best for the OP to get some quotes for the work and then determine what is the economical route, pay the costs or the warranty.

Section62

pinkteapot said:

Environment Agency is the relevant body if you did want to tell the authorities it's happened and could be happening at other properties...

The council's Environmental Health department also have a stake in this.  They are generally responsible for enforcement of the various public health acts in relation to (existing) domestic dwellings.

I would expect them to be more interested in investigating/enforcing this than the Environment Agency, because something on this scale is primarily a risk the the occupants and immediate neighbours, rather than the impact on groundwater. (not wishing to trivialise the latter)

If the problem is so bad that the kitchen sink can't be emptied without flooding the garden then it is starting to go in the direction of a fitness for habitation issue.  Enforcement action would be against the owner, not the developer. But if enough properties are affected there could be some pressure on the developer to contribute towards rectification.

There's also the issue of how this slipped through the BC net, which likewise EH would have more of an interest in than the EA.

brainz357

Thrugelmir said:

Perhaps the previous owners had a similar problem. 

I don't think so, it only reared it's head in the last 2 weeks. Water has been draining no problem... and who would think a developer would do that... There were no signs of it.

brainz357

FaceHead said:

Re-reading your survey on an off chance sounds sensible, but no surveyor could reasonably spot this so they wouldn't be saying what goes where in their report. 

This is home ownership. Getting out of it for only an £1100 excess sounds like a good result. As above, imagine if you'd bought an older home with this problem and had to folk out for the lot. 

In a way I agree... £1100 is decent.. However when the developer has done something so bad, I don't believe there should be a time limit on such bad work. It was wrong on the day of completion...It's still wrong now. Yet the developer gets away scot free... Make me a little mad!