House starting to fall apart around elderly mum..

joho

My mum is over 80, lives alone in a 3 bed semi which has multiple problems.

I'm trying to convince her it's time to sell up and find somewhere smaller but she's happy there, so let's discount that as an option for now.

She had cavity wall insulation fitted (through a council grant scheme) so long ago that none of us can remember who did it and can't find any paperwork. She now thinks it's faulty, causing damp and the wall ties are failing. The house is double glazed but it wasn't the best quality and that too is starting to fail. The brickwork around the side door is collapsing and the door is bowing and getting hard to open. She's in an area that has had subsidence from mines, though we don't believe the house is subsiding.

I'm not sure where to start or how to go about getting her help. We can't find a builder we trust to look at things for her. Should she be looking at getting a survey? Might any of this be covered by buildings insurance?

The only option I can see is winning the lottery to pay for it all! Can anyone offer any advice?

FreeBear

joho said: The house is double glazed but it wasn't the best quality and that too is starting to fail. The brickwork around the side door is collapsing and the door is bowing and getting hard to open. She's in an area that has had subsidence from mines, though we don't believe the house is subsiding.

I'm guessing this property is an old one (pre 1950s) ?

If so, I'd suspect the outer leaf of brickwork is collapsing because the fitters failed to fit a lintel when the windows/doors were replaced. Possibly find other windows are suffering from the same fault - Household insurance won't cover this, but you might be able to claim on any warranty depending on how long ago the work was done. Don't hold your breath though..

Damp could be down to lack of ventilation and poor heating - Unless the house is in an exposed position, cavity wall insulation is unlikely to cause too many problems - However, do check to make sure air bricks are not blocked by the insulation.

twopenny

The best thing is to find out why these things are happening. May sound obvious but not impossible.
The double glazing. Do you have a window doctor in the area?
Ours will check all windows and doors for £50 and tell you what is wrong.
The glazed units can be replaced as needed.
Adjustments to doors etc.
Sometimes just redoing the seals.

TELLIT01

With the list of issues, investment in a structural survey would seem to be a sensible first step.  It's not cheap but could help avoid expensive oversights or equally expensive work which doesn't need to be done.

ka7e

My advice is, get her to move to somewhere warm, safe and manageable. We have spent the past ten years trying to get my Mum to move. She is now 89, in a house she cannot afford to heat or maintain but is too frightened to deal with change. She wishes she had moved when she was fit enough, now she is ashamed of the state of the house and won't let an EA through the door. The stress it causes is exhausting for everyone concerned.

twopenny

I have sympathy for mum.
I've had to move from the family home after 60yrs. The memories are comforting on a daily basis and despite a nice place and lovely neighbours I do miss that
However I do know a lot of people who've moved in t 80s that are content. Perhaps talking through the packiing etc to be done for her, somewhere to stay while the move is done? Makiing it as hassle free as possible.
I had a pretty woodden box that I put all my treasures in and everything I couldn't live without came with me. Not the movers. 
There are ways to make it easier and bearable. Having some control is one. Having support before AND afterwards is another.
Just looking online. Driving round for desirable locations.
Can you get as far as looking around places without house on the market? Estate agents aren't happy but it's not their feelings that are important.

knightstyle

See  https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/moving-and-improving-your-home/help-with-home-improvements/

There may be help from local council.

Bendy_House

joho said:

My mum is over 80, lives alone in a 3 bed semi which has multiple problems.

I'm trying to convince her it's time to sell up and find somewhere smaller but she's happy there, so let's discount that as an option for now.

She had cavity wall insulation fitted (through a council grant scheme) so long ago that none of us can remember who did it and can't find any paperwork. She now thinks it's faulty, causing damp and the wall ties are failing. The house is double glazed but it wasn't the best quality and that too is starting to fail. The brickwork around the side door is collapsing and the door is bowing and getting hard to open. She's in an area that has had subsidence from mines, though we don't believe the house is subsiding.

I'm not sure where to start or how to go about getting her help. We can't find a builder we trust to look at things for her. Should she be looking at getting a survey? Might any of this be covered by buildings insurance?

The only option I can see is winning the lottery to pay for it all! Can anyone offer any advice?

Joho, I guess sit down and work through the available options, and then discount the ones that aren't viable or possible. See what you are left with.

First option - "but she's happy there..." is that she stays where she is. That, then, leads to two further options (afaIcs) which is to leave things as they are (if you/she cannot afford to carry out the necessary remedial work) until such point that she requires proper care somewhere else. Meanwhile, fully explore what work can be done - if any - and how it'll be funded.

The second main option is for her to sell up and move somewhere smaller, more comfortable, easier to look after, cheap to heat, possibly closer to you or other family(?), and generally so appealing that it'll make the decision easier for her. I would hope that a 3-bed semi would buy a 1 or even 2-bed bungalow? I'm sure you've looked into this, so hopefully you will know?

Anyhoo, for the better version of the first option, I suggest you need to go through her house insurance and look for two things - one is what sort of cover is included for damage potentially caused by the CW insulation (if it has), subsidence (even tho' you don't reckon this applies) or anything else that's outwith simple wear and tear. IF your wall ties are failing, then UNLESS there's a 3rd-party outside cause, then I suspect you are stuffed. But, in general, go through the clauses and see if there's anything that could be called on to help.

The second thing to look for is Legal Protection cover. Again, the devil is in the details, but if what your mum suspects has gone wrong IS the case, then LP could guide you on an approach to making a claim, or even (if it's cut and dried...) take the case on for you. I suspect very strongly, however, that this will be a non-starter. The exception could be if the company has 'previous' in this - ie they've been installing unsuitable CWI in other houses in your locality, ie houses which are not suited to this. So, a bit of research - what is the name of the company, what CWI did they use, what is the reputation of that type of CWI, and are there any other cases, especially in the area? Still, I suspect you'd have to be very lucky to get anywhere with this. AND we don't know if there IS an issue yet!

Once you've exhausted the above, then it's a case of "what can we afford to have done ourselves?" IF the walls are genuinely bowing and failing due to corroded ties, then this must surely be in the realm of many £ks? I don't know, tho'. Perhaps drilling out and inserting new ties is a straight-forward job these days?

STUART?!

From what you can see, is the house actually damp? If so, is it penetrating (ie could be due to the wrong CWI) or is it condensation - eg your mum isn't heating and ventilating the house well enough? For the latter, try and get her down to one living area and one bedroom max., and all the other rooms should have their doors shut, the heating off (except for frost setting) and the windows permanently cracked open to vent setting - these rooms should look after themselves and stay fine and dry. Then heat (and ventilate) the usable rooms properly.

Obviously, it would be good to have a proper surveyor and/or a trusted builder take a look. Both are best via local recommendations. You could try on a local Facebook page, tho' obviously this also needs careful vetting.

Bottom line - if these works cannot be afforded, then that could bring you down to two simple options - your mum rides out her time in that house as it is, or else you persuade her to move. Is the latter a goer? Could you arrange a couple of viewings and invite her along? She might be able to see the advantages of a much comfier way of living, and if you point out where her furniture could go in each room, it might help too. There is no 'perfect' solution (other than the lottery as you say), so it's a case of weighing up the pros and cons. The pros of moving to a more comfortable place should be emphasised, and not let the 'con' of leaving 'the family home' become an overriding issue (you can mention it once, but only once!); memories are taken with you. But, if she really couldn't cope with moving - and it has to be her decision - then that is simply that.

If she is up for moving, then bear in mind what the value of the house could be IF it needs all this work. Be frank with any EAs that come to visit - "If it needs this and that, how will it affect its value...?"

My 83-year old mil - who's been living with us for the past 3+ years since her husband passed away - has just completed on a bungalow in a nearby retirement complex. Her situation is different to your mum's, tho', since she made the decision to leave her family home after she lost her husband and move in with us (possibly a rash move in hindsight, but hey...), so the extension we built on here to house her isn't such a 'break' for her - no real emotional attachment to it, and we'll probably be moving too in a few years. For your mum, tho', I suspect the house and the neighbours mean a lot to her? And sometimes that's the end of the discussion. It's such a toughie - it's hard to know how much to let the 'emotional' overrule everything 'rational', and how much to be insistent - if you 'know' (ie think...) what is best.

In retrospect, it might have been better had mil stayed in her own bungalow for at least 6 months after she lost her husband, just so she'd know where she'd want to be after that, and that could well have been staying where she was. We'll never know. It's worked out ok now - 3+ years later - but was pretty darned fraught at times... :-)

Any there any such retirement complexes where you are? We bumped into so many friendly and engaging folk each time we viewed, and all said that moving there it was the best decision they'd made. It's even having a new communal centre with restaurant built this year, and a seemingly very active social life.

stuart45

Bendy, wall tie replacement is straightforward, although normally done by specialist firms. The methods used depending on the type of wall ties.
The thick twist type need removal or isolating as when rusted expand enough to damage the brickwork.
The thinner butterfly ones can be left insitu.

FaceHead

Either she can afford to live in a 3 bed house in her retirement - which means maintaining, heating it etc.- or she can't.

And it sounds like she can't maintain it with her income. So the options are to downsize, or erode the equity she has it it - which will massively erode an legacy she leaves. Clearly it's her choice whether she releases equity to keep the house in a decent state.

joho

Thank you, especially @Bendy_House

Lots to think about. She's caught covid now too!