Small Claims time limits

Shinysaver

I had a fibreglass flat roof installed by a limited company in October 2019.  The existing flat roof had been leaking along the junction with the house, and because I knew it was more than 10 years old, I thought it sensible to have it replaced.  Fibreglass looked like a good long-term solution, from what I was reading at the time.

I used ‘Trusted Traders’ to find a roofer (Yes, I know!), and went with one who seemed to specialise in flat roofs.

From the point it was installed, I had years of complaining to them that the roof was leaking, primarily through the skylight they had installed, although there also appeared to be an ongoing problem with damp along the junction - although it seemed hard to tell whether that was a separate issue, or caused by water tracking from the leaking skylight).  

They did come to ‘fix’ the skylight several times over the years, including replacing the skylight entirely in August 2019.  By September 2019, I was complaining again about drips coming in, but although they made promises to come, they never showed up after that to fix the problem.  

I lost patience last year, got a quote from another company to replace the roof (I went for a ‘proper’ pitched roof this time), and that has now been done, so my kitchen is finally drip and damp free.

When the company that recently replaced the roof did their inspection late last year, their (very highly qualified) surveyor told me that because the previous installers had not put in a ‘cavity drip tray’ in the wall above the point where the flat roof met the two-story section of my house, there would always have been a problem with damp appearing in the ceilings below.  He also said that a metre-square flat skylight was a recipe for disaster, because heat expansion and contraction in the glass would make it difficult to seal.  Then, when the chaps came to take off the existing roof, they told me it had clearly been badly constructed, because the layers of fibreglass were clearly breaking down and separating.

I am still angry about wasting so much money and time on the first roof, and I want to know if I am still entitled to make a claim against the company.  It’s clearly more than six years since I first identified the problem, but I was still in communication with the company about it last year (my last text to the proprietor telling him it was dripping again was in May 2021).  I didn’t tell him when I finally decided that I was done dealing with him, and going elsewhere to fix the problem, but I have threatened several times over the years to take him to court (I had only managed to get him to come in, in 2019, by threatening to sue him; then I told him when he came to replace the skylight in 2019 that this was his last chance, and I told him again in 2020, after the second skylight failed, that I was going to sue him for damages for distress and inconvenience as well as the cost of the roof).  I also didn’t know until late last year that the construction of the roof was fundamentally flawed, and that I had just been completely wasting my time trying to get it fixed by the first firm.

So - what’s the verdict?  Am I timed out, or not?

unholyangel

I'm confused. If you had it installed in Oct 2019. how has it "clearly been more than six years"? 

I'm assuming from that and the other dates in your post the Oct 2019 is a mistake 

Sandtree

unholyangel said:

I'm confused. If you had it installed in Oct 2019. how has it "clearly been more than six years"? 

I'm assuming from that and the other dates in your post the Oct 2019 is a mistake 

On the basis they said they came out to do fixes in August and September 2019 then clearly the original install date must have been before Oct 2019


To the OP - generally under contract law you have 6 years from the breach or 3 years from when you reasonably should have known there was a breach (if that's later). Ultimately its for the defendant to raise the defence that its statute barred and the judge to decide if it is or isn't however if you state it was over 6 years ago that it was installed and by the sounds of it, over 3 years since they had to come back to do repairs then its fairly likely that you'd be wasting your money paying to take it to court.