Damage to a house before completion

eddddy

TopDoc said:

Our vendor employed a "man and a van" to remove their furniture on the day of completion. The man dropped a heavy wardrobe on the floor and the ceiling below collapsed; it cost us about £3000 to repair. We (now) know that we should have insured from exchange, not completion, but this happened 6 hours before completion & our insurers have refused liability. 

Just to be clear...

• You seem to be saying that you had insurance from the day of completion. Is that correct?

• You seem to be saying  that the wardrobe was dropped on the day of completion. Is that correct?

• If so, it sounds like you had insurance cover on the day the incident occurred. 

But...

• Did your policy include accidental damage to the building? (That's usually an optional extra.)

If you had decided to go with a policy without accidental damage cover, it's irrelevant what your solicitor did/didn't tell you - as you wouldn't have been covered for the damage anyway.

jbainbridge

Would the OP not have any claim against the vendor for handing over a damaged property?

The vendor had a contract with the "man and van" company.

eddddy

Also... thinking more about this....  Are you sure that the seller is telling you the truth? 

It sounds a bit improbable that dropping a wardrobe would make a ceiling fall down.

Not to mention the mysterious disappearing man and van.


(So the man with the van caused a huge amount of damage, and the seller just let him walk away without getting any contact details? How did he find the man with the van in the first place?)

Flugelhorn

eddddy said:

But...

• Did your policy include accidental damage to the building? (That's usually an optional extra.)

If you had decided to go with a policy without accidental damage cover, it's irrelevant what your solicitor did/didn't tell you - as you wouldn't have been covered for the damage anyway.

I suspect this is the key to it the policy may well have started at midnight before the morning of completion but didn't provide the cover needed

loubel

The seller contracted to sell you the property in the condition it was in on exchange of contacts. On the day of completion the property was damaged by his workman. He is liable to rectify this regardless of whether your building insurer will assist you in making a claim. When did you become aware of the problem and when did you tell your solicitor? What was their advice?

EssexHebridean

TopDoc said:

Thanks for quick reply - agreed, not really a surprise. So I guess the follow up is do we have a claim against the solicitor who definitely did NOT advise us to insure from exchange?

Have a look in your various reports that were sent - it would be incredibly unusual for it not to be there somewhere these days. It really is a very standard piece of advice. 

It may be worth attempting to persuade the seller to claim on their insurance, which should still have been valid if the damage occurred BEFORE time of completion? 

diystarter7

aoleks said:

alright, alright... let's calm down a bit.

1. you ensure the house the moment you exchange, let this be a lesson. should the house burn down the moment you exchanged, you MUST buy a burned down house, that's why insurance is essential. in fact, the only way to be 100% sure is to get insurance 1 day ahead of exchanging, otherwise there's a tiny time gap in which anything can happen.

2. the current owner is no longer liable for the building, as completion already took place, but the contractor (man and van) should have insurance for this kind of situations. what if there was no damage to the house, but your brand new £6000 swivel chair was ruined? exactly...

3. unless the wardrobe damaged the floor/ceiling joists, which is extremely unlikely, the whole "£3000 to repair" doesn't add up. you're probably looking at a broken ceiling board (plasterboard), which is modular. post a picture and we'll advise.

4. your solicitor definitely told you to insure the house from exchange, either verbally and/or in writing. you probably didn't read the contracts and other documentation.

Hi

Good points.

Some really good help here OP, hope it works out for you.

Just read this may help

https://www.nationalhomebuyers.co.uk/liable-property-damage-exchange-completion/

FreeBear

aoleks said: 3. unless the wardrobe damaged the floor/ceiling joists, which is extremely unlikely, the whole "£3000 to repair" doesn't add up. you're probably looking at a broken ceiling board (plasterboard), which is modular. post a picture and we'll advise.

If it is an old property, a lath & lime plaster ceiling might fail if the floor above had a big enough impact. Getting a specialist in to do a like-for-like repair could possibly cost £3K if the damage was extensive enough.

But, a plasterboard patch plus a quick skim with Multifinish would be the typical repair in a majority of properties - Probably cost in the region of £500.

TheJP

Did the sellers notify you of this before completion? Unfortunately you didn't insure the property between exchange and completion, the seller could say that there was no damage after they vacated. £3000 seems excessive for a wardrobe falling on the floor. As someone else pointed out it likely dislodge some plasterboard and plaster. which is more like 100s rather than 1000s unless it went through the floor and damaged pipes etc which i don't think is the case. 

Pictures would help, either way i don't see how you can claim it back/not worth it.

doodling

Hi,

I'm confused here.  My understanding is that
1) the seller should hand over the house at completion in pretty much the same state as it was at exchange, albeit with a degree of wear and tear commensurate with the gap between the two events.
2) the damage occurred before completion occurred (otherwise what on earth was the seller doing in the property)
3) dropping a wardrobe is not wear and tear.

The seller should therefore compensate the buyer for the damage.  I suggest running the above argument past a solicitor and then suing the seller yourself.

Having said that, £3000 seems to be an absurd price unless we are talking about a very special ceiling.  Remember that you can't claim betterment so if it was a slightly dodgy ceiling before (which it sounds to have been) then you are entitled to compensation equivalent to the value of a slightly dodgy ceiling which will be much less than the cost of a new one (which might reasonably cost no more than £1000 unless, as I say, it was very special).

Taking into account the above, you may decide that it is not worth the hassle of suing the seller.