False Statement on Home Report

qwerty247

Hello there. Someone I know has recently purchased a house and the home report said the foundation was concrete. However they lifted the floor and discovered it was just soil and that the joists had all rotted and as a result they've had to completely gut the downstairs out and start digging out tons of soil in order to get it prepped for concreting and rebuilding the downstairs interior. Do they have any rights to compensation either from the surveyor or the previous owner or both? Thanks

user1977

Not sure on what basis the previous owner would be liable, unless they had made some sort of unusual statement about the construction?

The surveyor would probably be liable, assuming their comments weren't somehow caveated (which may seem likely if the only method of being certain was to lift the floorboards).

But given the costs sound chunky, isn't this "someone" seeking professional advice?

oldernonethewiser

Whoever prepared the Home Report will doubtless have caveats as to what is written and what was actually inspected on the day the Home Report was prepared. You probably need to check exactly what the HR states.

The previous owner may have had no knowledge of what was under the floor.

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661600/false-statement-on-home-report

I would be very surprised if a house was built on just soil.

Are you(or someone you know) not on about a wood suspended floor that has not been screeded.

There should be air vents near the damp course for ventilation.

Keep_pedalling

The foundations are what the load bearing walls are built on. In older houses you can often find that all that is below the suspended floor is soil. This was the case with our previous house, a 1930’s semi and the report is not false.

bobster2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81940619#Comment_81940619

Absolutely.

There are likely concrete foundations under the walls. Just because there is soil in the spaces between foundations - that does not mean the report was wrong. That's completely normal.

If the joists rotted - there was likely a lack of ventilation for that sub-floor space.

E.g. some concrete foundations…

Albermarle

OP,

The foundations will only be underneath/supporting the load bearing walls, so they could well be concrete.

In any case if there is a problem with the foundations, the issue is usually some kind of subsidence, cracks in the walls etc.

The problem here is that the suspended wooden floor has rotted, which is unconnected to the foundations. Obviously it need replacing but not sure why they would need to dig out all the soil underneath first. Unless maybe they want to replace it with a concrete floor ?

So what the surveyor missed was in fact that there was a problem with the suspended wooden floor. However it will most likely say in the report that due to floor coverings they were unable to inspect the floor.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661600/false-statement-on-home-report

However they lifted the floor and discovered it was just soil and that the joists had all rotted…

Why did they lift the floor?

dinosaur66

i have bought a bungalow like this in essex

i was told at the time by my friend that it is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about

1970s bungalow

was a bit strange when i ripped out the bathroom and put in a new floor to see the earth so close beneath but joists were fine

i sold it in 2014 and that 2 bed bungalow at the time went for 10k over the ceiling price for the town

but there was a flood in this area albeit not on this road and i can imagine similar propertys that the water has gone in through the air bricks and sat there for a few days under the property would have taken a long time to dry out and caused a fair bit of rot

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944073#Comment_81944073

but there was a flood in this area albeit not on this road and i can imagine similar propertys that the water has gone in through the air bricks and sat there for a few days under the property would have taken a long time to dry out and caused a fair bit of rot

A one-off soaking is not going to cause a significant amount of rot in timber.

Damp soil, or even a puddle of water, 6" or more below a suspended timber floor is not a problem, so long as the void space is well ventilated.

A saturated solid concrete floor slab will take as long, if not longer, to dry than a suspended timber floor.

There's more of a problem if the void space under a suspended floor gets flooded with foul sewage - but that's to do with the smell, not rot.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81944073#Comment_81944073

There must be many millions of houses in the UK, with suspended wooden floors over soil.