new home hell

bigO

Hello all, first post, woohoo.

sorry for the long post.

OK here is my dilemma and i would like any advice i can get before having to reach for the phone and get my solicitor involved.

We have recently bought a new home, a flat in a converted church. Apart from the usual teething problems (intercom not working, car park not finished etc) we have a serious problem with heating.

We do not have gas and our last electricity bill was, for the period 1st Nov2007 - 2nd Jan2008 was £436. thats 2 months!!!

The floors have underfloor heating and the temperature for the main room in the flat and kitchen never reaches more than 15 degrees celcius. This is when the floors are on full all day(its the only way to even get 15 degrees otherwise it's more like 11). Building control for the borough have said that "off the record" they do not remember having even seen the property before it was signed off and the architects have admitted there is a problem. The architects have to wait for the developer to respond with what they mean to do to fix the problems.
The developer is ignoring us and the architect is passing the buck to the developer.catch 22.

I think £220 per month on electricity is a joke and even more so when its whizzing out of the main living room because it isn't insulated properly.

What can i do. With the new HIP introduced we are never going to get anywhere near passing an energy efficiency rating that wont result in prospective buyers having a heart attack.

Essentially i have bought a house that we can only use half of. I Feel we have been ripped off and now the developer has our money, am not convinced he has any intention of fixing the mistakes that would make it fully habitable and reduce our energy costs.

Thanks for you time if you have read this, any help is much appreciated.

O

dubsey

Blimey, we pay £125 a month for a three bed detached and I thought that was bad!

Your architects have admitted there is a problem, have they told you what they think the problem is or given you anything in writing yet?

BenL

Hi, I have no advice but just wondering where abouts you live?

I saw on Rightmove a coverted church into flats/apartments in Harrogate that i was thinking about having a look around.

Just starting to think about getting an idea of things again at the moment before maybe starting to make a house move in 6 months when the world is a clearer place (hopefully)

clutton_2

do you have particularly high rooms - it being an ex church ?

adr0ck

what was the SAP rating for the dwelling?

ask Building Control for the calcs to get the SAP rating

this should tell you whether the developer has insulated the property correctly (i.e. to the specification)

I take it the properties using electric heating?

How many bedrooms is the flat because if your using say £60 - £70 electric

and then say an additional £150 for the heating part of the electric bill ...then this doesnt sound too bad.....i would expect electric heating to be at least double gas central heating so if gas is £75 then £150 would be right

custardy

what are the other people in the building saying.
is everyone in the same boat?

slipp_digby

sorry you are having problems with this.

but developers will fit whatever they can get away with which is cheap and easy to install. they dont have to worry about the long term operating costs of the system - you do!

underfloor heating can work quite well in certain situations.

the issue of the thermal performance is a difficult one in this situation.

although new build properties need to meet Part L1A of the building regulations, because this is a conversion they may have had certain aspects of the buidlng regulations relaxed. it is unlikely a new build would have passed.

you do need professional advice here. i dont think the architect is the best person to go to with problems. while they will design the fabric detailing, it is the developers contractors who will be responsible for meeting these requirements on site. it is also unlikely that the architect is responsible for specifying the underfloor heating - this is more likely a contractor working for the developer.

i am sorry i cant be more positive, but I think you need to go back to the developer after consulting with a solicitor.

edit: before escalating things, are the developers dealing with the other snagging issues?

slipp_digby

bigO wrote: »

We do not have gas and our last electricity bill was, for the period 1st Nov2007 - 2nd Jan2008 was £436. thats 2 months!!!

just re-read this. this period would expected to be very high due to the weather so don't extrapolate this to a full year.

also you need to look at whether the cost is due to unreasonably high consumption i.e. the amount of electricity you are using (kWh) and how the tariff (p/kWh) contributes to the high costs

LandyAndy

slipp_digby wrote: »

just re-read this. this period would expected to be very high due to the weather so don't extrapolate this to a full year.

also you need to look at whether the cost is due to unreasonably high consumption i.e. the amount of electricity you are using (kWh) and how the tariff (p/kWh) contributes to the high costs

True but this isn't even heating the place to an acceptable level.

bigO

Hi,

Thanks very much for reading and responding,

The flat is two bedroom over 3 floors, the ground floor being the one consuming the largest porportion of these bills.

The heating of water and the rooms is all electric and eceonomy 7 tariff.We wash clothes and use the dishwasher at the cheaper times and use energy efficient lighting.

the ceilings are fairly high (the main culprit being 5 meters to the pitch of the ceiling and is stone and has a lot of glass. I do understand that these materials are intrinsically notorious in terms of heat retention but surely someone has to be responsible for the amount of energy that is needed to heat a building to a reasonable temperature. Its a complete waste.

If the architect/surveyors firm was contracted by the developer to design the apartments is it not them who must be answerable?

some other people in the building have similar issues but in terms of energy and finance our property suffers the most.

I will find out a bit about SAP but the council actually dont have any ratings for the property.

thanks again

Jonbvn

How was it possible for your property to pass the building regulations?

For those of you who are in love with some of the converted properties on Grand Designs take note. The converted church in Ireland springs to mind.