aaargh!!!!!!roots in cellar-really worried

rabialiones

was shocked to find roots in cellar this am.
have lived in property for about 8 years, no problems with cellar, very clean and dry.
towards end of last year, had water seeping in through base of cellar walls.
had environmental health and water authority people round .
both could not find cause of problem and each said as far as they were concerned, it was not any of their services which were causing this problem.
water authority carried out tests etc.
anyway, now i am finding roots sprouting across base of cellar walls where the water was seeping thru.
any way i am really worried about this.
has anyone else had similar problem ,if so , any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as to what steps i should now take.
i do have buildings insurance, but i do not know if they will cover this problem or not.

Smiley_Mum

This link may be a little use -

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:Gtqd2bboUPkJ:www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php%3Fp%3D3954%26+How+to+stop+tree+roots+that+are+under+my+property&hl=en

Perhaps a tree surgeon may be able to advise on how to prune the tree right down or something, I don't have trees/garden so can't really advise you too much. My parents do though but as far I know have never had any problems.

You could perhaps chop the tree down but you'd have to check whether there was a TPO (Tree Preservation Order) on it first. If there is, then I don't know what you could do. You can check this with the Local Council.

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=7563&

ben500

rabialiones wrote:

was shocked to find roots in cellar this am.
have lived in property for about 8 years, no problems with cellar, very clean and dry.
towards end of last year, had water seeping in through base of cellar walls.
had environmental health and water authority people round .
both could not find cause of problem and each said as far as they were concerned, it was not any of their services which were causing this problem.
water authority carried out tests etc.
anyway, now i am finding roots sprouting across base of cellar walls where the water was seeping thru.
any way i am really worried about this.
has anyone else had similar problem ,if so , any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as to what steps i should now take.
i do have buildings insurance, but i do not know if they will cover this problem or not.

It sounds to me like the cellar has not been tanked, this is a waterproof membrane which encompases the cellar area, it is a very expensive job and you may have some redress on the vendors of the property if they were aware there was a problem prior to sale, I would phone your insurers legal helpline for advice if I was you as if I am right the problem is not going to go away but most likely to get worse, most importantly if this is your problem it will NOT be covered by your buildings insurance unless there is an opportunity of recovery from the vendors in which case they may carry out the work and seek to recover from the vendors insurers

I am not an expert in this field but confident that if your property had been tanked the roots would be unlikely to penetrate the tanking unless of course it had perished which is extremely unlikely.

rabialiones

thanks for your responses.
the tree is at the front of the property on the pavement. we do have a privet hedge as well, (could it be the roots of these).
the house is an older type terrace, i dont think vendors would have been aware of any problems, we have been here for 8 years and never had any problems until now.
we had a survey done although not a structural one when we bought the property.
there was nothing in this to indicate any possible onset of such problem
and as i have previously mentioned our cellar has been extremely clean and dry./

gromituk

I don't see how you can assume a cellar has been tanked unless the vendor has claimed it has been done, so I don't see how you can blame the vendor for this. The cellar not being tanked does not automatically mean you will get tree roots coming in.

ben500

gromituk wrote:

I don't see how you can assume a cellar has been tanked unless the vendor has claimed it has been done, so I don't see how you can blame the vendor for this. The cellar not being tanked does not automatically mean you will get tree roots coming in.

I take it your referring to my post if you look I didn't say that you will automatically get root invasion if a cellar hasn't been tanked, what I said is that had it been tanked the likliehood of tree root invasion is small, not quite the same thing.

As for assuming a cellar to have been tanked not my words again, I said that the vendors could be pursued in the event they were aware there was a problem prior to sale.

I don't know how you inferred this from my material but you are mistaken in your interpretation of my words

gromituk

You mentioned tanking in the same sentence as trying to claim something from the previous owners, so I assumed that they were connected in some way. It does help to make yourself understood if you split paragraphs into sentences. Thank you for clarifying your posting.

I don't see how the OP can hope to have any redress against the previous owners if there has been no problem in the cellar for 8 years. Trying to prove that there had been a problem in the distant past, that remedial work had been done, and that the work had been done by or known to the previous owners, would be a nightmare.

ben500

ben500 wrote:

It sounds to me like the cellar has not been tanked, this is a waterproof membrane which encompases the cellar area, it is a very expensive job and you may have some redress on the vendors of the property if they were aware there was a problem prior to sale, I would phone your insurers legal helpline for advice if I was you as if I am right the problem is not going to go away but most likely to get worse, most importantly if this is your problem it will NOT be covered by your buildings insurance unless there is an opportunity of recovery from the vendors in which case they may carry out the work and seek to recover from the vendors insurers

I am not an expert in this field but confident that if your property had been tanked the roots would be unlikely to penetrate the tanking unless of course it had perished which is extremely unlikely.

What's so difficult to understand about that statement (highlighted now but I see no need other than to emphasise that it is as I said) Your intial post chided me for assuming the cellar had been tanked you then go on to post that it was you that assumed incorrectly and not me and blame my puntuation for your incorrect assumption!

gromituk

"Take a chill pill, babycakes."

ben500

Apology accepted :wall: