Strange things do happen: it started with FLIES!

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Let the buyer beware

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A lady called me to ask why her new home was filled with flies. I don’t know, I replied, where are the flies? In my windows, she replied. Perhaps the frames or trickle-vents are not sealed properly? After a few minutes she insisted I call out to “look and advise” (for a small fee, of course).

Minor window frame seal problems accounted for the flies: two minutes inspection time was all that I needed. BUT…… like in Question of Sport on TV – what happened next?

Over a cup of coffee, whilst chatting through how she should tackle the builders, I simply said ‘why have you got such a large gap between floor and skirting boards (in her dining room)”?

Oh, that’s nothing – the Builders had to inject concrete under the floor for some reason just after we moved in. They drilled through the floor surface and a big machine pulled up outside and pumped concrete for ages, she reported. “But you have a suspended concrete floor and you cannot just pour concrete into the void under it” I replied.

After a while, after feeling very uneasy about what the Builders had done, I decided to stop and not alarm the lady owner. She did not pick up on my own alarm and so I left site and one happy client.

The following week I was in the offices of the Local Planning Authority on another matter and decided to have a quick look at the Building Control file of last week’s “fly visit”. To my utter astonishment I uncovered a nest of letters from one contractor to another; inputs from Engineers and the Developer HQ office and Site Manager (it was a large development). Engineers were concerned that surface water discharge systems on-site were causing the chalk sub-soils to liquefy and withdraw support for garages, roads, drains and housing above. The worst, thus far, was reported as my own clients’ home.

I studied the file and saw correspondence over about six months expressing concerns and debate about what should be done. In essence I had discovered a hornet’s nest. Land and buildings were subsiding and a land stabilization scheme had to be considered/implemented.

To cut a long story short we subsequently negotiated with the Developers to buy-back my clients home and to reimburse all her expenses and fees involved in moving into another home out of that area.

There are several stories here but the lesson to be learnt is that ANY HOME CAN HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS and it pays to take advice from a practical SURVEYOR; one that offers an exceptional after-sales service and has the skills to not only find faults. “Service” starts with the obvious but can diversify into multiple related other areas. In this case no Solicitors were required – this was quite unusual but did reduce costs considerably as we did not need to know exactly what was happening, just how the problem affected marketability and value. The problem remained with the Developer.

If you are in southern England and need advice simply call me or use the CONTACT FORM above. Stuart Parrett +44 (0)1489 896 174.