Posts Tagged ‘Surveyor’

Sub-tabs here list data about First Time Buyers and Private Sale clients. These are important, special markets who may be acting under budget constraints and with little accumulated knowledge. As such they are at the mercy of potentially cynical Agents and Loan Companies.

Read through our notes and if you remain uncertain about any aspect of how you should proceed with a sale or purchase then simply call us or use the FORM on our Home Page for a request for information.

Why guess or struggle when help is at hand?

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Also included here is advice on why YOU CAN sue an errant Surveyor or Valuer. Too many times I hear people say “you can’t sue a property Professional because they wrap themselves in caveats and exclusions”: This is wrong. These notes will tell you why.

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Buyers of New Homes (not second-hand) also need special assistance as surveying and valuing brand new structures is not the same as for existing buildings. Be “in the know” and protect your investment wisely, from the start.

ARCHIVE ARTICLE from late 2008

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Should You Disclose Hidden House Defects OR Is Ignorance Bliss?

“Let the Buyer Beware” is an established legal principal in our beloved Country but, in some circumstances, this is a minefield and you may best declare defects to intending purchasers.

It’s illegal for a home seller to knowingly conceal major defects. If you are unsure about whether you need to say something or not, speak to your Solicitor BEFORE you contact your Estate Agent or begin marketing.

If you are a purchaser we at PROinspect suggest you ask the Sellers specific questions – not “is anything wrong with xxxxxx” but instead something like – “The cracks to the rear wall – are these recent, have you informed your Insurers, are these getting worst or are they of a long-standing nature, how long have they been there?”

Generally, you’re responsible only for serious defects you knew about or should have known about. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have your home inspected prior to putting it on the market to figure out what needs to be repaired or replaced. But, when was the last time you knew of somebody who actually did such a thing (except for perhaps redecoration and minor issues)?

However, if you are convinced that selective repairs could cause a greater return on money spent then commission your own Surveyor to tell you what repairs are necessary and what improvements will increase the selling price. Often the good Estate Agent could tell you these secrets!

Don’t be fooled into thinking that every penny you spend will give you back two pence – often, unless you do only the right things, your spend will not affect value at all and therefore taking professional advice is a must!.

While it’s always best to disclose serious defects, it would be wise to disclose the following problems to the buyer: these are “in use” issues that perhaps would only come to light once a person starts living in your home (as opposed to matters that should surface during a Surveyor inspection):-

• Plumbing and sewage issues
• Water leakage of any type, including in basements
• Termites (rare in the UK) or other insect infestations
• Heating or air conditioning system issues
• Property drainage problems
• Foundation instabilities and/or claim history
• Problems with title to the property
• Neighbour issues that aren’t obvious (including Party Wall Act notifications/awards)
• Lead paint, asbestos, hazardous glazing, radon gas, etc……
• Homes registered under the Defective Premises Act (usually “system built” Homes).

If you disclose a defect and the buyer decides to purchase the home anyway, the seller isn’t then responsible for the consequences. A seller who doesn’t disclose known serious defects can be sued by the buyer after the defect is discovered. The seller may then be responsible for the costs of repairs and other damages resulting from the undisclosed defect.

A seller may also be ordered to take the property back if a judge “rescinds” (invalidates) the sale because the seller didn’t disclose defects. You can also be held responsible for the buyer’s claim/court/purchase costs and fees.

If the Courts decide you have been fraudulent, you may also have to pay “punitive damages” that can be very high.

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The case for buying Non-New Homes: New Home Defects Cost £30m a year!

Although many homebuyers readily pay a hefty premium for a new home to avoid the hassle of renovation when they move in, it is costing £30m a year to put right defects discovered in the first ten years after the completion of a new home.

This figure, the highest in the last few years, emerges in a report from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) which supplies the ten year warranty on the great majority of UK new homes.

Of £30m paid out in 2003-4, NHBC says £11m covered claims made within two years of moving in, while £18.3m went to owners of homes between three and ten years old. The figures appear at a sensitive time – for builders have come under fire in recent TV consumer reports for their failure to maintain building standards, or to correct defects fast enough when buyers complain.

In theory, builders should correct most defects found early on. NHBC tends to get involved when problems are longer term, or when agreement cannot be reached with a customer.

If your new home hits big trouble, there’s a one in two chance the problem is underground. Nearly half the money paid out – 49% – went on repairs to foundations, substructure and underground drains. Around 30% was needed to put right load bearing walls and floors, while 9% – about £2.7m – went on roof repairs.

NHBC also reveals that in 2003-4 a total 29 complaints went to independent arbitration and 34 were reviewed by the Financial Ombudsman Service. Of those 34 cases, the NHBC won 23 with five partially in its favour, while three were won by the complainer and in three cases a settlement was agreed.

In the last five years, the highest previous annual payout was £28m. NHBC, holding insurance reserves of £1.24 billion to cover 1.6 million homes currently protected by warranty, says complaints are “taken very seriously”.

Critics of the NHBC warranty have claimed for years it fails to protect homebuyers against building botch-ups.

But the soaring cost of putting things right comes despite the fact NHBC has 330 inspectors across the country making a total of more than one million site inspections every year.

NHBC itself thinks the weather could be partly to blame. In a statement, it said: “New homes are one of the few remaining hand built products, made up of thousands of elements and constructed outdoors in all weathers. Where a problem does occur and NHBC is involved, NHBC’s 10-year Buildmark warranty is in place to protect the homeowner and ensure the work is carried out”.

The amount NHBC paid out in claims each year should be viewed in context of the number of new homes we cover. NHBC Buildmark currently covers over 1.6m new homes – so £30m paid out last year in claims relates to over £256bn worth of property.

But there are risks the repair problem on new homes could worsen before they get better – for two reasons:-

Firstly, Government policy increasingly obliges builders to re-use “brown” land in urban centres – where risks of foundation problems are higher, depending on what was there before.

Secondly, the fear that builders face a savage squeeze on margins as house prices fall. The suspicion is that Builders can only restore profit margins by hacking back costs. That could be tricky to square with customer demands for higher quality.

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So what is PVCu?

The ‘PVC’ part of it stands for Polyvinyl Chloride. The ‘U’ stands for Un-plasticised, often wrongly called Un-modified. The terms PVCu, uPVC, PVC-U, and PVCU all essentially refer to the same product (European harminisation means most Countries now use the letters PVCu).

Poly Vinyl Chloride, which we know as everyday ‘PVC’ is modified, i.e. softened and can then be used in the manufacture of products such as hand bags, sport bags, shoes and fake leather. It is the use of this material which has made us familiar with the abbreviation ‘PVC’.

Pure PVC-U is not quite suitable for window and door profiles. A small amount of stabilisers and additives are required, the mix of which may vary slightly between different manufacturers of profiles for window and door systems, and is necessary to provide longevity, high weather and UV resistance, and also to achieve a brilliant white colour.

The basic material properties of PVCu make it ideal for window, door Conservatory applications: such properties being:-

• Does not rot or biologically decompose.
• Resistant to weathering with low maintenance requirements.
• Is tough on impact.
• Retains its shape within normal climatic temperatures.
• Fairly good insulation performance.
• Can be stiffened by interior insertion of aluminium or steel reinforcement.
• Can be reshaped at very high temperature and can therefore be recycled.
• Factory fabrication means high on-site installation speed.

PVCu lacks authenticity when it comes to the more traditional designs and note that it is not acceptable to Planning Authorities for use in Listed Buildings, and is not popular with them in Conservation Areas (it could be a criminal offence to replace say softwood windows with pvcu windows in a Listed Building!).

In a low Carbon footprint world many home-owners are now using traditional, but sustainable hardwoods instead of such synthetic materials.