HELP - legal redress if sold a faulty/sub-s re-sale property

[Jool]

Is there any legal redress against a former owner who sold you a re-sale property (no builder or developer involved and no 10 year guarantee)?

House has damp, found out it was due to only 1 inch of cement as foundation and underneath soil, not even gravel........very expensive to rectify and will it ever be problem free?

All comments, suggestions etc welcome ASAP please, we are SOOOOO angry...no wonder we´ve had damp we did not understand.......and we cannot afford remedial works but have no option......

Can we claim on the buildings element of house insurance?

[hillybilly]

Your only comeback would be against your surveyor if these items weren't identified/flagged for further investigation in your structural survey report. Buyer beware and all that.
p.s. If you have "one inch of cement as foundation" sitting on "soil" your house shouldn't be standing! Are you referring to wall, foundations or floors? Most elderly houses are built with no foundations at all as such. Damp is inherent...it's how you deal with it...

[Jool]

Hi Hillybilly,

We only had the bank survey done so it was not a full structural (they do not exist over our way) and there was no sign of damp then but the house had only been lived in as a holiday home so no temp differences in winter........

Our house is 20 years old, built 1988 and the floor to the extension, built later, is simply soil, walls seem to be a bit deeper but the actual living space within the walls is truly only on 1 inch of cement and then soil..........no gravel or stones, just a flower bed to all intents and purposes!!!!

I have not dug beneath the walls as they clearly go down further but are only cement blocks and have no insulation value whatsoever.......thank goodness we did our paths around the house in waterproof cement or we´d have a bigger problem.....no chance on the house insurance then? I know I´m clutching at straws but they can save lives.....................

What do you think? If we put in a proper cement floor with gravel etc underneath will we be fine for the future? Will probably put in a lining wall as well for insulation purposes.......-.

[hillybilly]

So it's just the floor that is a thin screed of concrete or cement mortar, sitting on the bare earth?
To resolve that you would need to break out the existing floor, excavate down to a decent subsoil, lay a compacted sub-base (about 100mm of stone), then a sand blinding layer, then a damp proof membrane and then construct a concrete floor, 100mm min, reinforced with reinforcing mesh. The dpm should ideally be lapped up the walls so you would need to hack off the render/plaster to the lower parts of the walls.
There are surveyors in Almeria, I've been over there many a time and there are others who are based that way too.

[Jool]

Yes nust the floor - I haven´t excavated under the walls but there is no evidence of movement outside or inside so I think they are fine......what do I use as waterproof membrane and do we need to pick out existing walls (only one external) to interlink with that via steel mesh as well?

I have never been able to find a true surveyor, only Architects who do a sub-standard report on a property for a high fee or english newbies who don´t understand spanish building techniques.........., so I´d love a list of surveyors over this way by pm please!!!

[pigs-might-fly]

Put up with it until the market recovers and then flog it to someone else.
Then return to the UK without leaving a forwarding address!

Only a suggestion.

[Jool]

I believe in do as you would be done by, sometimes proves expensive but it was my school motto so its pretty ingrained............. I´d hate to do to someone what was done to me.......

[ICCSL]

Jool, you don't have any redress in Spain for this. An individual who builds his own home for his own use does not need to supply a 10 year guarantee. The property was a resale and unless you had something written into the contract when you purchased that the owner would be responsible for X amount of things you could spend the next five years of your life, or more, in courts to end up with absolutely nothing.

One thing you need to look at though is how new is the house because if the foundations are not correct for it, your building insurance could be rendered invalid?

[Jool]

Hi Tina, its 20 years old, there seems to be enough under the walls themselves from what I can see and the builder agrees with me. There has been no wall movement or even cracks or anything.......its just the floors that are a thin 1 inch surface of cement over dirt........and that was not even compacted.......

Please don´t tell me the insurance is invalid now.................

I mentioned the 10 year guarantee so that forum members realised there was no developer or builder I could contact.....

The bank who gave us the mortgage do the building insurance and their surveyor was perfectly happy with it....not that that really counts for a lot.........

[wodge]

Hi Jool,
We also had problems with damp that had been disguised by a coat of paint. First winter every room was covered in mould!!
When we had the bathrooms renovated we also found that the floor tiles had been laid on a thin layer of sand.
We've tried various solutions without any success until we invested in a dehumidifier and this will be our second winter without any signs if damp or mould.
When the property is unoccupied we attach a drain pipe and allow it to drain into the shower tray.

Hope this is of some help

[julian]

Good ventilation is very important with damp problems

[Bongtrees]

As is guttering

[Jool]

Thanks for all the replies, its not lack of ventilation it was localised in 2 places, one we´ve found a faulty leaking drain desague which has been removed and the other is from the fact wall is right next to soil piled up......will see what happens once we have new floor in but it only seems to have come from there, it seems there´s a new tech spec for new build properties now requiring a trickle vent in windows, at last!!!

The rest of the house is not damp and has no such problems........

By the way I´m a semi guru now too!!!!

[hillybilly]

Yes nust the floor - I haven´t excavated under the walls but there is no evidence of movement outside or inside so I think they are fine......what do I use as waterproof membrane and do we need to pick out existing walls (only one external) to interlink with that via steel mesh as well?

For a DPM ask at your builders' merchants for 300 gauge (300 micron thickness) polythene. No, don't extend the reinforcement under the walls.

[Jool]

THanks everyone, we´ve dug down deep now and foundations, thankfully are sound, its just the old fashioned style of no cement floors.........it explains my strange damp problem of last year too. Now we are adding insulation to floor and external wall (by adding a lining wall and insulation between the two) and re-doing it all so at the end of this trauma and mess I will have a better and more comfortable house.........major works when all we wanted was to add some fitted wardrobes.........but I have to stay positive!