Builders !!!

ciaran76

Hi all,

Basically moved into a new house 6 months ago some fungas started growing on the kitchen wall. Builder came over sanded it down and sealed it and painted it again. Its come back... builders says he wants to take some meter reading on the wall but is taking his time over it.

In the meantime a damp spot has appeared on wall between our wall which seperates the neighbours. Its appearing just below their bath line on our side of the wall. It seems to appear about 1-2 hours after they have a shower and dries up again after an hour or 2.

The wall is slightly stained from this and little cracks have appeared.

Builder again dragging his heels about this. I stayed home 1 day last week and he accused me on the phone of lying as he sent someone over 3 times and no one answered the door !!!

Anyway he got snotty and he basically told me that we were lying so we decided to goto our solictor about this as he doesn't seem to want to fix the problem.

By the way we asked him back in Feb. to come over and look and have left the key with security for him to have access to the house nearly everyday.

At this stage I am unsure what else to do. Is going to our solictor the only answer?

TIA,
Ciaran

jhegarty

homebond ?

Contact your Solicitor.

Go through the building contract and check if homebonded. Your three primary causes of action are (i) if HomeBonded, through that scheme (ii) sue for negligence (iii) sue for breach of contract.

ciaran76

thank you.

babaduck

Don't bother with HomeBond - they only cover structual defects... although it will scare the cr* p out of the builder.

Get your solicitor on the case - you've an 18 month Major Defect Warranty you can hang them on....

Wing Walker

Since I'm in a similar boat to you at the moment, I would recommend going through your solicitor first to try and sort it directly with the construction company, since your foreman doesn't seem bothered (suprise there then). Failing that, Homebond really is your next port of call if you can't settle this thing with the builder.

Following something similar to your problem, I found out that Homebond guarantees the house against major structural defects for ten years (defined as "any major defect in the foundations of a dwelling or the load bearing part of its floors, walls and roof or retaining walls necessary for its support which affects the structural stability of the dwelling") and major non-structural defects which might lead to smoke or water penetration of the completed home.

Water is evidently entering your home through a party wall and as such this water penetration would be considered a non-strucutral defect. The builder is obliged, as long as he is part of the Homebond scheme, to remedy your problem. I hope this makes sense and is of some help.