Damp

Sukie

Looking for some advice please.
Buying a second hand home and noticed stained spots on the sitting room ceiling.
Surveyor said it was damp (his meter was high on this).

Auctioneer has told us his plumber investigated and 'is no pipework at all in the area of the stain on the sitting room ceiling. There is no damage done to either the plaster slab or the ceiling joists and therefore no repair is necessary.'
He also said his painter put stain block on the ceiling and painted over.

If there are no pipes in the area and there is no damage to the plaster slab etc. - where could the damp come from?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Latro

It is most likely cold spot caused by lack of insulation behind plasterboard or thermal bridging.
Stain block and paint will not fix it. The stains will come back soon. There is a good chance that plasterboard on the other side is very moldy.
Ideally you should fix the cold spot first then perhaps improve ventilation in the room and/or maintain higher temperature.

xl500

Well first of all Never believe an Auctioneer if the Surveyor states it is Damp now then ask for the floor above the Stain to be lifted if its a wooden floor no problem

if the Floor is a Concrete insert type then open a section of Ceiling and investigate very easy to do but dont accept being fobbed off there is a problem if the ceiling is Damp