Expired New-Home Warranty

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awaygood
Posts: 3
Joined: 18 Oct 2011 16:53

Expired New-Home Warranty

Post by awaygood »

I purchased a new property in December 2009. During the first winter it became apparent that there were some significant damp/water ingress problems (causing flooding on three occasions). In my opinion at the time, and since, this water ingress seemed likely to have been sourced from down pipes, carrying water from the roof, which were installed inside the walls of the house, but which were either leaking or simply weren't joined together properly (an opinion reinforced when, recently, it was discovered that one of our neighbour's down pipes was not even connected to the water exit point in their roof!).

I complained on numerous occasions to the builder, expressing my belief that the problems originated from the down pipes, but my views were ignored and, while they did replace some of the plaster work, no attempt was made to examine the down pipes or examine the underlying problem.

The builder has since restructured and yesterday re-examined my damp problem. They appear to have agreed with me that the problem is likely to be the down pipes, and have suggested some major works to expose these pipes for repair. However, they tell me that the work 'cannot be carried out under the original warranty' as it has expired.

Legally, what is my situation? During the warranty period, no attempt was made to thoroughly examine and rectify the problem; now, at long last, it appears that they agree there is a problem with the down pipes (I have a long 'paper trail' of correspondence on the subject -it is rather one-sided as they rarely replied to any of my correspondence!). Can they hide behind the fact that the warranty has expired, and expect me to pay for the repairs -even if, when the work is carried out, their tradesmen's bad workmanship is found to be the cause of my problems?

Thank you.
Nigel Howarth
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Joined: 24 Oct 2007 14:38
Location: Erimi, Limassol, Cyprus
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Re: Expired New-Home Warranty

Post by Nigel Howarth »

Hi awaygood and welcome to the forum.

Louise rarely visits us these days, but you'll find an article on this subject written by her Top 10 tips on what to do on discovering problems with your new property. Here are 3 applicable in your situation:

Tip 8 – Document everything Keep written records of everything that happens and never rely on what the developer tells you verbally – get any promises made to fix things in writing.

Tip 9 – Near the end of the contractual guarantee? If it is getting close to the end of expiry your contractual guarantee and the problems have not yet been fixed, get it in writing from the developer that the defects identified will still be covered by the guarantee – even if it has expired.

Tip 10 – Get a good lawyer If you have paid the full purchase price and moved in, and then serious problems emerge, you really need to get a good lawyer to sort it out for you. Do not enter into protracted (and fruitless) correspondence with the developer by yourself. It is amazing how many clients score an own goal by mistake during the course of the correspondence!

Regards,
Nigel Howarth
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