Consumer Dispute - damp proofing

[sph]

I recently purchased a property in January, the building survey I paid for indicated the possible presence of damp along the full length of the kitchen wall and suggested I enlist the services of a specialist, which I did.

The specialist's survey identified damp along half of the kitchen wall, and I queried with them the discrepancy between the two. Without checking further, the company sent me a quote for the full length.

Since the vendor had agreed to pay for the works, they queried the two invoices. Following up with the damp company, they reassured me that the original quote was sufficient and that the area in question was not affected. They also told my sales agent separately that they had provided the second quote only because I was asking for it.

Six months later, the area in question is clearly very badly affected by damp, however the company is now claiming that this area was never checked due to obstruction. It is true that a fridge was hiding this area and it is mentioned in their terms and conditions that they won't check behind obstructions.

However, my dispute is that given that I had made a point of querying the original discrepancy between the surveyor's report and theirs, I feel this was negligent to not have informed me that this area had in fact not been checked. If it had have been, I would of course made arrangements for it to be checked.

Furthermore, about 20% of the area in question was not obstructed in any way at the time, however they are claiming this was "low level readings" back in January.

They have offered to reduce the cost to remedy the area, however this will still cost me the greater part of £1,000 which could otherwise have been covered by the vendor.

The amount in question is not a terribly huge sum however I feel that I was very poorly advised and that their approach has been negligent, and I am loathe to just let them get away with it.

Would welcome suggestions as to viability of pursing this, and I should also mention that regrettably, I don't have a written record of the querying of the two surveys.

Thank you

[Scot22]

Sorry but damp companies are notorious. You could spend time and money and still not achieve anything. I suggest you would be better just accepting the situation as it is.
We had some work done with a 10year guarantee. After 5 years had problems and I tried to contact them. This won't surprise many people. They had gone into liquidation and were trading under a new company name.
Guarantee now worthless.

[R0b]

If you have no record or evidence of the situation then you're going to struggle. The number one rule is always, always, always get it in writing if there is a potential for you to incur a cost. You can in theory bring a claim based on the verbal discussions but it will be a he said she said situation and the onus is on you to prove on a balance of probabilities that your version should be preferred over the company's - not impossible, but an uphill struggle.

If you are able to present the court with evidence through a series of email exchanges, references to the survey mentioning damp along the kitchen wall, the seller willing to pay for the damp to be repaired and the fact you were initially given a quote for half a wall (which, when looking at the evidence as a whole, would suggest the results of the survey indicated only half the wall required damp-proofing) then you could have a chance of persuading a court to find in your favour. You don't need to get the company to capitulate, but merely show the judge enough evidence for them to think you are telling the truth.

The downside to issuing a claim is that if the company is a small one, they could shut the business down and set up a new one to avoid liability. The sum of money probably isn't that much to warrant them to do that but it is possible. Also, even if you won, there's no guarantee the company would be able to pay up although you could instruct High Court bailiffs to seize goods and put pressure on paying up.

Going down the legal route isn't for everyone but if you decide that is what is best for you, then you have to commit to it and be ready to spend time preparing. If you only put in half a job, then don't expect brilliant results.